After an action-packed ensemble adventure in The Avengers, Iron Man gets the stage to himself once more in Iron Man 3. The movie is definitely fun, but not as good as the first two Iron Man movies or The Avengers. Director Shane Black adds more humor and snark while retaining the awesome mech-fueled action of his predecessor, Jon Favreau. Unfortunately, his storytelling isn’t as tight and his movie doesn’t have as much heart. Here are some random spoiler-free thoughts on Iron Man 3.
When Did Jon Favreau Get Old?!? — The first thing that caught my attention in Iron Man 3 has nothing to do with the quality of the movie. Seconds after the opening credits, I was shocked to see how old Jon Favreau looks. I knew he was getting larger, but his face was a harsh reminder of my own mortality. He’ll always be that fresh-faced newbie Angeleno in Swingers to me. I can’t believe that movie is as old as McKayla Maroney. Gah.
Jokey Jokesters — My friend Paul and I agreed that this movie had much more humor than its predecessors. The first two had funny moments, but the jokes were interspersed with a little bit of drama and lots of action. The gags in Iron Man 3 are more frequent and felt forced or excessive at times. Especially when…
…Tony Stark is Being a Dick — While Robert Downey, Jr. was expectedly excellent, some of the material he was working with had an unusual tone. The previous movies did a wonderful job of establishing Stark as a narcissistic and womanizing genius that has substance issues and a growing conscience. For some reason, this movie unveiled his dickish side. It lead to some funny exchanges, but seemed out of character. Stark can be stubborn, self righteous, and overzealous — both in the movies and the comics — but there are moments in Iron Man 3 where he’s unusually cruel. Even though Downey delivered the lines with aplomb, the meanness felt out of place.
Mandarin Surprise — When I found out that one of the Iron Man 3’s protagonists was the Mandarin, I was worried. The character works in comics, but is a bit too ridiculous for movies. The movie version of Mandarin was not at all what I was expecting and it totally worked. Keep in mind that I usually hate major deviations from the source material (Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, for example), so I was shocked by how delighted I was with movie Mandarin. Of course it helps that a master thespian like Ben Kingsley completely owned the role.
Executive Mocking Continues — I love how the Iron Man movies poke fun at real-life executives. In Iron Man 2, Sam Rockwell showed qualities of Microsoft Bill Gates and Apple Steve Jobs while playing Justin Hammer. In this film, Guy Pearce takes several cues from Virgin Group Richard Branson. I’m looking forward to Iron Man 4, when Tony Stark will battle a Mark Zuckerberg pastiche, complete with a menacing hoodie powered by Extremis.
Gwyneth Paltrow’s Abs — While I vehemently disagree with People Magazine crowning Ms. Paltrow as the most beautiful woman in the world (she wasn’t even the most beautiful woman in Iron Man 2), she’s still a lovely creature that takes exquisite care of her body. Borrowing a page from Padme Amidala’s playbook, Paltrow’s Pepper Potts shows a lot of skin during the movie’s climax. Her stomach looked marvelous and made me dream of what it would be like to eat sushi off of it. It was so yummy that I probably missed some cool tech sequences while I was mesmerized by Gwyneth’s abs.
No Dual Villains — One of the reasons I enjoyed Iron Man 2 so much is that it had separate villains for Iron Man and Tony Stark. I enjoyed that Whiplash menaced the superhero Iron Man, while Justin Hammer threatened businessman and technologist Tony Stark. This is a layered and complex hero, and I loved that the second movie had antagonists for different facets of the character. With that in mind, I was disappointed that the third movie didn’t do the same.
Pacing and Surprise — Iron Man 3 flows at a consistent but predictable pace. The first two movies did a better job of using humor, action, and drama to mix things up. While this movie isn’t paced poorly by any means, it just feels very by-the-numbers. That’s all on Shane Black, who simply isn’t as good at dealing with Iron Man as Jon Favreau was.
Bottom Line — Iron Man 3 is definitely entertaining and enjoyable. It has bigger and better action than the first two movies, but as a whole I don’t think it’s as good. The actors are better than ever in these roles, but the direction and writing have taken a dip. A few of my friends and a few critics have said that Iron Man 3 is the best in the series and the best Marvel movie to date. While I enjoyed it, I completely disagree with that assessment. After seeing Iron Man and Iron Man 2 in theaters, I wanted to see it again. After the Iron Man 3 screening, I’m content to wait for the Blu-ray.
