“Big man in a suit of armor. Take that away — what are you?” Captain America
Emotionally shaken from the events in The Avengers, Tony Stark struggles to find meaning in his life. Meanwhile, the sins of the past come back to haunt Tony even further as he arrogantly shunned the harbinger of his doom, scientist Aldrich Killian, played by Guy Pearce, fourteen years earlier.
Meanwhile, The Mandarin, a terrorist who has committed horrific acts, aims to take down the United States. Tony offers his services, calls out the Mandarin, and bites off more than he can chew. His world begins to crumble, leaving him vulnerable in a way we have never seen in him before.
I saw Iron Man 3 on opening night, and when it was over, I wasn’t sure what to think. Part of me enjoyed it, while another part of me was disappointed. My movie-going experience doesn’t lend itself to analyzing every crevice of a film for review purposes. Still, there were certain aspects of the movie that kind of bothered me. There were a lot of laughs out loud moments, but there were too many for my taste.
The distinction established between Stark’s Iron Man and Rhodey’s War Machine, now Iron Patriot, was well thought out. One is a superhero, and the other one works for the government. That in itself explained why War Machine was MIA during the Avengers.
There was also an interesting twist involving The Mandarin that immediately caught you off guard. It was the last thing you’d ever expect, and it augmented the story. Comic book purists will be unhappy with the character’s portrayal. However, those same people will complain that things are too predictable if everything unfolded exactly like the comic. It’s a catch 22 no matter how you slice it.
The Extremis plot left a lot to be desired. The gist of the thing is that it can rewire one’s DNA while giving an individual powers. However, we never really learned how it gave people the abilities it gave them and why it wasn’t stable with certain people and just being told that one would die if their body rejected it. Why would anyone volunteer to take this stuff?
There was a lot of Iron Man in this movie, but there wasn’t as much Tony Stark as Iron Man. I found this to be a little disappointing but understand why it had to be done. This movie was truly about the man underneath the armor, and it’s a story that needed to be told.
Besides a quick reference about “The big guy with the hammer,” the movie and the post-credits scene did nothing to build towards Avengers 2 or the next Marvel studios offering. I’m one of the very few people on Earth who thoroughly enjoyed Iron Man 2. It gets a lot of flak for being too focused on building towards the first Avengers movie. Trust me; you will not have that problem here.
Robert Downey Jr. was pitch-perfect in this film, and the same can be said for Gwyneth Paltrow, a.k.a. Pepper Potts. Pepper’s character has turned the corner and gone from the damsel in distress to someone who is not afraid to try and hold her own in the face of danger.
I had no complaints with Don Cheadle’s performance, and here’s hoping War Machine will someday grace the silver screen in his own feature film. Ben Kinsley and Guy Pearce were just fine in their roles, but I felt Rebecca Hall’s character was uninspired and unnecessary.
Iron Man 3 is a good movie, but not a great movie. The first two movies wowed me, but this third offering, not so much. Maybe I went into the movie expecting one thing and got something else completely different. At the end of the day, this is just one person’s opinion. Besides, the movie hauled in $173.3 million over the weekend, so what do I know?
Ringside Logic 