Iron Man 3 Review

When a person walks into any sort of franchise movie, there's a level of expectation that exists among those familiar with the previous entries. And often times this expectation can result in a substandard movie as the filmmakers attempt to recreate the magic of before, too afraid to take the movie in too radical direction in fear of alienating the fans who were your prior support. After the runaway success of Avengers, this does not seem to be a fear that Marvel has and never is it more apparent than what transpires in Iron Man 3.

Iron Man 3 is a fascinating movie on so many levels and I applaud Marvel for allowing a filmmaker's voice to be heard so strongly in a franchise movie. The problem is that when taken as a full trilogy, the tone of the third movie is so jarringly different that I can see there being a massive disconnect between the expectations of the audience and what is actually delivered. But I sincerely believe that when taken as an individual entry, it's possible that this eclipses even the first Iron Man, despite some glaring issues.

The movie begins flashing back to New Year's Eve 1999 where we are introduced to Maya Hansen's (Rebecca Hall) Extremis project and a very socially awkward and not too great looking Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce).  By getting the set up here visually, it definitely frees up what would typically be random exposition throughout the movie and definitely gives the proper context as to who Tony used to be as well as introducing an important plot point that is present throughout the rest of the movie. We then fast forward to a time that's not too long after the events of The Avengers. Tony is having trouble sleeping, working day and night in his workshop building suit after suit after suit to the point where when we catch up to him, he's currently on the Mark 42. Given that the Mark VII was introduced in The Avengers, I'd say he's been a pretty busy guy.

Meanwhile, Rhodey is on the hunt on behalf of the United States government for The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley), an elusive terrorist who is taking credit for several attacks throughout the world. Rebranded with a new paint job and title, Rhodes has dropped the moniker of War Machine and now goes by the Iron Patriot.

To say any more would be to give too much away, but suffice it to say, this is a very interesting movie that has some sizable implications for the movies going forward. Certain liberties are taken with the source material which I suspect is going to rub a lot of fans the wrong way, and although I am personally slightly conflicted about those revelations, I do believe that in the service of this one specific story, they were not the wrong ones. I won't say that they were the right ones, but they definitely serve the story that Shane Black is trying to tell.

Which brings me to Black himself. Tonally, structurally, and hilariously, this movie is pure Shane Black. If you are a fan of Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang, and can understand Shane Black's perspective when making this movie, I believe you will be infinitely satisfied. This movie is hysterical in all the right ways while the action set pieces are not only breathtakingly impressive but also service the story in ways many other action movies don't often seem to do. Yet, the thing that must be accepted in order to enjoy this movie is to understand that Black is not Jon Favreau (who still shows up here reprising his role as Happy Hogan, so I'm sure he gave his input when necessary). There's a certain darkness and borderline mean-spiritedness to Black's humor that just isn't in Favreau's wheelhouse. This is not a criticism of either director in any way, just a different stylistic approach and one that resonates with me rather strongly.

Structurally, the movie spends a lot of time relying on Stark's wits and intelligence instead of the brute force nature of his suits. For a significant portion of the film, Tony doesn't use his suit at all. As a result, it often feels less like a "superhero" movie and more like an action/thriller that just happens to have some superheroes in it. Thematically, the trials that Tony goes through fit in perfectly with the adventures that came before. His addiction to the suits is the only thing that allows him to make sense of the world around him, especially after experiencing aliens, gods, and intergalactic wormholes for the first time. Not only that, but he finally understands what it means to love another human being in Pepper Potts and has to weigh the responsibilities of being Iron Man with his concern for her well being. Of course, it's all done in typical Tony Stark/Robert Downey, Jr. fashion, so it never feels overly sentimental.

But the movie does have some negatives. Certain plot points are clear, but completely underdeveloped which makes you wonder why they were included at all other than to reach the end point. The same goes for a few actors who are not utilized to the best of their abilities and when all was said and done was disappointing that they were only there to serve the plot instead of being a fully realized character. Beyond this and the changes from the source material which I'm still on the fence about, there wasn't much to dislike about the movie.

I suppose the final word on this movie is to implore fans of the franchise to take a step back and reset their expectations. This is going to be a different experience. But if you approach it from an understanding that this is a filmmaker bringing his own voice and tone to the project while accepting that this is the next logical step for the development of the character of Tony Stark, then I think it succeeds wildly. All too often, these franchise films stay so committed to the status quo that they never do anything truly interesting. And regardless of your feelings on how it turns out, you certainly can't say that this movie sticks to the status quo. Plus, you know, a legion of different Iron Man suits. Now that's awesome.


GRADE: A-