Iron Man 3 Movie Review: Third Time’s The Charm!

In Hollywood, the announcement of a third part of a franchise or a “Threequel” as most would call it, is usually cause for dread, the reason being that even some of the greatest movie franchises have met their doom at the hands of the dreaded Part 3! Except for a few exceptional franchises like the Bourne trilogy, Toy Story, LOTR, Indiana Jones etc, most franchises have collapsed for reasons being quite varied like a change in director (X-Men: The Last Stand), Lack of a new story to be told (The Godfather 3, Spiderman 3), or even money grabbers (The Mummy: Curse Of The Dragon Emperor). Luckily, Iron Man 3 ends up being the final piece in what has been a rather enjoyable albeit a tad inconsistent trilogy.

The plot of Iron Man 3 takes off with a flashback set in Bern at the turn of the millennium (With Blue by Eiffel 65 playing for good measure) where we are reminded of what a piece of work Pre-Iron Man Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) used to be, successful with the ladies, and a prick to everybody else. It then moves to the current scenario which picks up from where The Avengers left off, with Tony suffering from PTSD thanks to a little trip into a wormhole and back. The very mention of New York is enough to give him palpitations, and this ends up causing friction with his girlfriend Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and best friend Col Rhodes (Don Cheadle) too. To complicate things, Tony ends up in the middle of an international conspiracy involving an enigmatic terrorist “The Mandarin” (Ben Kingsley) and an old and bitter business rival Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce). All this builds up to a rather explosive and dramatic climax.

The first thing you notice about the movie is how different the overall tone of the movie and the treatment of the story is, compared to its predecessors. Shane Black who was once the highest paid screenwriter in Hollywood, was instrumental in resurrecting Robert Downey Jr’s career with the sharply written Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005), handles the directorial reins much more surely than Jon Favreau. He also brings in his trademark style involving a rapidly paced plot and some razor sharp lines. But, even he ends up being unable to rescue a rather lacklustre final act of the movie. While the movie starts off pretty well, and is an enjoyable experience for the most, it tends to get rather slow and bloated towards the end and may test the patience of viewers who aren’t distracted by metal on metal action.

The cast is in top form as always, Robert Downey Jr is crackling and gets the best lines. Ben Kingsley as The Mandarin and Guy Pearce as Killian are worthy adversaries to Iron Man, especially Kingsley who turns in a hell of a performance. Don Cheadle too is in excellent form as the comic foil to Tony Stark. The ladies here don’t have much to do, though Gwyneth Paltrow gets her chance to kick some ass in the climax. Among the supporting cast, a mention must be made of James Badge Dale as Killian’s menacing henchman and of Ty Simpkins who plays the precocious brat Harley who ends up helping Iron Man out of a spot of trouble.

While Iron Man 3 tries to take a deeper and more meaningful look at the relationship between Tony Stark and the suit that makes him Iron Man, it doesn’t forget that it’s ultimately a summer blockbuster and ends up being bang for your buck. However, those viewers who have been spoiled by Christopher Nolan’s more story oriented approach will find the movie a tad difficult to sit through. Also, the 3D effects are rather mediocre and the viewers would be better off watching this in 2D.