An indy.com exclusive cut scene from "Iron Man": Iron Man meets Joe and Riley Shearer

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) gears up for "Iron Man."

Iron Man goes into battle, starting this weekend

Summer is here, and things are definitely looking up from last year.

Comparing the Repulsor blast of fresh air that is "Iron Man" to "Spider-Man 3," the lazily-constructed, bloated, jumbled, disappointing mess that kicked off the 2007 summer season, you gotta come away thinking things are on the uptick.

Robert Downey Jr. inhabits the lead role of his comic book character like perhaps no one since Christopher Reeve put on his cape (okay, Christian Bale was pretty inspired too). His devil-may-care, laugh-in-the-face-of-death attitude and razor wit (not to mention his physical appearance) make him the definitive Tony Stark.

For the uninitiated, Stark is the head of Stark Enterprises, a weapons-manufacturer that supplies the military. Stark is a second-generation weapons man, meaning his entire life has been funded on the death and destruction his products have wrought.

When Stark is taken prisoner by terrorists and forced to replicate his new Jericho missile system, he instead builds a suit of armor that he uses to escape.

When he returns, he announces to the world that his company is no longer in the weapons business, which leaves his business partner and mentor Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) none too pleased.

From there, Stark refines his suit of armor into a sleek Ferrari of a supersuit and becomes the hero Iron Man.

The film uses the "Batman Begins" engine for hero introduction, with most of the film's running time dedicated to Stark refining and revising the armor, testing, crashing and burning, and refining more.

And while neither the story nor the film's payoff are quite as satisfying as that of Bruce Wayne, the film doesn't take itself quite as seriously as Batman does, and allows Stark some more humorous, even vulnerable moments, especially when his beloved secretary Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) comes around.

Terrence Howard ("Crash") also co-stars as Jim Rhodes, the man-who-would-be-War Machine, and while he doesn't get into his own suit quite yet, he gives us a promise that he will be soon.

And while our print of the film didn't include it, I've heard little birds commenting that there might be some bonus footage after the credits, so don't hurry out of the theater, featuring a certain someone who has been widely rumored to be making a cameo appearance as a certain important peripheral character.

The action is well-rendered, though I'd like to lodge a complaint that we've been shown far too much in the promotional material. There was little of Iron Man's action that I hadn't seen already, and it sapped just a touch of the spectacle.

But still this is an upper-eschelon entry in the superhero genre, and as a franchise has the potential to be even more exciting if the rumors of an upcoming "Avengers" movie is true.

If the rest of the big-ticket summer pictures are close to Iron Man's quality, we're in for a treat this summer.