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.
***
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
Next on sL: TBA
