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Sounding a power chord of defiance against the milksop trends of pop is this good-natured documentary about metal superheroes Iron Maiden. The origin of the band name isn’t explained, incidentally, perhaps for the fun of letting people get freaked out by looking it up for themselves.

It’s cheerful and watchable, if a relentlessly on-brand fan promo, corporately policed and controlled, using vintage archive photos and video rather than closeup talking-head footage of the band now. It is uninterested in anything critical, with fervent, humorous testimonies from Maiden superfans from all walks of life, including Javier Bardem, Metallica’s Lars Ulrich and Kiss’s Gene Simmons.

The film tells the story of the massive rise, very slight fall, and then further massive rise of Iron Maiden, whose colossal success was achieved without kowtowing to the smirking media gatekeepers of cool. The film walks us through the changes of lineup, including the departure of lead singer Paul Di’Anno and the loss and rehiring of his replacement Bruce Dickinson – and I respect the band for not doing self-aware gags about fatal gardening accidents, etc. Maiden carried on rocking while the cultural studies crowd were looking the other way.

There was punk (and there was Maiden), disco (and Maiden), Bowie (and Maiden), Michael Jackson (and Maiden), grunge (and Maiden). They weren’t invited to play Live Aid but routinely played Live Aid-sized concerts all over the world throughout the 1980s: metal didn’t need the patronising approval of the nonbelievers. (It is good to hear in one clip, however, the unmistakable voice of Danny Baker narrating a very unpatronising report on the band.)

This is a very different film from, say, Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s Metallica: Some Kind of Monster from 2004, which showed the band engaged in therapeutic self-scrutiny – nothing like that here – or indeed Bernard MacMahon’s Becoming Led Zeppelin from 2025, which offered musical and historical context. There is one way in which this film does, however, rather resemble the Zeppelin documentary, and that is a distinct reticence about a certain aspect of touring that was so exciting for five super-famous hot-blooded young guys away from home. One band member is quoted here saying: “There were all these … new experiences.” Yeah.

Apart from a brief reference to the divorce of Maiden guitarist and founder Steve Harris, there is nothing really personal here. But the film does pay tribute to the honourable, apolitical role played by Iron Maiden breaking through to Iron Curtain countries such as Poland in the 1980s. The band would, however, reject a label as feeble as “soft power”.

• Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition is in cinemas from 7 May