Iron Man 3 Review

Along with Star Trek: Into Darkness, this may be the most anticipated sequel of the entire summer.  (I would say year, but I believe that goes to Hunger Games: Catching Fire.)  But did it live up to expectations.

I just looked at the Box Office numbers from the weekend.  Iron Man 3 led with 174 million, and the number 2 movie, Pain and Gain, made only 7.5 million.  That tells me that anyone reading this has probably already seen Iron Man 3, but you know what, I just don't care.

When I found out that the writer of this movie had changed from the original screenwriter and that the director had changed from Jon Favreau to anyone not named Jon Favreau I had my doubts of whether it could stand up with the original movies.  Then I found out that Shane Black, the writer of the Lethal Weapon movies and director of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was essentially running this project, and my fears were alleviated.  That being said, on to the actual review.

In this installment in the franchise that, along with Chris Nolan's Batman trilogy, reinvented the superhero genre, Iron Man goes up against a ruthless terrorist known as The Mandarin (played by the always solid Ben Kingsley).  He at the same time goes head to head with another scientist named Aldrich Killian (played by one of the most underrated actors of our time in Guy Pearce).  I will say that Aldrich Killian and The Mandarin definitely make better villians than Justin Hammer and Ivan Vanko.  That being said, the plot for this movie has it all.  The twists are great and some of the action you see coming (such as when Tony Stark gives his home address to terrorists and essentially says come and get me) but it is very well done.  The script is great though it lacks some of the laughs I have come to love from the earlier Iron Man movies, and from Tony's character in The Avengers.

One thing I did love in this movie was how they expanded the character development of Tony Stark and allowed Robert Downey Jr, the only actor who could have played this role, to really show his ability to act.  We see personality traits of Tony Stark other than narcissism and impulsive behavior.  He shows a full range of emotions and while never expressly shown or said, you can tell a lot of that has to do with Pepper Potts.  They perfectly play homage to the events of The Avengers (such as the line "nothing's been the same since New York") and you can really see how it has changed Tony for better and for worse.  While I don't think it will garner nominations with the rest of summer coming and fall Oscar contenders still to come, I believe Downey's work in this movie is worthy of awards consideration.

All that being said, I think parts of this movie were predictable.  I think it lacked laughs where it was possible, and tried to hard for laughs in other places.  This is one of the most entertaining movies I have seen this year, and believe it will hold up on sheer entertainment, but it lacks some of the substance that the other movies have had.  I give it a B+