Iron Man 3 is a great film which really managed to surpass Iron Man 2 and I consider it on par with the original Iron Man though still not as good as the avengers. The first half of the film is spectacular with Downey being wittier and funnier than ever before. Shane Black has really crafted a great script, which is funny, but when it needs to be can be taken seriously.
The first action scene where the mansion is destroyed is very well done and shows that Shane Black really knows what looks good on screen. The film really does take everything away from Stark and he is left with only his brains for most of the movie. Many people had a problem with there not being enough Iron Man in the film but I loved loved this and thought it was a great change of pace for the character whereas he is usually in the suit in control and doesn’t have to resort to his intellect.
Don Cheadle was much better this time round with his portrayal as James Rhodes. In all the previous films we were told and meant to believe that Tony and Rhodey are best friends but the films never really show you. Iron Man 3 really gives you the feeling that these two are the best of friends as they do banter with each other. There is an especially funny scene where Tony asks for Rhodey’s username and password to something and his username is ‘WarMachinerox’ or something along those lines and it is extremely funny to see these two interact.
Extremis is introduced into this movie and it is quite a bit different to the comics but it works quite well. The people with extremis are ex-soldiers who have lost a limb or have been paralyzed on the front line. This brings us to Guy Pearce’s character Aldrich Killian who is running a think tank known as AIM. He soon realises early on the movie that nobody cares about him in the world and that only he can do what it takes to make it to the top. Aldrich is responsible for this new extremis and is giving it to people who have been crippled or have lost a limb in effect creating his own super soldiers who are much more powerful than the Chitauri in The Avengers, and definitely more powerful than the super soldier himself whos only move seems to be able to throw a shield Captain America. The problem I had with the Extremis soldiers is that as soon as they get this extremis they seem to become bad guys without any conscious. This isn’t explained and it seems to be one of the major flaws of the movie is that everything seems too convenient. The ways normal soldiers die from one blast to the heart but Guy Pearce seems to be able to survive almost anything except when Pepper hits him in the head with a poll.
Now onto the Mandarin. It started off so promisingly that I thought that Kingsley would be able to possibly match Heath Ledgers Joker. Ben Kinsley does an outstanding job, as The Mandarin, the portrayal was very menacing the whole time. However I did have the feeling that he was not the brains of the operation since you see Killian so much and you only really ever see The Mandarin when he is addressing America with his messages of terror. He never actually does anything substantial like give out orders or talk about his hatred for America with anybody except when he is talking to the camera. The big twist that he is a drug addicted, alcoholic male prostitute was pretty hilarious and unexpected in how stupid the character is. I was expecting more of a twist like in TDKR where Bane isn’t necessarily the main villain, but he is still an absolute badass and managed to beat the s*** out of Batman. The movie is still filled with great action sequences and seeing Stark at the end jumping out of all of those suits into new ones was pretty fantastic. The destruction of all the Iron Men represents that he is Iron Man with or without the suit.
Some characters did feel underdeveloped like Pepper and Maya Hansen who really don’t get satisfying conclusions especially Maya who just seems to die and nobody cares. Pepper gets awesome powers but then gets rid of them, I would have been like ‘F*** yeah, now I can become an Avenger’ but I guess that probably is just her personality. One final point is that there is a kid in this movie and that is usually a bad thing (Star Wars Episode 1 if you need and example) but I actually enjoyed the chemistry between him and Tony, and I wish he was the Anakin that we got instead.
To conclude the film is great and is definitely worth your watch. Shane Black has crafted a great film it isn’t quite as good as The Avengers but it is definitely a great start to Marvel’s phase two and the summer. There are some underdeveloped characters with some major conveniences for the film’s plot and action sequences. I am still on the fence about The Mandarin, I found the twist funny but was a bit disappointed that we didn’t get to see him as a proper villain since Ben Kinsley was producing such a great character.
Score:
8/10