Iron Man 3 Review

Posted on December 23, 2013

The Marvel Cinematic Universe started with Iron Man back in 2008 and led the The Avengers which is the highest grossing film of all time. Robert Downey Jr has brought Tony Stark to life and there is no doubt that people love this character so much. Robert Downey Jr has portrayed Tony Stark 5 times including a brief cameo in The Incredible Hulk and will reprise the role in Avengers: Age Of Ultron. Something has surprised me about the standalone Iron Man films. People love the character of Tony Stark but find the films a bit rubbish. I did think Iron Man was good and I think the series is decent but they are not without its flaws. Iron Man 3 for me has a great many flaws which  I will discuss.

First of all Tony Stark is an eccentric billionaire, playboy. philanthropist and is a narcissist and overly arrogant. Iron Man 3 went for a much darker tone similar to what Christopher Nolan did with his Batman trilogy. I do think this was a mistake to make Tony Stark a darker and weary character. I think Marvel have lighter tones to their films and have a great deal of comic relief. Seeing someone we love suddenly become weary may be interesting for some but not for all. I think Tony is this film was too depressing and even though the film had its lighter moments it was aiming for a darker tone.

The plot for me is nothing special and seems to be not much more than a simple revenge movie. The plot does deviate quite a lot and the film is full of plot holes. I do not like discussing plot holes as frankly we are not watching real life and nothing is perfect so I can let most plot holes go. Part of the film sees Tony Stark turn up in Tennessee and the world presumes that he is dead. I feel that these scenes had no relevance whatsoever and were forced upon the audience.

One of the major issues with the film is the Mandarin plot twist. Now this is a SPOILER so if you have not seen the film or are aware of the twist then I suggest you stop reading. However I assume most people have seen this by now or at least heard about the outrage of the plot twist. Anyway, the trailers showed us that Ben Kingsley is portraying The Mandarin but after Tony and Rhodes raid his compound they discover that he is a fake and is a British actor who is working for the real villain Alrdich Killian played by Guy Pearce. I guess it was an interesting plot choice but I was really upset that they changed the Mandarin. Killian also later claims to be the real Mandarin and sports a dragon tattoo. However there is a rumor going around that Ben Kingley is working on a short marvel film in which he plays the real Mandarin. That would be cool if it turns out to be true.

The action sequences in the film are cool and I was surprised to see them done so well with Shane Black directing as he has not directed a film of this scale before. However because of what Iron Man is some of the fight sequences seem a bit too faced paced and I feel that audiences will not get to savor how good the fights are. However I am sure fans were happy to see fight scenes in such a large scale.

I do give some credit to the film as although the other Avengers are not in the film we do not miss them. I feel that Tony Stark is interesting on his own to carry a movie and to be honest he is the main character of The Avengers films. I do think that this film gives Rhodes a lot more to do and I feel that his character was underused in both the previous Iron Man films. Don Cheadle does not steal the show but he plays an interesting contrast to Tony which I think audiences did enjoy.

Overall I do think that this film did a decent job and is no doubt entertaining. I know that die hard fans do not like it as they feel that it betrayed the original content of the comic. This is more like a sequel to The Avengers than Iron Man 2 and I suspect the  action taken by Tony at the end of the movie will lead to the events of Age Of Ultron. Until I see that I cannot really say much but I do think this film has a great deal of relevance to the next Avengers film.

6.5/10

What did you think of the film? Please comment below and thanks for reading.