To Claridge's last week for the launch of Iron Man, the first of the superhero movies tearing towards multiplexes this summer.


There’s generally a rhythm to these events. Days beforehand you see the stars in the papers, popping up in Berlin, Paris and other cities, slowly making their way towards the UK like an exotic weather front. By the time they get here they’ve been riding the publicity train for what must seem like forever. Wonder if they’ll look slightly frazzled, you muse. No chance. Gwyneth Paltrow walked into the press conference looking like she’d just emerged from the most fabulous spa session. She probably had. I looked like I’d slept on a lumpy sofa bed the previous night. I had.


Also on the podium were Robert Downey Jr, who plays the man in the iron suit, director Jon Favreau, and Terrence Howard, who stars as the superhero’s buddy. Favreau came across as very much like his character from Swingers - relaxed, funny, rather anoraky about comic books but in an endearing way. Downey Jr, still looking ballet dancer fit as he does in the movie, was asked what it was like to play a flawed superbeing. The Zodiac and Chaplin star must wonder if he is ever going to leave those old headlines behind. At first seeming wearied by the inquiry, he dutifully gave everyone the soundbite they needed by calling the movie a “$165 million catharsis”.


Downey Jr’s Tony Stark character pops up in the summer’s next big superhero movie, The Incredible Hulk. Like Iron Man, TIH has attracted attention for its almost too cool for school cast. With Ed Norton (Fight Club, The Illusionist) starring and co-writing the screenplay, fans are expecting something out of this universe. The real excitement is being reserved for Batman returning in The Dark Knight on July 25. Judging by the footage I saw just before Christmas, Heath Ledger, in what was to be his last appearance on screen, gives an unforgettable performance as The Joker. It was only a seven minute clip, but hundreds of press came from all over Europe to the IMAX on the South Bank to see it. Worth another night on Torquemada's sofa bed? Definitely.


Coming soon
Next week: horror stalks Scotland in Neil Marshall’s sci-fi thriller Doomsday.

May 16: Ellen Page, fresh from her triumph as pregnant teen Juno, stars in the Noam Murro dramedy Smart People.

May 23: Peter Howitt lives dangerously by releasing his Dangerous Parking in the same week as Indie cracks the whip again.

May 30: Old Europe stages a cultural clash with a US-led Nato force in California Dreamin.

June 6: Casey Affleck stars while brother Ben directs in critically acclaimed kidnap drama Gone Baby Gone.


Pick of the week
Grant Gee’s documentary Joy Division. The legend lives on. And on. And on.