Iron Man 3 Movie Review!!!

So how does Iron Man fare going against the bad guys without his Avengers buddies?? Read on to find out!

Ever since the first Iron Man movie, Robert Downey Jr. has really been on fire.  I’ve always enjoyed his work and think for pure acting versatility he’s the best thing in Hollywood right now.  Downey and Gwyneth Paltrow were pretty great in this and clearly very comfortable as these now familiar characters.

Having Shane Black directing Iron Man 3 got a lot of excitement from movie fans.  The guy wrote the now classic Lethal Weapon and he’s worked with Downey before in the pretty awesome Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. 

So how did it all turn out?  Well, for me it was a hit and miss affair.

Stark is having some real issues dealing with the psychological aftermath following the events in the Avengers.  Post traumatic stress disorder, debilitating flash backs and panic attacks, fearful of what may come next, alien attacks, super powered Gods and the like, he deals with them the way he knows best – developing loads of different Iron Man suits to be able to deal with every possible situation.  I believe there are 42 different suits in this movie.

Around the world, however, terrorist attacks are taking place with a mysterious character calling himself The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) taking credit.  US intelligence sources have so far been unable to get any leads in their investigations.

When these attacks move to the US and someone close to Stark gets hurt, things become personal.  In a ballsy and ultimately pretty stupid move, Stark dares The Mandarin to come and fight him if he’s man enough.  Stark even provides his home address so The Mandarin knows where to find him.  Guess what, The Mandarin attacks and the consequences are not good to say the least.

Stark is left sans technology and verges close to losing everything, having to then rely solely on his brains to figure out who or what The Mandarin is.  Goes to show that even without armour, Stark can be a dangerous dude, a case of brains before brawn.

This was a decent movie and worthy addition to the Iron Man series.  Why then did I feel shortchanged?  Perhaps it was that my expectations were just too high.  I went in to see this having seen the 8.1/10 rating on IMDB and having heard from various sources that it’s the best out of all the Iron Man movies.  I just can’t find it in myself to agree with that.  It’s a good movie, it’s fun, but I really didn’t like the direction the movie was ultimately taken in.  It felt as if a lot of what we learned about Starks character as Iron Man in the previous movies had been undone. 

I was glad to see the friendship between Stark and Rhodes (Don Cheadle) finally seem real.  They seemed cold towards each other in the first two movies and for me this made their friendship hard to believe.  I’m sure Shane Black deserves a fair amount of the credit for this thanks to his sharp scripting and direction.  Some scenes almost teeter on Lethal Weapon territory (that’s a good thing), especially as the two friends arrive at the scene for the movies big ending.  It was also good to see more of Rhodes and of course War Machine.

One thing that I definitely found disappointing were the bad guys.  I found it hard to believe that Iron Man would have so much difficulty taking down these minions.  This also leads me onto The Mandarin.  Ben Kingsley was great in the role but the character is definitely not what I was expecting and shamefully underused.  Guy Pearce was solid in his role as the sinister scientist Aldrich Killian.

At the end of the day, my feelings towards Iron Man 3 are probably all down to my own misguided expectations.  I had heard rumours that there may have been a more covert nature to the movie, possibly with Iron Man going stealth to take down bad guys in terrorist military camps, which could’ve been pretty cool.  Also, despite it being a solo movie, I couldn’t help but wonder why none of the other Avengers were there to help.  Maybe on repeat viewings I will enjoy the movie more now knowing what to expect.

The best scenes for me were the attack on Starks home, the rescue of the passengers of Air Force One falling in the sky, surprisingly the moments with the kid and finally the movies explosive ending.  Don’t bother watching the movie in 3D, it adds absolutely nothing to the experience.

For me the first Iron Man movie and the Avengers movie are better Iron Man movies.  This is nonetheless entertaining, at times very funny and features some great action set pieces.  Despite all my quibbles, I still recommend this and I’m already looking forward to the next Iron Man movie!

Check it out and don't forget to stay behind for the post-credits scene!

Rating 3.5 out of 5.

 

Bobby