Iron Man (movie review)

I understand why Stark Industries gets compared to Microsoft, with our Bill Gates type hero developing a conscience (a new heart) and going all soft and philanthropy minded, ready to target his own stuff if necessary. Steve Balmer (played by Jeff Bridges) tries to keep making war machines or, in the case of Microsoft, expensive stuff that breaks a lot.

The analogy breaks down however, as Microsoft has embraced OSS while keeping Windows itself behind a curtain of secrecy. That's just fine with the Linux community, which isn't interested in that code pile anyway, so a kind of detente was declared (see Microsoft 2.0 by Mary Jo Foley for more info). There's no longer any big battle for supremacy on that front.

Personally speaking, I probably won't become an Iron Man devotee as I prefer superheros to have real superpowers, not be Incredible wannabes. Give me a Buffy over a technogeek any day, or combine them (so more like Willow then), although maybe I'd consider batman an exception.

Note that no real Afghanis were harmed in the process of making this film, which was wisely shot entirely inside the USA, pure Hollywood.