Movie Review: 'Iron Man 3'

Art by Jock

First, a confession; I'm not a fan of the Marvel superhero universe in comics or films. There, I've said it! If anything, I would say that I'm more of a DC/Vertigo, Image and Dynamite Comics kinda guy really and still not much into the superhero side of things either, and so 'Iron Man 3' wasn't originally on my movie watchlist for 2013. Yes, I'd seen and enjoyed the first 'Iron Man', didn't bother with the second, and wasn't overly fussed about 'The Avengers', although did catch it on blu later, so I wasn't too bothered about watching Shane Black's take on 'Iron Man'.  That was until I'd seen the trailers.

For once, the trailers did their job on enticing me to want to see a film I had no plans to see, which makes a change! Hollywood suits knowing how to promote a movie? Whatever next! And as always, I try to stay clear of any clips and spoilers before going in, I like to watch a movie with knowing as little as possible beforehand - a difficult feat these days with a multitude of websites scrambling to get snippets of news and spoilers out.

What I saw was a Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr), suffering from an inferiority complex, after battling a God and aliens in his exploits in 'The Avengers', and coping with that by building new suits at the cost of his relationship with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) as well as the rise of a new villain, The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley), to deal with. And after Stark seemingly losing everything that mattered to him in one go and being stranded, it's up to him to find himself again and to save the day!

I watched it in dazzling 2D, and the film is a well rounded feature and is what you would maybe expect from Marvel these days. It zips along at a good pace, but I did feel it kind of sagged in the middle, which coincided with the annoying kid sidekick for me, after Stark is stranded in a small town. The film does pick up again towards the end though with the climactic confrontation and the suits all joining up to battle at the end, as seen in the trailers.

Ben Kingsley's performance stole the show for me, totally not what I expected. And the rest of the cast played their parts well too, as you would expect. Especially RDJ portraying the fall of Stark from cocky braggart to finding his human side again, and an awesome Gwyneth Paltrow as the love of his life.

As always, go in with an open mind, and if you enjoyed Marvel's Phase One superhero films and were one of those that squee'd yourself at 'The Avengers', then you'll definitely get a kick out of this movie and the first of the post Avengers Phase Two Marvel movies. Don't forget to stay after the end credits too!

***½ of 5