15 May 2013

Iron Man 3 (2013)


To the Summary!
Tony Stark faces the Mandarin and an army of enhanced former soldiers.

There are going to be spoilers right from the get go, so be warned.

To the Cast!
Robert Downey Jr. - Tony Stark
Gweneth Paltrow - Pepper Potts
Don Cheadle - Col. James Rhodes
Guy Pearce - Aldrich Killian
Rebecca Hall - Maya Hansen
Jon Faverau - Happy Hogan
Ben Kingsley - The Mandarin
James Badge Dale - Savin
William Sadler - President Ellis
Miguel Ferrer - V.P. Rodriguez

To the Deeper Thoughts!

Let me say this first.  I REALLY like this movie. I think following on the heels of Avengers, this is a fine follow up.  It does not ignore the events of Avengers.  Which is good.  I really can't wait to see how they pick up Stark's story in Avengers 2.

All that being said...

I've wanted to see The Mandarin on screen for a while now.  And after they introduced the aliens in Avengers, I thought, ok, now we are on for some sorcery.

We are not.  Instead, The Mandarin is regulated to a side show, or near enough.  The pretty object dangled in front of us to distract us from the true enemy.  Not to say that Ben Kingsley didn't own the role.  He was a great choice to play the role.  Just... I think they could have done the character better; made him more of the central villain.

Now, back to the stuff I liked.

Pretty much everything.  I know a big deal was made about Jon Faverau not directing this one, and truth be know, had I not known, I would not have known.  I thought Shane Black did a fine job directing the movie.

I also was hoping that they would address the Demon In the Bottle story line (which they touched on very briefly in Iron Man 2).  Here they tackle the Extremis arc.  Basically Extremis is a bio engineered virus that heals injuries.  Cool, huh?

Except... well, in a few people it turns them into living bombs.  And, Aldrich Killian is kinda pissed that Tony Stark didn't work with him back in the late 90s.  So, kinda typical plot device there, but hey, I'm not here for heavy plot.

What I AM here for is the suits.  And boy, are there suits in this film.  All the way up to Mk 42. 42!  Turns out, in all his insomnia Stark has been busy.  We get to see all these suits during the final battle (see: House Party Protocol).

Overall, I really liked this entry to the Iron Man saga.  The end does make for an interesting set up for Avengers 2, as I don't think there will be an Iron Man 4 between now and them.  The one weakness of the film is that you do have to, at a minimum, see Avengers 2 to really understand some of what is going on in the movie.

Now, we wait for Thor 2.

2 comments:

  1. Nice review Matt. There's great action, solid acting, plenty of humor, witty dialogue between characters, a climax that's exciting all the way through and a nice wrap up to a pretty nice trilogy.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! It was a great way to wrap up the series.

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