IRON MAN 3
So, Iron Man 3. The start of the summer movie season. Now, summer movies have a rule. If the movie that kicks off the season is one of the best movies of the year, the movies that follow have to be just as good or better. And Iron Man 3 is the best Iron Man to date, and one of the best Marvel movies yet.
THE PLOT
Iron Man 3 is both, the darkest and the funniest of the IM Trilogy, if that makes any sense. The story goes into some really dark territory after the first act, and explores themes like suicide, and stem cell growth. IM3 is loosely based on Warren Ellis and Adi Granov's awesome "Extremis" storyline, and it's presence can be felt greatly. Imagine that story, but on a much larger scale, and a whole lot of Mallens. However, no matter how dark the movie gets, the humor just doesn't stop, and we get even more laughs than we got out of the Avengers. Some of the actions are pretty damn good, including a mind-blowing and epic final fight that had me cheering by the time I realized what was going to happen. One of my favorite moments involves a scene where Tony is kidnapped, and tries to escape, only to provide unintentional entertainment for his captors. Then, there's the massive twist with the Mandarin. This is either going to really piss off or really tickle the funny bone of the audience. I for one, was the former, as for me, it was one of the biggest highlights of the film, and the jokes it lead had me cracking up even as I walked out of the theater. Now, in the first Iron Man, one of the joys of watching it was seeing Stark use his MacGyver-like ingenuity, and the larger focus on action. This was absent in Iron Man 2 (which in my opinion, is only slightly better than Batman Forever), which made that such a chore to watch. I'm glad to see it back here, as the assault on the Mandarin's palace was pretty cool. Also, it's nice to see Pepper actually do something useful and play a larger role. My one gripe with the film is Guy Pierce's character, Adrian Killich (I think?). He seems like a cross between Obidiah Stane from IM1, and Sam Rockwell's character from IM2, and ends up coming across as a boring and generic villain. I'll give credit to the writers for trying to give him a backstory, but in the end, it just comes off as forced.
ACTING
All of the acting in the film is top-notch. Robert Downey Jr's performance as Stark is (as usual) AWESOME. Downey Jr. IS Tony Stark. If Downey Jr. does end up continuing his role as Stark for a few more movies, his grave is going to say Tony Stark on it, and his epitah will say "I am Iron Man." Yeah. He's that good. Other stand-out performances are Ben Kingsley's threatening and hilarious Mandarin, Jon Favereu's Happy Hogan (the Phil Coulson of the film), and Don Cheadle (or as I call him, Better Terrance Howard) as Rhodey.
ACTION
The action in this movie is beyond epic. The smaller fights in this movie are just as cool as the finale to the Avengers, and the climax of this movie is even more thrilling. The only fight I like as much was the assault on the Malibu house, and even that was pretty fun at the least.
COMEDY
Stan Lee's cameo. 'Nuff said.
THE VERDICT
Beyond the movie's boring villain, I've got to say, this is the closest we've gotten to a perfect superhero movie since either "The Dark Knight Rises" or "Kick-Ass" (Don't kill me!). It's funny, action packed, dark, well-paced, and above all... Tony Stark-- I mean, Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark. What more could you want?
FINAL RATING: 4.75/5
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