Downey shows mettle in 'Man'

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"Iron Man" doesn't follow the blueprint behind previous superhero adaptations.

The geopolitics are as nasty as what we read in the morning newspaper, and our hero isn't a nerd or gamma-radiated doctor, but a boozy entrepreneur.

What "Iron Man" does share with the best superhero movies is how seriously it treats its subject — no self-aware winking at genre conventions here.

It also boasts a performance by Robert Downey Jr. that should vault him back into Hollywood's good graces — and ours.

"Iron Man" opens with arms manufacturer — and unrepentant playboy — Tony Stark (Mr. Downey) visiting U.S. military members in Afghanistan.

A brilliantly photographed attack on Stark's convoy leaves him critically injured and at the mercy of attackers who drag him back to their camp. He's saved by a fellow detainee who creates a crude device to keep shrapnel lodged in Stark's chest from reaching his heart. It's a slick updating of the "Iron Man" mythos that both honors the past and acknowledges the present.

Stark's captors demand that he build a new weapon to help them battle U.S. forces.

Oh, he builds a weapon all right, but not the one they expect.

He starts hammering away on an iron suit he hopes will enable him to escape, all the while pretending to do what he has been told.

A few nuts and bolts later, Iron Man is born. The suit might be clunky, but it's good enough to help him leave the insurgent camp in tatters.