Iron Man 3: Review

Standing as the first film to serve as a sequel to two film franchises, Iron Man 3 is ambitious, challenging, and unprecedented in its execution.

“Nothing’s been the same since New York,” says Tony Stark in the trailer for Iron Man 3, and it’s easy to see that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has indeed changed dramatically ever since a fallen and embittered Norse God opened a wormhole in the Manhattan sky and summoned a tribe of Chitauri (and three giant robot-snakes) to take down the human race.

Marvel films have carved a name into fun and light film-making, even the first Iron Man, with its roots planted firmly into the ground, managed to be elevate itself to true comedy with Robert Downey Jr.’s charismatic performance.

Now it’s five years later, and since it’s a follow up to the Iron Man franchise and the Avengersfranchise, Iron Man 3 carried the distinct burden of its predecessor by being forced to acknowledge and fit into a much larger universe at hand.

The film begins with a flash backward to the 90s (as introduced by the nostalgia-inducing “I’m Blue”) to establish a few long lost friends of Tony’s. From there, we’re catapulted to a terrorism-torn present, complete with a shell-shocked Tony, still traumatized by the events ofThe Avengers.

Having seen the type of power that he’ll never be able to have, Tony has been busy tinkering in his workshop on a number of different suits. Everything has changed since the first Iron Man installment. Pepper is the CEO of Stark Industries, Happy is head of security, and a terrorist named The Mandarin is making headlines for a string of explosive attacks on the American population.

These changes are the ones that come easy, but Iron Man 3 departs from the first two of the series in several ways. First of all, it is distinctly a Shane Black film, from the opening monologue from Robert Downey Jr. to the Christmas-time setting. Secondly, the movie uses levity as a tool to move things along. There are plenty of dazzling special effects set-pieces, elaborate set-ups, and jaw-dropping surprises at work here, all of them based in comedy.

In short, when it comes to comic book movies, Iron Man 3 takes “comic” and runs with it.

It’s easily the funniest of the new-age Marvel films, Robert Downey Jr.’s performance still shines brightly as the main attraction of the film, but with a new director, a new parent company, and a new world-view for Tony, the film stands as a marked departure from the franchise.

Iron Man 3 asks a few important questions about the power of corporations, the place of the media in the worldwide fear machine, and the politics of terrorism, but it never takes the time to provide the hard answers to its own questions. All of these questions merely serve as a backdrop to the much larger and more superhero-y story at play, and the insistence to not take itself seriously shifts the importance of relevance in favor of accessibility.

Expectation unfortunately plays a crucial role in the future of the films related to the Avengersfranchise, very similar to the comparisons that past and future Star Wars films will be forced to endure. If considered outside of the larger universe at play (which, we suppose would be even more difficult since the events of The Avengers and the first two Iron Man films play directly into the film’s plot), then Iron Man 3 is a fascinating experiment concerning what kind of film that a comic book movie can be.

We won’t deliver any spoilers here, but the translation of the new characters in this iteration become the face of what Iron Man 3 is, and as the characters evolve throughout the course of the film, new questions arise, as do new villains and non-villains, most serving an opportunity to be used as comedic relief. Even the ever-entertaining action set-pieces move along with a series of comedic beats.

A trained eye will be able to see the Disney’s sticky mouse prints all over this thing (we counted 42 brand new toys to collect, a number of “there’s the money shot” smiles from the children in the cast, and a show-stopping Verizon FIOS commercial planted directly into the denouement of the film), but if you’re able to see through the nonsense and into the heart of the film, you’ll at least have a fun time at the theater.

Just like any other Shane Black film out there, Iron Man 3 is a very funny thrill ride, with a hint of buddy-action-comedy and a dash of we-won’t-take-ourselves-too-seriously. In the scope of the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s just a pit stop, but a worthy pit stop nonetheless.

Source: Hypable