The time has finally arrived and I did no less that watch Iron Man 3...two nights in a row. I watched it in regular 2D and 3D. There wasn't much of a difference honestly.
Synopsis:
Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) has made enemies. In this installment of the Iron Man franchise, Toby Stark battles the Mandarin, Sir Ben Kingsley, who has been supposedly bombing various locations in the United States. It turns out that the Mandarin is nothing more than a puppet to a man named Aldrich Killian( Guy Pearce) whom Tony Stark angered 13 years ago. Aldrich has used the help of the brilliant Maya Hansen, another person Tony Stark has burned in the past, to create Extremis. With Extremis, Aldrich controls former wounded soldiers to complete his conquest to monopolize the war on terror.
Pros:
I really enjoyed the films goal of showing that Tony Stark is more than a man in a suit. During the majority of the film he is without the Iron Man suit. He has to use his other skills to return home, rescue Pepper Potts, and defeat Aldrich Killian. He is either suit-less or in pieces of the suit during most of the movie. It reminds me of Captain America in The Avengers pointing out that without the suit, Tony Stark is nothing. Not true. Tony Stark proves it. I enjoyed his Home Alone-esque takedown of the enemy lair. I also enjoyed Ben Kingsley's performance as the Mandarin. He was both sinister during his depiction of the evil terrorist, and hilarious once we find that he was just a pawn.
I also love Pepper Potts character arc. She has become much more than Toby Starks secretary. The little boy, Harley, is also a delightful addiction.
Cons:
If you're a
loyal comic book fan, you probably won't appreciate what they've done to the Mandarin. They pretty much made him a parody of the true Mandarin and perhaps eliminated any chance of using that villain in a serious way. They perhaps overdid Tony's lack of a suit. Another thing...poor guy...I must say, this was the worst President ever. The President just seemed clueless and lost the entire film, and I really enjoyed William Saddler in The Shawshank Redemption.
All in all, I really enjoyed Iron Man 3. It was full of action, had a believable story, and it was full of laughs.
Best line of the movie:
As Tony Stark goes through the villains lair, he fights various goons. One of them holds his hands up and drops his gun when approached by Stark.
He says, "Honestly, I don't even like working here. These people are really weird."
Hilarious!
Catch Iron Man 3 in theaters today!
I enjoyed IM3 immensely as well and it's in the discussion as an early favorite movie of the year. I didn't follow the comics closely but could definitely see fanboys being upset with Mandarin. I thought that Tony Stark just being Tony Stark with the kid and Rhodes were the strongest scenes and let RDj shine with his characteristic snarky style.
ReplyDeleteMy minor complaint was the final fight scene. Having 40 or more Iron Men computer controlled suits made the battle against the super soldiers feel anti-climatic because what could possibly stand up to that?! Heck if Tony had been on the ball building suits a year earlier, we wouldn't have even needed the Avengers initiative! It could have just been multiple Iron Men!
Overall a most worthy final trilogy chapter and more enjoyable than 2 was.