Not terrible, but almost. Robert Downey Jr. got a nice payday from this and he did what he could for the lead character of Tony Stark, but let's face it, John Favreau basically makes kids' films - and that's what Iron Man is - a movie for the 8-12 set.

It's not even worth wasting too many words on this executive-notes-cut-and-paste formulaic piece of mass-market dreck.

Suffice it to say too much time is spent on the backstory of how Tony Stark becomes Iron Man; there is the now standard betrayer/arch-villain antagonist (Jeff Bridges slumming); and the ditzy love-interest assistant (Gwyneth Paltrow doing, well, what she does).

This is a kids movie, but even at age 10 I would've only given this film 4 out of 10 stars.

And the fact that this is a critical as well as commercial success - and is rated over 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, and over 8 stars here on IMDb bespeaks of just how low standards have fallen. The audience not only doesn't expect any better than this - they now consider this low level of art worth over 8 stars on IMDb.