Review: Iron Man 3

Review: Iron Man 3

Blimey, Marvel almost shot themselves in the foot with this one.

On the one pulse-blasting hand, Iron Man 3 is a satisfying conclusion to the Tony Stark story, one which has captivated fans of comic books and action movies alike mostly thanks to Robert Downey Jr.'s effortless performance as the genius playboy inventor. It's fun, it's action packed and there's humour where it matters - it succeeds its predecessors on every level and some confident direction from Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang creator Shane Black ensures that shell-head's latest outing never slips below pure entertainment.

On the other gauntlet, Iron Man 3 is something of a let-down due to Marvel's over extensive promotional material depicting certain characters as something that they are blatantly not and while this is Tony's most personal story so far, the side characters do get a very raw deal. Add to that the fact that each life threatening situation the cast find themselves in is punctuated by a cheesy one-liner and Iron Man 3 feels much more like an action comedy than a superhero sequel.

That said, we shouldn't be looking for an Iron Man movie that rips off The Dark Knight. He has his moments of self-destruction, but Tony Stark is not the tragic Bruce Wayne of the Marvel universe, nor should we need him to be. DC's upcoming Superman reboot can deal with the angst of a superhero - Iron Man is all about fun.

And what fun it is. Marvel kicks off their Phase Two movies in style, as Iron Man 3 follows the further adventures of Tony Stark, successful billionaire and (most recently) saviour of the world. Following the events of New York in The Avengers, Tony's been suffering from anxiety attacks and nightmares - it's not easy carrying a missile through a wormhole into space and back after all. 

In an effort to combat this, the inventor has dived head-first into his work, creating multiple versions of his armour and perfecting their abilities - but everything is threatened to be taken from him with the presence of two new evils. The first is Aldrich Killian, a genius scientist with a personal vendetta against Tony thanks to a heartless snub over thirteen years previously.

The second is (Iron Man's most famous foe in the comic books) The Mandarin, a terrorist who apparently stands to annihilate everything that Western power symbolises.

Meanwhile, Pepper Potts is still trying to maintain a happy relationship with Tony, while James Rhodes (having acquired the War Machine armour) is now known as The Iron Patriot, a mascot for the military and personal guard for the President of the United States.

Will it please both fans of Marvel lore and casual cinema-goers? Sadly, no. Where the first two Iron Man movies made several references to characters, organizations and locations that comic book fans would recognise as set-ups for The Avengers, Iron Man 3 feels far more catered to a laid-back audience. The script is designed for laughs, with the characterization of Pepper, Rhodes, The Mandarin and several others presumably left on the cutting room floor. 

That's not all bad though and despite the fact that the constant one-liners begin to grate by the end of the 2 hour feature, Robert Downey Jr.'s impeccable comic timing has been cranked up to 11 for this. The movie is a barrel of fun from start to finish and thanks to his effortless wit ("Dads walk out on people kid, you don't need to be a pussy about it."), Tony has never been such an enjoyable character to watch, even without the rest of The Avengers.

Speaking of which, where are those pesky superheroes? This narrative plot hole really sticks out like a sore thumb - it makes no sense that Tony's home would be brutally attacked live on television and the likes of Captain America and S.H.I.E.L.D would not show up to help without a damn good reason. At the end of the day though, this is Tony's movie and Shane Black's script certainly cuts to the core of the man in the can.

Thanks to some pretty cool flashback shots of Tony's trip into the wormhole in The Avengers, it's established that he hasn't dealt well psychologically with the New York battle against gods and aliens. It's a new side to Tony that we haven't seen before, a new vulnerability that exposes his true self. Without Robert Downey Jr, every inch of the character could have fallen apart with this take on the character.

Luckily, Downey Jr. owns the role as always - he is Iron Man. For how much longer remains to be seen as his contract with Marvel has now officially run its course, but it's clear that no one else could play Tony Stark in this cinematic universe. Surely...

The supporting cast excel in their varied roles as well, with Don Cheadle's charismatic but under-written Rhodes acting as a brilliant Watson to Downey Jr.'s Sherlock (Jude Law is crying into his tea somewhere), while Gwyneth Paltrow gets a lot more to do this time around than just act as the worried wife at home figure.

Yet it's Guy Pearce who steals the supporting show as Aldrich Killian, the once-snubbed yet now determined scientist whose new experimental technique has the potential to alter human DNA and regenerate broken or disfigured limbs. Plenty of standard issue disposable enemies then.

Unfortunately one of the biggest narrative threads completely falls apart with regards to The Mandarin. As always there are no significant spoilers to be found here, but it's safe to say that fans of the Iron Man comics (and fans of honest movie marketing) will be extremely disappointed with the character.



Although it does work very well in the context of the movie and Ben Kingsley's larger-than-life performance is fantastic, The Mandarin is the biggest let down in Iron Man 3. If Marvel didn't want to have Tony's arch-nemesis written true to lore, they shouldn't have had him written at all. The whole story arc just seems purposefully misleading considering the extent of appearances The Mandarin has made in Marvel's advertising campaign.

Still, this is a minor niggle in what is one of the best solo superhero movies of all time. Starting with an impressively staged attack on Tony's Malibu penthouse and culminating in an enormous dockyard finale with over 40 suits engaging in combat at once, Iron Man 3 boasts the best action spectacle of any isolated superhero movie yet.

The suits are sublime this time around, unravelling and attaching themselves to Tony piece by piece when need be. One particularly brilliant moment sees Tony cornered and wielding just one gauntlet and an Uzi. Marvel's special effects team can give themselves a round of applause once again - as long as they get back to work on Thor: The Dark World immediately after...

Summary

Iron Man 3 is the most Stark-centric, entertaining Iron Man movie to date. Its ties to The Avengers and Marvel's Cinematic Universe as a whole are fairly weak, but the charisma of its star and the psychological detail of Tony's characterization are superb. The relentless action scenes are never less than impressive and just as in the previous films, there's nothing more aesthetically pleasing than the Iron Man suit.

Yet this is more a tale of the man inside the metal, and despite some narrative pitfalls (the location of the rest of the world's superheroes and the awful choices regarding the direction of The Mandarin to name a couple) this highly charged roller coaster portraying the life of Tony Stark is a thrilling piece of blockbuster cinema nonetheless. If this really is an underline for the solo stories of the world's coolest superhero, he's bowed out in style. Nice save, Marvel.

8.5/10 - Fantastic

See it if you liked: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (2005), Iron Man (2008), The Avengers (2012)