Chaplin as Ironman?

The 2008 summer movie season is about to begin, the first big movie out of the gate, Ironman. Director Jon Favreau brings his version of one of the original Marvel characters to the big screen, with Robert Downey Jr. playing the role of Tony Stark, a billionaire industrialist who is captured by terrorists in Afghanistan. Ordered to build a missile for them, Stark uses his resources instead to build a suit of power armor and make his escape. Returning to America, Stark improves his armor and becomes the technologically advanced superhero Iron Man.

I love comic book movies, don't get me wrong, I'm having a hard time thinking the same actor who won an Academy Award for playing Charlie Chaplin is playing Ironman.

But Favreau is a great director, Zathura hit it big at the box office, so this movie might be good and it marks the big screen return of Gwyneth Paltrow playing Stark's love interest Virginia Potts.

The cast also features Terrance Howard playing jet pilot James Rhodes (who if there is a trilogy than you will learn how he becomes War Machine) and Jeff Bridges playing the villanous Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger.

Now to give you a bit of the rumor mill, the cast has signed on for a sequel, and Downey will reprise his role in a cameo in the upcoming The Incredible Hulk (which hopefully is a huge improvement compared to the last film)

Top 10

Here's my top 5 list of actors playing superheroes.

1. Christopher Reeve-"Superman" What Smallville and Superman Returns couldn't duplicate, was how genuine Reeve played the Man of Steel.

2. Thomas Jane-"The Punisher" Sure, The Punisher is not a regular superhero, and this was the second of two film adaptations the first starring Dolph Lundgren as the Punisher, but Jane pulled off this role to a T, including performing most of his own stunts, even the fight scene with Kevin Nash.

3. Christian Bale-"Batman Begins" First off, The Dark Knight was wrongfully played by Val Kilmer and George Clooney, Michael Keaton was great in the first film, the second not so much.

Bale gave a strong performance as Batman provided the previous Batmans didn't have an all-star cast like Batman Begins (Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Cillian Murphy and Katie Holmes).

I look forward to The Dark Knight (sequel to Batman Begins), it will be rough to watch now that Heath Ledger has tragically passed.

4. The cast of the Fantastic Four- One of the actual comics I collected and cartoons as a kid, I couldn't wait till I heard the first Fantastic Four film was coming out. The cast , Ioan Gruffold (Lancelot in King Arthur) playing Mr. Fantastic, Chris Evans (Not Another Teen Movie and Cellular) playing The Human Torch, Michael Chiklis (The Shield) playing The Thing and the gorgeous momma to be Jessica Alba as The Invisible Girl.

In the first movie, the cast provided solid performances, telling a fun and captivating story. The second movie was good, but a little over the top, it was cool to see an Academy Award nominated actor voice the Silver Surfer (Laurence Fishburne)

5. Tobey Maguire-"Spiderman 1-3", what some say was true that Spiderman 2 was the best superhero made, but I still wonder how the movies would be if the rumors were true and James Franco actually played Spiderman.

The first two films were good, but the reason Maguire is low on my list, is because his acting seemed to diminish as the series concluded.