EPT
This review/assortment of random thoughts is many things, but it is not spoiler-free. Proceed at your own peril.
In Iron Man 3, Tony Stark must confront the dangers and hardships of his superheroism. While this theme is best addressed in other IPs (like Strong Female Protagonist), Iron Man 3 tells this story very well considering the constraints of the medium. In the opening shot, Tony describes the Iron Man armors as demons that he created, establishing a struggle between himself and the suits that lasts for the entire film. It quickly becomes clear that Tony fears his own mortality, particularly after his near-death experience during the alien attack in New York. Shockingly, Tony Stark doesn’t want to die, and he staves off his panic by devoting all of his time to creating newer and stronger Iron Man suits. However, his continued inability to sleep and frequent anxiety attacks illustrate that his diligence is a dependency that eats away at his sanity and his relationship. Iron Man 3 also addresses the dangers inherent to being a publicly-known superhero when Tony’s characteristic brashness nearly gets Pepper Potts and him blown to smithereens. As the film develops, Tony clearly remains nervous, but he learns to put more faith in himself and shed the “protective” armor that weighed him down. Tony’s growing self-confidence becomes evident when he MacGuyver’s an arsenal to storm a heavily-defended compound on his own. It also proves that Tony Stark doesn’t need Iron Man to be a fucking superhero. In the end, Tony escapes his obsession with his iron mask, and sacrifices all the suits (and his embedded Arc Reactor) to prove to Pepper (and himself) that he doesn’t need his technology to be Iron Man. And now he’s right.
Tony spends the movie soul-searching/kicking ass in a setting that doesn’t so much capture the media zeitgeist as beat us over the head with it. First off, the evil against which our heroes are pitted starts as Al’Queda-esque terrorism, extremely literal suicide bombings, and drug addiction and ends with corrupt corporations, manipulative media, and political betrayal. Essentially, the bad guys are a cornucopia of modern baddie buzzwords. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s certainly nothing you haven’t already seen. Nevertheless, I still winced watching the bombing scenes, which were fairly stressful considering recent events (people silhouettes… ughhhh). One would hope that such scenes would be framed in a more serious context than Iron Man 3 provides, but writers aren’t psychic and this is still a comic book movie. On the topic of evil, Guy Pearce plays a fantastic bad guy, combining the perfect amount of flirtatious hunk, cold genius, and complete lunatic in his portrayal of Aldritch Killian. One subplot/former Stark one night stand attempts to pose questions about scientific ethics, but this receives little resolution other than (maybe) “Tony did it right (in the first movie).” While the themes and ideas behind Iron Man 3 aren’t really anything groundbreaking, the movie isn’t really trying to be thought-provoking anyways. It’s just interesting to talk about.
On the other hand, Iron Man 3 delivers in spades on what we expect from the franchise: amazing action, offbeat comedy, and the antics of Tony Stark. This is an idealized superhero movie with fights and effects and set pieces that give you the “HOLY SHIT COOL” feeling all over. The movie’s climactic final confrontation is the pinnacle of Iron Man awesome, as nothing even approaches the cool factor of over forty unique armors duking it out with a squadron of superheated super soldiers. The film retained it’s traditional goofiness in the form of a barrage of one-liners from the entire cast, led by Downey Jr.’s perfect and ridiculous example. The most glorious (and unexpected) comic moment of the film is the outrageous Mandarin twist. Not many writers/directors would make the established/advertised villain into a practical joke, but, then again, we are talking about the guy who wrote Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Lethal Weapon. Sir Kingsley is great at being menacing, but he’s even better at being an oblivious British actor.* Finally, the best part of this movie (as usual) was Tony being Tony (or RDJ being Tony, both are accurate). Not only did the movie explore Stark’s fears, weaknesses, and doubts, it gave him ample time to simply be himself, and Robert Downey Jr. does that so fucking well. Tony Stark is likely the most enjoyable cinema superhero to date, and its all due to RDJ’s perpetually spectacular performance as the egomanical billionaire genius. Anyone who only needs Home Depot and/or a diner kitchen to kick ass is awesome in my book.
* This was especially good for someone who was incredibly confused as to why Ben Kingsley was playing a character called THE MANDARIN
Unfortunately, there are a few obnoxious parts of the movie that detract from the overall experience. The aims (see what I did there?) of Killian/The Mandarin never become really clear to the audience. While the movie establishes that Killian will own the war on terror when his plan is complete, it doesn’t demonstrate how that would be bad so much as show that he is super evil and lets us guess from there. The climax still managed to be climatic, but a more obvious arc would’ve helped. It was also unclear why the Extremis-infected soldiers became zombies/zealots (depending) under Killian’s employ. Mental enslavement wasn’t a symptom of the “enhancement,” and they didn’t have any other apparent motivation for following the madman. I’m also tired of the whole “sex-crazed fighting female” trope, and that was a thing that happened. Maya Hansen, the creator of the Extremis virus, got as little attention as the science-ethics storyline she accompanied, ending up as little more than a plot device before meeting an ungracious and abrupt end. Similarly, Paltrow’s Pepper Potts played a particularly paltry part in the grand scheme of the movie. Other than one moment of incredible badassery, Pepper sat on the sidelines, interacting little with the plot or her iron-clad lover. It was hard to buy into their supposedly loving and serious relationship, which was disheartening considering that their chemistry was one of the more entertaining parts of the original.
Any nitpicks aside, Iron Man 3 is a must-see movie for any fan of comic book movies, superhero flicks, or a good 140 minutes of action. It supersedes its immediate predecessor by far and even approaches (and perhaps exceeds) the quality of the first installment in the series. They wanted to make a more personal superhero movie? They did so with aplomb. They wanted a follow-up to the The Avengers and start the journey towards the next chapter? They perfected tied this film in with the Avengers canon (NO ONE FORGOT THE ALIENS) and prepared Tony Stark for his upcoming role in the next galactic conflict. Plus there’s a Mark Ruffalo cameo. Trust me when I say you should not miss Iron Man 3.
You can read this review and many other articles/posts/ramblings at the N3rd Dimension.
