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| Iron Man 3 (2013) |
First off, I'll say that I really love how this movie ties into The Avengers. Using post-traumatic stress as a driving force for Tony's actions is really smart, especially considering what he went through. I generally use this as an excuse for his not-so-smart actions through the film, predominantly giving his home address to a terrorist, which I don't see as a big deal, at least compared to everyone else. For me, it was a combination of PTSD, being emotional after what happened to Happy, and expecting to call the Mandarin's bluff. I know, I know, I shouldn't be defending this movie so soon and just focus on reviewing it. In any case, the way the movie ties in to not only The Avengers, but the past Iron Man movies is nice, and I also love how far the movie pushes Tony by the end. For the majority of the movie he's without an Iron Man suit, which I really love, since it removes Tony's first line of defence and forces him to be a hero without the suit, which really is the central theme of the movie. I especially love his interactions with the kid throughout this portion of the film. He doesn't pull his punches, it's all completely in character, and the two of them have legitimately excellent chemistry. Ty Simpkins is able to keep pace with Robert Downey Jr., and they're both excellent in this section, and the story beat also helps with that central message I mentioned earlier. It's about discovering who Tony is without the suit, which is something I really like, and while you know that by the end he's not going to stop being Iron Man, that's not really the point, though I'll get to that later.
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| Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark |
Robert Downey Jr. is once again excellent as Stark, and he continues to prove why he was ever the only choice for this character. Gwyneth Paltrow is still great as Pepper, though it is a little annoying that, for the first time, they resort to 'damsel-in-distress' with the character. It's not as bad as it could have been by the end, but it is a little unfortunate. As for Guy Pearce as Killian, I have mixed thoughts. The performance isn't bad, but I guess I'm just not the biggest fan of the character in general. It essentially boils down to yet another guy in a suit that Tony has to square off against, and while there is a little more to it than that, what this movie built up promised a little more. Speaking of which, Ben Kingsley as 'The Mandarin'. I'm gonna say that this is absolutely the point where you should stop reading if you don't want spoilers, but, yeah, the Mandarin is just an actor. Does it fly in the face of who the character was in the comics? Yes. Is it better for this story they're telling in this movie? Well... yes. I'm sorry, but I find the Extremis stuff more interesting than just terrorists, which is basically who Tony was dealing with for the bulk of Iron Man 1. It helps that Kingsley is extremely entertaining in this role, and he provides a lot of really great laughs. It's a funny movie in general, but Kingsley really delivered, particularly because it was so unexpected. The film successfully pulled the wool directly over my eyes, which is something I didn't think it could do, so, yeah, I'm okay with the direction they took here. Would I be as fine with it if I'd read the Iron Man comics growing up? Maybe not, but even then, you have to reconcile with the fact that for this particular story, it worked.
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| Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts |
This is also perhaps the most exciting and varied Iron Man movie, especially in the action department. All of the big action scenes really work here. The destruction of Tony's house is exciting and tense, and considering how much time we've spent in the mansion, its destruction really hits home. I also really love the way Extremis works to give Tony something to fight that's not just another palette swap of an Iron Man suit. It leads to a suspenseful fight in the middle of the movie, which especially works considering Tony is at his weakest here. But, let me just jump ahead to the two key highlights. The falling-out-of-the-plane scene is perhaps my favourite sequence in any Iron Man movie, and would certainly be a contender for Top 10 MCU moments, period. Not only is it an incredibly unique thing to see, but it's visually stunning, in that I genuinely believe it was filmed in freefall. It was suspenseful, exciting and thrilling to watch, and it's the kind of thing I never knew I always wanted to see Iron Man do. The final showdown is also really exciting, and completely unique to any other final fight scene I've experienced in a comic book movie, with Tony jumping from suit to suit, sometimes literally, with each suit having a slightly different functionality. It's easily the best third act of any Iron Man movie, and I don't really see how this can be considered a 'bad' movie with so many amazing elements like these in it.
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| Guy Pearce as Aldritch Killian |
I do want to briefly address a couple of criticisms that get thrown this movie's way. I've already stated my opinions on the Mandarin twist and Tony giving his home address to a terrorist, and I feel like I've justified myself about those particular 'issues', so I'll just move on from them. One big issue people have is why Tony doesn't activate the 'house-party protocols' as soon as he does give his address out. Again, I'd like to bring up that Tony thought he was calling the Mandarin's bluff and assumed, like a lot of terrorist organisations, that the Mandarin was all talk. Why he doesn't activate the protocols as soon as his house starts getting attacked is a genuine issue, but it's not as big as the former. The other big criticism people love to throw around is that Tony destroys all his suits at the end, yet continues being Iron Man in future movies. I feel like people really misinterpreted what that gesture was supposed to mean. Tony having so many suits was about micro-managing every little problem that could get thrown his way; a result of his PTSD. With the destruction of his suits, he's promising Pepper he won't obsess so much, and promises to deal with stuff as it comes, instead of preempting every conceivable disaster that could happen. This theme would continue into Age of Ultron, with Tony creating Ultron as a method for him to stop obsessing over it, allowing something else to deal with crises so Tony can be Tony more often. It doesn't work, but it does continue from what he learns in this movie. It's something that is constantly addressed throughout Tony's multiple appearances in the MCU, and if you think it boils down to something as simple as 'Tony destroyed his suits so he's no longer Iron Man', you're looking at it far too simplistically. It works as an emotional payoff to Tony's arc for the purposes of this story, and as a final chapter in the solo Iron Man movies, it's very effective.
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| Ty Simpkins as Harley |
Iron Man 3 (2013) isn't a perfect movie, but it's one that I genuinely love, and it's far from the lowest point of the MCU. I'm not saying that people who hate this movie are wrong, people will like what they like and hate what they hate. I've hopefully explained myself well enough. Please keep reading my reviews. 8.5/10.
Next, it's Thor: The Dark World.
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