IRON Man starring Robert Downey Jr and Gwyneth Paltrow topped the UK and Ireland box office chart on its first week of release making £5.4 million in its opening three days.

After seeing it myself I can understand why.

Based on the Marvel comic book hero created by Stan 'The Man' Lee, Iron Man is Tony Stark (played by Robert Downey Jr), the CEO of Stark Industries which produces advance weapon systems for the US military.

Tony flies to Afghanistan to demonstrate a new weapons test to the United States Air Force.

On his way back to the plane, his convoy is attacked by terrorists and Tony is wounded by a Stark Industries missile.

He is captured and held hostage in a cave with Yinsen (Shaun Toub) a doctor who saves his life.

Forced to reproduce the new destructive Jericho missile, instead Tony decides to build a suit of armour with Yinsen's help.

The suit gives Tony the strength and protection to be able to escape the terrorists.

Back in America, Tony builds a better suit of armour which gives him superhuman strength with the ability to fly.

After a few flops in the box office, Robert Downey Jr is superb in Iron Man and in some respects the character mirrors his own struggles with alcohol and drug addiction.

This calibre of acting deserves some recognition and his performance was fantastic.

The scenes where he is fitted out in his suit are incredible to watch and must have taken hours of filming to perfect - the complex bits of machinery joining together is fascinating to watch.

Not to be left out is Jeff Bridges, almost unrecognisable with his completely bald head and grey beard (Jeff starred in films such as Arlington Road, Fabulous Baker Boys and The Big Lebowski).

He was also an incredible actor in this film and played his 'bad boy' role convincingly.

Playing Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger Jeff seems at first to be helping Tony but his motives turn out to be more selfish as he tries to take the company away from him.

After building his own 'Iron Man' suit, Bridges and Downey Jr go head to head trying to annihilate each other, providing an action packed sequence in the film which is difficult to follow because it is so fast-paced and exciting.

Gwyneth Paltrow (Pepper Potts) provided the 'love interest' in the film as Stark's personal assistant but her part wasn't all that big and frankly could have been portrayed by any pretty lady who can act a bit – she didn't blow me away.

The film wasn't all action but managed to keep the viewer hooked.
It was also genuinely refreshing to have a big Hollywood blockbuster which didn't have a sickly ending, endless sex scenes, patriotism and excessive violence and gore.

Director Jon Favreau managed to inject some genuinely funny moments into the film which had some members of the audience laughing out loud a number of times.

This film is not a typical 'superhero' or comic book remake but has a deeper underlying storyline which is refreshingly different and even some serious messages about warmongering, weapons and accountability.
This film has it all, great acting, action scenes, comedy scenes, spectacular special effects, excitement, and 'enjoyability' factor - I can't fault it.

Highly recommended.