FILM: Iron Man III

Recap

In Iron Man we see Tony Stark kidnapped and turned into a man depending on a car battery to keep him alive. Eventually he put his amazing knowledge to work and finds a way to get rid of the car battery and remodel Stark Enterprises beyond weaponry.

Following that, Iron Man 2 in essentially about leaving legacies. We see a maniac attempt to kill Tony, who is already dying from the thing that’s ironically keeping him alive. We also see the initial formations of The Avengers in this film. 

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Have you ever looked back at your past to only have it catch-up with you? Well this is what Iron Man 3 is about. With the events of The Avengers still fresh in his mind, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is finding it hard to catch a breath. Aliens blowing up the earth; Demi-gods trying to take over or save the earth; psycho experiments gone wrong, but in the right way; and then his own creation: the Iron Man are all rolled into one catastrophic memory causing his insomnia. If that isn’t bad enough, there’s another psycho on the loose blowing everything up for the sake of teaching the US President a lesson. For some reason, everywhere Tony turns something is blowing up and it’s adding to his own anxiety episodes.

The Story

So practically, Tony Stark is trying to settle back into his life of being a billionaire philanthropist, but since The Avengers Initiative, he is finding it hard to wrap his head around the fact that there are more worlds to be safe from (or to save) than one. Spending his sleeping time in his cave, Stark decides to make and remake multiple models of his Iron Man suit. And then comes the issue of unexplained airtime discrepancies from a terrorist named, The Mandarin, and suddenly Iron Man has something better to do with his suits, but as luck would have it, he’s stuck with a prototype.

Overall, I thought the story was well crafted to suit the internal workings of Stark’s mind. Watching it, you wouldn’t realise that it’s jaded and fragmented, you just think there’s a lot of things blowing up and going wrong. It’s definitely one of those movies with bits and pieces that are predictable, but the nooks and crannies that twist in this film as typically hilarious and surprising. I’ve always found that Marvel has a lot of room for quirky one liners, and after seeing all three Iron Man movies in a row, I have to say that the Iron Man franchise has the most quirky lines (obviously due to the nature of Tony Stark). My only issue I had was that there was no clear opponent in this movie – if I spell it out it would be a spoiler so I’m not going to go through the details. At the same time though, I liked the fact that there wasn’t. I also love that Stark really gets back to basics in this film and you realise that he really is Iron Man regardless of the suit – think about that as you watch the film.

The Cast

Robert Downey Jr. – Who doesn’t love Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man? He was hilarious (as always) in delivering his one-liners, as well as his sharp comebacks. But he has this incredible way of bringing you to a point where you also care for Stark during his down times. Overall, there are no negatives from me on his performance.

Gwyneth Paltrow – I love Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper. She has this incredible way of matching Downey Jr. during their dialogue acrobatics as well as creating a strong character of her own. I love that she’s more than a damsel in distress in this movie. She’s been the accidental target in the previous films, but this time I love that its intentional and she gets as much say in it as she has in the previous films.

Don Cheadle – Reprising his role as James Rhodes, I like that Cheadle gets to be in the suit as well as out of the suit just as much as Downey Jr. Although his role is to be the patriotic hero in this franchise, I enjoy the fact that he is also Stark’s bestfriend.

Guy Pearce – I’m a little disappointed with the fact that Pearce’s character was a little too obvious. If it weren’t for the pinnacle combat scenes, then I really would have discarded Aldrich Killian as a Marvel villain. I just felt like they could’ve have done more with his character, but at the same time, I understand that if they did then it would’ve been more obvious – I’m really in two minds with Killian.

Ty Simpkins – Stole the show, easily. Harley ideally is Stark’s unexpected sidekick in this film. A random kid in Tennessee who comes across Iron Man in his shed. Simpkins is almost as feisty as Paltrow when it comes to the dialogue banters. My favourite character in the film.

Special Effects

Things blow up like every five minutes. Seriously. I have never seen so many shards of whatever being spayed across the screen in my life. But besides that firepower in this film, I have to say the incredible amount of times that Stark shifts from being in and out of suit was incredible work. With the armour occasionally flying everywhere, it was great to see that everything came together (somewhat) nicely to save the day. Kudos to the special effects team – seriously, I have no words to describe the amount of work they put into this film.

Overall

Out of the three films in this franchise, I definitely like this film the best. I thought the story mirrored Stark’s psychological framework perfectly (whether or not I was supposed to pick that up or I just read it in that way – who knows? – it was well crafted); the characters were well rounded and supported the storyline soundly; you got a kick out of the humour embedded into the film; and you thoroughly enjoyed the progression of how Stark saves the day. I think everyone will enjoy seeing this film so go see it today!

Star Rating: 3.5 Stars

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