Flying High

Review: Iron Man 3

"You'll never see me coming."

You likely already know from the trailers this line is uttered rather menacingly by the villain of Iron Man 3. What you may not know is how prophetic that line is of not only that character, but the film as a whole. You'll never see it coming.

Robert Downey Jr. (Sherlock Holmes) is back as Tony Stark/Iron Man, most movie-watchers' favorite Avenger. But this hero just can't seem to get over the impending sense of doom the alien invasion from The Avengers seems to have left him with. He spends all his time in his workshop, relentlessly preparing for any unknown threat and begins to suffer anxiety attacks, perhaps even post-traumatic stress disorder.

The character arc of Stark is Iron Man 3's strongest quality. This is a guy still growing, still grappling with fears, and is brought to life perfectly by RDJ. In many parts of the film there is an exhausting overabundance of weaponized technology, but there's also a great middle section where Tony is left with no suit, only his wits. It's an engaging return to the idea of what a man can accomplish in a cave - or a shed - with a box of scraps.

The supporting cast was more than effectual and each are given moments to shine. There's frankly no real need to say too much about them, aside from the fact they did well, so I'll just give a shout-out to Guy Pierce, Don Cheadle, Jon Favreau, Rebecca Hall, Ty Simpkins, and especially Gwyneth Paltrow, who has amazing abs of steel in addition to a good performance.

Iron Man 3 also boasts some of the most fun action sequences around and is the most joke-filled Marvel film to date. You can thank writer/director Shane Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) for those qualities and for just in general - I'll go ahead and say it now if its not obvious - making a fun, quickly-paced, snappy action movie.

What you can not thank him for and what I think many die hard comic fans will curse him for is Iron Man 3's interpretation of the villain, the Mandarin. This is a character who is Iron Man's arch-rival; what the Joker is to Batman. But the Mandarin in this film is more of a joke than a Joker.

I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, so I will only say that Black's take on the character is a successful surprise, but successful only in the sense that it arrives so unexpectedly, not that it is a pleasant arrival. Perhaps he assumed taking the character in a traditional route would have been too predictable. But the "twist" version is so underwhelming I'd rather have seen the more typical character.

To be fair, Sir Ben Kingsley (Gandhi) does well with what he is asked to do, but what is asked of him is truly a wasted opportunity. And I say that not as a raging fanboy, but simply as a movie lover who has admittedly never read an Iron Man comic in my life.

The other issue the film has is not necessarily something which is unique to Iron Man 3, but generalized to all action franchises: going too big. What I do not mean is that you can have too much action; you can have as much action as you want as long as you balance that with character development. What I do mean, is that an ever increasing scope can become so overwhelming that it punches plot holes into your story.

In Iron Man 3 a terrorist is, well, causing terror. Explosions are happening at random and no one seems safe. People close to Tony are being hurt. So Tony sets out to defeat evil. But he does it all alone, which after the events of The Avengers, will always seem silly for any hero in a stand alone film. If all these people are dying and the odds seem insurmountable, why not call up SHIELD and have them send reinforcements? It is a logical fallacy that I assume will simply be ignored in Marvel's standalone films from now on.

But even unique to Iron Man, the same sort of issues will arise. Now that Tony has built so many suits and has the ability to build infinite numbers of suits, and now that we've seen they can operate on their own, and now that the government has one that it can replicate, Iron Man as a singular man seems incredibly unnecessary from now on. Tony can just build suits to do whatever heroism needs to be done. But he may not even need to, because the government is likely to be building their own army. Again, I guess we're just going to ignore this and keep sending Tony into battle on his own.

I know I just complained quite a bit, so this may sound a bit contradictory, but overall Iron Man 3 still is a pretty fun film. You always have to suspend some disbelief in summer blockbusters, especially in superhero movies, so the logical issues aren't actually that hard to forgive. And while the Mandarin is a disappointment, it doesn't ruin the film. The action, cast, and overall direction are much to strong to allow that to happen.

Because it still manages to keep you guessing on the edge of your seat from start to finish, Iron Man 3 is a fun addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and a strong step forward for the character of Tony Stark.

The Final Word: 3.5/4 - Go buy a ticket and consider buying the DVD.