Wow, Robert Downey Jr. got a job. Not only a job but a leading role in a Marvel comics movie. Let’s see if he can avoid screwing this up. At the end of the movie there is room left for sequels. Based on the box office numbers so far it could work out. Gwyneth Paltrow also comes back from hiatus. This is the first movie for her after giving birth to two kids. Unfortunately Terrance Howard is in this film. I find his voice and mannerisms really annoying. Jeff Bridges plays the villain Obadiah and it’s hard to recognize him bald and bearded.

The influence of pop culture can be huge. It can be read to show a snapshot of society’s views. The bad guys in this movie wore keffiyeh. Keffiyeh is an Arab men’s head dress often associated with Palestinian nationalism. Lots of Hollywood have been wearing it lately including Justin Timberlake, the lead singer from Nine Inch Nails and even the Olsen twins. I don’t think they’re making any sort of political statement. I think they’re blindly following a trend. However the use of it in this movie firmly establishes the keffiyeh as a negative.

I’m not fully informed about the war in Iraq or Afghanistan. I read news articles and I keep a loose hand on the pulse of what’s going on. I think however the average Iron Man audience member is less informed than I am. I don’t fully blame them. Idiotic presidential candidate Senator McCain still keeps asserting that Al-Qaeda is a Shia force funded by Iran. Analysts keep trying to correct him to no avail. The geriatric self-anointed expert on the military and foreign policy still can’t keep his sides straight so how are average North Americans to understand. I think that’s what Iron Man nervously steps into. The murkiness of war and conflict cannot be neatly justified by patriotism. Yes Stark is held by Afghani militia, yes he also tries to save an Afghani village and yes he is a remorseful American weapons dealer who has profited greatly by ongoing conflicts in the world. He’s all over the place. He tries to readjust his world views and expectedly gets a lot of resistance.

A note to Faran Tahir if he ever shows up here. I get you can play a terrorist. Good for you. I read that you got a degree from UC Berkeley and a graduate degree from Harvard all related to theater. You’re getting compensated quite well for pigeon holing yourself to a certain genre of character but how about you try using some of that Ivy league training and play a different role for a change.

Oh by the way. The movie’s not bad.