IRON MAN
(2008)

You will believe a man can shoehorn himself into a metal suit and fly. Sure, the FX were uniformly outstanding, and Jon Favreau handled the big-budget derring-do with a muscular dexterity we didn't know he had — but Marvel's first self-financed flick worked because of Robert Downey Jr. The Oscar-nominee sold us on self-obsessed, self-destructive bazillionaire Tony Stark; he made him a prig we could still, somehow, identify with...and so his transformation from cocky to heroic struck the blockbuster chord.