Iron Man 3
Review by Sean Lynch
It's a tough job following up one of the most successful superhero movies of all time. Not only do you have a financial benchmark to meet, but you also need to somehow meet the outrageous needs of fans who have had a taste of a new franchise which had a piece of EVERYTHING they love - not just one element of it.
Somehow, Marvel's Iron Man 3 not only manages to match the rewards delivered by The Avengers, but in its own way, somehow exceeds the quality of the style and substance of both it and the previous two Iron Man films in the process.
This latest adventure kicks off soon after the events of Marvel's The Avengers in which we find Tony Stark in an unusual position. He is in a completely shattered head space as he strives to deal with the events of the New York attack (aliens, other worlds, the concept of Gods and Monsters). However it isn't long until a new evil wanders into town, in the form of an iconic looking (and SOUNDING) terrorist that goes by the name of The Mandarin (played with incredible skill by Ben Kingsley) and a smarmy business man (played by Aussie Guy Pearce).
To give away much more than that would deprive you of a thoroughly entertaining and, at times, oddly unpredictable popcorn Superhero adventure.
My biggest issue going into IM3 was "is there such thing as Tony Stark overkill?". It's a fair question to ask, after all, Iron Man has featured in more stand alone films, and cameoed in more spin offs than any other Marvel franchise hero. Yes, he is great, but how much more can we handle... or do we want to handle... before the stories just start to repeat themselves?
It's something writer / director Shane Black (taking over from Jon Favreau, a man who was single handedly responsible for pioneering this whole Marvel Universe adventure) manages to tackle with utter ease by giving us new insight into Stark's personality, upping the ante of the action without getting lost in a bunch of explosions and noise, throwing in some new genre quirks and - most importantly - avoids having to squeeze two movies into one (a problem Favreau faced with Iron Man 2 leading into The Avengers).
Where Black really shines as the new franchise hemler is his ability to understand how to get the most out of Robert Downey Jnr. Black wrote and directed for RDJ in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (an excellent film which, arguably, was the film that landed RDJ the Iron Man role in the first place) and throughout Iron Man 3 he takes advantage of this working history by ensuring RDJ gets plenty of words to play with as well as internal turmoil to chew on.
Fans of the Lethal Weapon franchise (which Black also wrote) will also get a hoot out of a buddy cop sequence (when Stark loses the ability to use his suits) with RDJ and Don Cheadle that is just as entertaining as anything we've seen in any of the Iron Man films. Team this with a thrilling aerial set piece (which wouldn't be out of place in The Man Of Steel) and you've got yourself one hell of genre mash spectacle.
Marvel's Iron Man 3 is easily the best of the Iron Man franchise - and quite possibly, the best of the Marvel Universe franchise pictures thus far!
4 out of 5
Iron Man 3
Australian release: 24th April, 2013
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, Stephanie Szostak, James Badge Dale, Jon Favreau, Ben Kingsley
Director: Shane Black
