Iron Man 3 Review

The first Iron Man movie was an immediate blockbuster mainly due to the casting of Robert Downey Jr. The smooth-talking actor fitted the role of the eccentric billionaire and philanthropist turned superhero perfectly well. Iron Man 2 was not as good as the first one, but Downey Jr.’s performance still made the film bearable. However, in The Avengers, Downey Jr. shows that he is still one of the most beloved superheroes in film today.

Iron Man 3 takes place several months after the events of The Avengers. Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) is suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from the battle in New York presented in The Avengers. He seals himself off of the outside world and keeps building Iron Man suits to try to forget about the trauma. As a result, his relationship with girlfriend Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) becomes strained. Soon, a terrorist who goes by the name of the Mandarin, (Ben Kingsley) starts a series of bombings that concern the American people. When Stark’s limo driver Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) gets injured in one of the bombings, he issues a televised threat to the Mandarin. Of course, things do not end well as Tony’s house in Malibu is destroyed, Pepper gets kidnapped, and he is left stranded somewhere in rural Tennessee with a low powered Iron Man suit. Now, Tony must overcome his demons and must find out: does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?

In the third installment of the Iron Man franchise, Shane Black takes over the director’s chair from Jon Favreau who previously directed the first two films. Black, who also co-wrote the script, is basically one of the pioneering screenwriters in the action genre for films like Lethal Weapon. He has previously worked with Downey Jr. in the very underrated Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. It is a good idea to bring in Shane Black because his style has a nice fit with Iron Man. Black draws a nice balance between action and humor. Naturally, it’s a Shane Black film so it takes place around Christmas. I think it is a nice touch because we never really see any superhero movies take place around the Christmas season. 

The action in this film is spectacular, and what makes it stand out is the fact that for most of the movie it is just Tony Stark. Tony’s armor is out of commission for a good chunk of the film, so he has to rely on his intellect and instincts. At its core, it is kind of like a detective story. In his battle against The Mandarin, Tony is forced to go on a full-tilt investigation, revisit crime scenes, dig through evidence and even interview witnesses. The scenes with Downey, Jr. and James Rhodes/War Machine (Don Cheadle) are very enjoyable. Black really taps into a Lethal Weapon type of relationship between these two characters.

However, I did have a couple of gripes about the film. Halfway throughout the film Stark teams up with a little kid named Harley (Ty Simpkins) while he is stuck in rural Tennessee to investigate the remains of a local explosion caused by The Mandarin. While Downey, Jr. and Simpkins play well off of each other I really did not understand why the kid needed to be in the story. Also Iron Man 3 was marketed as a story where Tony Stark would meet an opponent that would break him physically and mentally. The trailer made it seem like the film would be dark and gloomy. In reality the film basically had the same tone as the previous Iron Man films. I ultimately had no problem with it, but it felt like a classic bait-and-switch, which I do not care for. Speaking of bait-and-switch, there is a big twist involving the identity of The Mandarin. I did not like the twist, but fortunately the film did not suffer too much from it.
 

Iron Man 3 was not the superhero film I was expecting, but that is not a bad thing at all. It has surprising twists, thrilling action, good amounts of humor, and another flawless performance from Downey, Jr. Recently he signed another contract to appear in The Avengers 2 and The Avengers 3, but no word on whether he will be in another solo Iron Man film. If this is indeed the last Iron Man film with Downey, Jr. as the title character, then this was a great final solo outing despite its flaws.

 

Iron Man 3 - 4.5/5