Iron Man 3 Review

Marvel once again kicks off the summer movie season with another blockbuster.  After The Avengers last year anticipation has been high for Iron Man 3 and Phase 2 of Marvels Cinematic Universe.  On everyone’s mind is how do you top a movie like The Avengers and could Iron Man 3 live up to the hype.  Iron Man 3 is actually lucky to have had The Avengers do so well last year after what I thought was a disappointing Iron Man 2.  But this has become one of the most anticipated movie of the summer and Shane Black delivered a perfect summer movie. With a great mix of action and comedy.

In Iron Man 3 we catch up with Tony Stark post Avengers.  After fighting aliens in New York Stark is having trouble coming to grips with the current reality.  The once egotistical man now suffers from insomnia and panic attacks. During his sleepless nights he tinkers with his suits and is constantly working on newer and better ones.  When The Mandarin begins his terrorist plot Tony looks on till it becomes personal.   But who is the Mandarin and what does he want?  Tony must figure these things out if he is going to save the people he cares about.

Once again Robert Downey Jr. delivers a great performance and makes Tony Stark a likabe character despite all his flaws.  This time RDJ is tasked with giving Tony even more depth as he struggles with the panic attacks and his relationship with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow).    But Tony still has the great one liners and sarcastic comments that we all love.  The movie also gave Gwyneth Paltrow a bigger role.  Not only does she play the typical damsel in distress but she gets to flex some muscle too and I loved it.  Don Cheadle as The Iron Patriot and Guy Pearce as Aldrich Killian gave great performance. But it was Ben Kingsley as The Mandarin that stole every scene he was in. 

With Shane Black taking over as director and screenwriter the movie has a different feel.  He makes this movie more of an action spy  movie then just a typical superhero movie. What Shane Black did was take Tony out of the suit for a large chunk of the middle of the movie.  With Tony stripped of everything he is forced to ask help of strangers while trying to figure out who The Mandarin is. One of the stranges is a kid Henry and a lot of the humor in the movie comes from the cool banter between the two. One of the problems that trilogies of comic book movies have is that they are always trying to top the previous movie.  This middle part of the movie is pretty low tech and almost feels like the first one where Tony has to rebuild from scratch.  That is until the end when things just go balls to the wall.  

I can see some people having a problem with the craziness at the end.  But I loved it.  It's not giving too much away since it has been in all the previews that Tony has an army of suits that he unleashes and causes all kinds of mayhem.  I can see how some people may find this over the top since the rest of the movie was him fighting without the suit but it worked for me and I loved it.

Someone wrote that there is more violence in this movie than other Marvel movies. That may sound odd but I had the same thought while watching the movie.  For a comic book movie there was a lot of gunfights and death.  This is when it felt more like a spy movie similiar to a James Bond of Bourne movie.  Of course it was all bloodless but it gave this movie a bit of a different tone.  

Not a comic book reader I don’t have the preconceived expectations about the characters and villains so I loved the big surprise in the movie but I am curious to what fans of the comic thought. So let me know. Also the kid in the movie is he supposed to represent some future hero?  Fill me in comic book readers.   

Overall: 5/5 Stars

Loved the new feel that Shane Black brings.  It is a great mix action, comedy, and spy movie with an over the top fun climax.   If you want to keep a franchise alive sometimes you need to try something new. This was one of the best part 3 in a comic book movie franchise.  

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From The Collection: Iron Man

In anticipation of Iron Man 3 I decided to watch the first one again and it still holds its own. 

Seems so long ago when Marvel started releasing their own movies and began their Phase One of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Back in 2008 I am not sure people knew how big it was going to be.   

There was a lot of uncertainty when it first came out. Iron Man was a lesser known comic book hero and had been in development hell for a long time.  There were points when Nicolas Cage and Tom Cruise were going to play Iron Man. Before Jon Favreau took the reins as director several other directors were asked and fell through including Quentin Tarantino and Joss Whedon.  Well obviously it did better business than anyone could hope and we now wait for Iron Man 3 to kick off Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

Here is a brief recap of the movie for those unfamiliar with it.  Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is a rich playboy who runs the weapons manufacturing company Stark Industries.  After being kidnapped by terrorists using his own weapons he is forced to find a way to escape. His solution is to build a suit of iron.  After his escape he has a change of heart and reevaluates what matters in his life.  He shuts down weapons manufacturing at his company angering the other shareholders and devotes his time to perfecting his suit.  When others learn of his suit they try to duplicate it and he is forced to do battle. 

I have to admit I am not a comic book reader and I had no idea who Iron Man was before seeing the movie.  But the casting of Robert Downey Jr. is what makes this movie work.  Downey was born to play this role.  They needed someone that could play a lovable asshole who eventually turns into a hero and Downey plays it perfectly.  In the beginning he is an arrogant prick and at the end his is an arrogant hero the whole time playing by his own rules and doesn’t care what anyone else thinks.  The final battle is cool but not spectacular but by then we have seen Tony’s full character arc and that is the more important thing.  Watching this I thought whoever wrote the lines was pretty good.  The dialogue and the wisecracks that Tony makes are funny and perfect.  But reading a little bit more I guess most of those lines were improvised by Robert Downey Jr. proving again that without him this movie could have been really really bad. 

I have to give credit to the other stars in this movie too.  There are lots of Oscar nominated actors in this movie.  When I first heard that Gwyneth Paltrow was going to be in it I had my doubts, but she plays Tony’s assistant Pepper Potts perfectly.  You really feel they have this repartee down to an art.  Terrence Howard plays Rhodey Stark’s friend in the military.  While his part in this movie is not very big he plays it well.  And then there is Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane.  For some reason I can’t see Jeff Bridges as anything but The Dude from The Big Lebowski so that might be a personal problem but as Stark’s business rival he does an ok job.  He just doesn’t play a good villain to me. 

Overall: 5/5

For only having parts of the script done when they began shooting I have to say Jon Favreau did a good job keeping everything working. The movie was great fun. It did everything it was supposed to do. It introduced us to a new superhero while giving fans of the comic book little details that the rest of us wouldn’t get.  I am not sure if it was pure luck or pure genius on Marvels part but whichever they managed a pretty impressive launch of their Cinematic Universe. 

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