Iron Man 3 [2013]

You’re probably wondering why am I reviewing Iron Man 3, and if not, you should because I usually skip all of the superhero movies. Not because I don’t watch them, but quite the opposite, I consider them “common knowledge” movies that you are going to see anyways. But sometimes I just share my thoughts about the last movie in the franchise, although the word last should be taken with caution considering that the Iron Man 3 was a huge financial success. Along with Sherlock Holmes, this movie propelled Robert Downey Jr. as a huge movie star with flocks of fans. The special effects were perfectly paced with ever increasing intensity and scope, and they are not so distracting as they were in Transformers. The story is great, with enough twists and turns to keep you interested, although sometimes the scenes can be vomit-inducing big-budget ‘murica themed.

I neatly recapped the franchise for my girlfriend in a couple of sentences, so I will do the same for you: Tony Stark is a billionaire arms manufacturer who, after being captured by terrorist, builds a special suit of armor that helps him escape. Apart from the suit, he also built a reactor and placed it in his chest to stop the shrapnel from a bomb getting to his heart (I know…). That’s the basic setting, and through the course of three movies, he will have to fight all kinds of different villains. Namely, The Mandarin, Osama-looking bad guy who wants to teach a western world a lesson…

The critical reception of this movie was fairly negative, citing under-developed characters, disjointed story and an accent on the action. For those exact same reasons, I would say that this movie is worth watching, it survived the dreaded Rabbit’s Saturday Viewing (this involves copious amounts of food, beer and weed), proving that it’s interesting enough. Even to people who never heard of Iron Man, let alone read the comic books. They will find action and a human aspect to the whole superhero thing. The thing that fascinated me was the usage of holograms and technology that’s supposed to be live within the next decade. You can actually watch this movie to see what kind of gimmicks will be available in the near future. Of course, some things are still pretty much science fiction or in very early stages of development. The most accurate description of the Iron Man 3 gave its director Shane Black: he described the film as “a Tom Clancy thriller”, with the focus on real-world type villains and not “two men in iron suits fighting each other”.

Director: Shane Black

Writer: Shane Black, Drew Pearce

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Ben Kingsley, Jon Favreau, Paul Bettany

Fun Facts: At 130 minutes, this is the longest stand-alone Iron Man film.

Rating:

IMDb Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1300854/