Another OK comic book movie

I've already prattled on about the surprising fact that, though I loved comic books when I was young, I don't like comic book movies--the exceptions being the X-Men and Fantastic Four movies which are mostly blessedly angst-free. I didn't expect much out of the new Iron Man movie, low expectations being the way to go with Hollywood films these days, and though it's not great, it was more fun than I was expecting it to be. Robert Downey Jr. is not aging as well as he was a few years ago, though the fact that he doesn't yet look like Keith Richards bodes well for him, but he is more than serviceable in the title role as a rich, snarky arms dealer who has a major change of heart when he is almost killed by his own weapons. He is saved when a scientist implants some kind of McGuffin gizmo thing in his chest to keep him alive. Later, he builds an impenetrable suit stuffed with more fancy gizmos to fight the bad guys. Gwyneth Paltrow is her usual unbearable self as the quasi-love interest, Pepper Potts. Jeff Bridges is made to look older and unhealthier than I thought he could ever look--I didn't even recognize him until about 10 minutes after he appeared. No other actors get much chance to shine, though Clark Gregg, one of my favorite bland supporting men, has a decent-sized role. Unlike the Silver Surfer movie, this one gets points taken away for being too long (at 2 hours, it could have a better movie with about 20 minutes trimmed), but you could do worse for mindless summer moviegoing.