By Brett Blake At this point, coming off the spectacular success of last year’s THE AVENGERS, Marvel Studios is in the enviable position of being able to absorb one of their films being a failure, either creative or financial. If Warner Bros. and DC Comics’ Superman relaunch, MAN OF STEEL, under-performs later this summer, it would be a crippling blow to that studio’s floundering attempts to launch a Marvel-style interconnected cinematic universe, but Marvel can afford to make some bolder, riskier choices with their upcoming slate, knowing that they’ve got THE AVENGERS 2 coming in a mere two years. Taking that into consideration, coupled with the fact that third installments rarely turn out as well as hoped, it would be understandable if IRON MAN 3 was a less-than-satisfactory motion picture. So, is it? Thankfully, no. Not at all. IRON MAN 3 is far more than satisfactory. It’s confident, funny, and engrossing, and while I wouldn’t go so far as to call it the best movie that Marvel has put out so far (hello, AVENGERS!), it more than accomplishes what it sets out to do, which is be massively entertaining. I don’t want to get into much regarding the plot, except to say that a villain called the Mandarin is wreaking havoc of a terrorism nature, and his motivations may or may not be what they initially seem. More than anything else, though, IRON MAN 3 feels like a mystery. Oh, sure, the action is there (more on that below), but there’s a sense of investigation and the unraveling of clues that really drives what the story is about. I don’t think it’s much of a spoiler to say that Tony Stark spends a good deal of the movie out of the armor, but rather than being boring or uninteresting, it’s the best section of the film, allowing Tony to show that he’s quite the resourceful fellow. The other element that stands out is the tone, which strikes a great balance between the stakes and the humor. Director/co-writer Shane Black is well known for the terrific dialogue and intricate plots in his screenplays, and his fingerprints are all over this movie. I’ve already touched upon the approach he takes with the story, but I’ll briefly mention the humor; it’s certainly not a comedy - and it never gets outright silly or goofy - but I’ll be honest: this movie is funnier and more satisfying than most comedies. Black lets the zingers and quips fly, but they’re all modulated to fit into the overall story, never overpowering or diminishing the sense of danger. The movie gives Tony a kid sidekick for a while, and that could have gotten old REAL fast, but Black nails it perfectly, and that relationship is one of the humorous highlights of the movie. Robert Downey Jr. is clearly very much at home in the role of Tony Stark, to the point that one wonders how much acting is actually going on, but he gets some new shadings to play this time around, and he remains as watchable and charismatic as ever. Both Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle have great chemistry with RDJ, but for the most part we’re not seeing anything really new from them. That’s not at all a criticism, however, since the movie isn’t demanding big character arcs from them. And now, for our villains. In the comic books, Iron Man has never been known for his deep Rogues Gallery, but the Mandarin is probably the closest thing to an arch-nemesis that he has. Again, I don’t want to say very much, but I will report that Ben Kingsley plays the character in full-on weirdo mode, and it’s a lot of fun to see. Joining him in villainy is Guy Pearce, who brings the smarm (in a big way) in another highly entertaining performance. “But enough of that,” you’re saying. “How’s the action?” It’s fantastic, running the gamut from smaller-scale shootouts and fisticuffs, to the huge, “money shot”-laden setpieces. It all works, and there’s an energy and a WOW! factor present here that I think was missing from some of the action of the first two Iron Man movies. For example, there’s an aerial free-fall sequence that is absolutely incredible stuff; I was blown away by how convincing it looked, by the fact that they had to have actually filmed a lot of it for real. That might not sound like a big deal, but when the brain can tell it’s looking at something dangerous that actually happened… instead of something that was obviously created in a computer… it gives the scene an extra kick that really makes it memorable. I could go on about how strong the score by Brian Tyler is, or how the cinematography and sound design are as effective as ever, or how the movie shows us some really cool stuff involving the armor and its capabilities that we haven’t seen before, but this movie doesn’t need more praise heaped onto it. I’ve made my point. IRON MAN 3 is the rare blockbuster that’s actually also a good movie, and it made for a wonderful time at the cinema. I had a blast with it.
2 Comments
Agreed in EVERY way. My interests not thrown aside - Brian Tyler's score is phenomenal.
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Brett Blake
5/4/2013 12:57:32 am
Tyler’s score is a lot of fun. I like both the Djawadi and Debney scores just fine, but Tyler finally gives the series a big, bold, hummable theme. The end titles piece, “Can You Dig It,” is fantastic; kind of ‘70s infused without being too kitschy. I’d like to have him return if/when we get an IRON MAN 4, and keep Silvestri on the Captain America/Avengers side of the equation.
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