Iron Man 3

‘Iron Man 3’ Review

(Warning: Slight spoilers ahead)

That’s it folks, the summer movie season has official kicked off!

Iron Man 3 has arrived in theaters and it’s already shattering box office records internationally and getting pretty great reviews. To be quite honest, I wasn’t quite sure how the sequel was going to turn out. The trailers made it look like a slightly more serious take on the Iron Man story. Instead it is actually kind of the opposite. Iron Man 3 is far and away the funniest in the series. With high octane action and one liners that would make its comic book forefathers proud.

Iron Man 3 focuses on Tony Stark after the events of The Avengers. Stark is adjusting to living in a world full of gods, superheroes, secret organizations and other dimensions. Stark is stripped down here, he feels vulnerable for the first time and Robert Downey Jr pulls off another great, layered performance. This iteration was also a massive step up villain-wise from the first two films. Jeff Bridges was a bit underwhelming in the first film and Sam Rockwell/ Mickey Rourke were brutally underutilized in Iron Man 2.

Iron Man 3, on the other hand, uses both Guy Pearce and Sir Ben Kingsley to great effect. Kingsley is assured as he has always been playing The Mandarin, and through a really fun albeit strange twist, manages to do a whole lot with the role. Guy Pearce, however, really steals scenes as the first villain who actually seems a match for Iron Man.

The movie isn’t without its flaws, however. Often times the action is so bombarding it can become exhausting, but then again that is a staple of summer blockbuster films. Sometimes the story was rushed in order to get to the next action scene, but that may just be due to how much there is to take in from this film.

The action is very much on par with other recent super hero outings. It may not be as huge as The Avengers but it’s a bit unfair to compare those two since Iron Man is a part of the Avengers. There were a few scenes of action that literally made my jaw drop. Watching Iron Man nab a dozen people falling out of a plane was super intense and the effects as a whole were just awe inspiring.

In terms of the entire trilogy I would say that this film is as good as, if not better than, the first Iron Man. Though I find Iron Man 3 to be the superior overall film, it is hard to compare it to a film like Iron Man that had the impact of being the first truly great super hero film that didn’t resort to the Dark Knight style of dark storytelling. In terms of which one I would rather watch again, Iron Man 3 is the easy choice.

With Marvel Phase 2 kicking off in such an epic way, I find myself anticipating the upcoming Thor and Captain America sequels more and more. Though it will be difficult for those two films to match up the grand daddy of the Marvel universe, I hold out hope that they will attempt to keep one upping each other.

Have a great summer at the movies! Iron Man 3 opens everywhere today!

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