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“Iron Man” is like “Star Trek: The Motion Picture.” You know the comic-book superhero has to have a set-up before a single film can become a franchise, but there’s some tough slogging here on the way to an ending that opens the door to a future “Wrath of Khan.”

The movie starts promisingly, with billionaire Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) living high thanks to the weapons-manufacturing empire his late father started and he has grown exponentially. Drinking, gambling, womanizing and driving fast cars give genius Tony a break from the drudge of inventing smarter and deadlier gizmos.

In Afghanistan to demonstrate his latest missile breakthrough to U.S. military bigwigs, Tony is captured by bad guys whose ideology is less important than the fact that they’re armed with weapons his company made. He wakes up in a cave to find that fellow prisoner Yinsen (Shaun Toub) has saved his life, but he’s not out of the woods.

Their captor, Raza (Faran Tahir), wants Tony to build him the same new weapon he’s created for the U.S. military. Instead, Tony constructs a crude iron suit that’s impervious to bullets, has built-in flame-throwers and can fly – sort of – allowing him to escape.

Having finally witnessed the destruction bankrolling his posh life, Tony decides that Stark Industries needs to stop making weapons. While he’s trying to figure out a new direction, Tony hides away in his garage/laboratory and makes another Iron Man suit, a red one that’s more durable – and high-flying – than his prototype.

Not everyone is happy about Tony’s transformation into a do-gooder. Soon, Tony is facing fire on a number of fronts.

Downey’s bonhomie, verbal playfulness and beefed-up physique give Tony a head start as a likable superhero. His rebirth and sudden solemnity never disguise his keen desire to fly.

However, viewers must sit through the intro and a lengthy suit-building session before Tony achieves liftoff an hour into the movie. Yes, the Iron Man suit is more complex than a Spidey suit, but can’t Tony get the lead out?

Director Jon Favreau (“Elf,” “Zathura”) overindulges in geekiness, playing to the 8- to 18-year-old-male crowd and neglecting all others. It might seem a compliment to say that “Iron Man” is Downey’s movie, but the supporting cast has so little to do it’s a wonder anyone else turned up.

Half the actors let their hair do the work for them. A redheaded Gwyneth Paltrow runs around in snug outfits and high heels as Tony’s assistant, Pepper Potts. Jeff Bridges shaved his head and sprouted a goatee but still seems uneasy as Tony’s colleague and mentor, Obadiah Stane.

Terrence Howard is wasted as Tony’s best friend, military liaison Rhodey. Less is more in this case, with Leslie Bibb memorably playing sexy-but-sensitive reporter Christine Everhart (she and Paltrow are deliciously catty together) and Toub laying the film’s moral foundation.

Clichéd motivations and shaky chronology will irk nitpickers. The four credited writers seem to have borrowed from various action and comic-book films. Rarely has a first-parter felt so derivative.

The kids and fan-boys will love it, though, and “Iron Man” will make enough money to merit a sequel. That’s when those “Khan” lessons will kick in, and “Iron Man” will become a superhero worth watching.

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and brief suggestive content. Two and a half stars out of five.