I may have mentioned before (a lot) about how much I love a good superhero film. Iron Man 3 is not a good superhero film. It’s a magnificent one. I went to the midnight showing last Thursday, but I haven’t had WiFi to upload this review. But better late than never, right?
Iron Man 3 shows a very different side of Tony Stark. Ever since the events in New York at the end of The Avengers, he has been suffering from anxiety attacks, and is having trouble sleeping. He spends most of his time making new suits, and this is quickly becoming an obsession. The suits are making his relationship with Pepper (still running Stark Industries) a little stressed,and when the Mandarin strikes, everything worsens. The Mandarin seems to be a Chinese warlord, or something of the sort, utterly bent on exposing America as a hypocritical, corporate nation. There are several Mandarin attacks on America, all of which use a new type of bomb – or at least everyone thinks it’s a bomb. But no traces of a device are ever found at the site of the explosion. So what’s going on?
This is a different Tony than we’ve seen before. He’s a lot more mentally vulnerable, and this really shows. It kind of adds more to him as a character, as in certain scenes, we see him without all the bravado. Of course an Iron Man film wouldn’t be complete without the Tony Stark one-liners, and this one certainly doesn’t disappoint.
We get a lot more Pepper. She’s a much more central character this time, and that’s definitely a good thing. She’s stronger too, and we get to see her in a few action scenes, something we haven’t really got a glimpse of before. Though to be fair, she’s never really been a damsel in distress. She plays a very central role in the plot as well, and spoiler alert – she gets to use the suit. If that doesn’t convince you to go see this film, what will?
As for the villain, that would be the Mandarin, played by Ben Kingsley. Or would it? I won’t give anything away, but don’t take anything for granted… But whatever happens, Kingsley plays The Mandarin wonderfully, I really can’t fault his performance. Don Cheadle returns as Colonel Rhodes, this time the “Iron Patriot”, and is working with the American government. Jon Favreau plays Happy Hogan, the Downton Abbey loving, head of security at Stark Industries. He gets into a bit of trouble, what with the Mandarin attacks and such.
I really can’t fault this film – The characters are great, the plot is brilliant, every twist and turn is simply wonderful, and to put it bluntly it’s just an excellent film. The characters we’re familiar with kind of mature a bit, and some equally interesting new characters are introduced. The one-liners are as good as ever, but there’s a few more serious moments to go with them this time. This is the first film in Marvel’s phase two, and to be honest, it was a pretty perfect start. If the rest of the films are the same standard as this, I am seriously excited for them. Ah who am I kidding, I’m excited for them anyway!
I’ve nothing to complain about, and for that reason I’m giving Iron Man 3 4.5 stars out of five.
Cynicalisbest 