Iron Man 3 [Review]

Having appeared in two initial films and the Marvel-fanboy-geek fest that was The Avengers Robert Downey Jr is back as Tony Stark, master of many suits of iron. In this second sequel Stark finds himself facing up to the evil terrorist the Mandarin but finding his past coming back to haunt him in the shape of another enemy and an extreme technology that gives people the ability to regenerate, appropriately labelled ‘Extremesis’.

Thankfully ‘Iron Man Three’ (as it’s stylised) is far better than the copycat and lacklustre second film in the series and much better than ‘The Avengers’, a film I have gone against the grain about by the fact I didn’t enjoy it, feeling it was more like watching a video game.

It’s also the best use of an Eiffel 65 song in a film yet. Not that there’s much competition.

But, just in the way that Downey Jr shone in that collaboration film, it is also here that he makes the character his own. The script sparkles with humour and there is an interesting enough plot to keep it going. The CGI is very well done and there are some strong action sequences but it’s the lead actor that keeps it going, aided by a well written script that doesn’t dismiss the events of ‘The Avengers’ but shows their immense effect on the man in the iron mask.

But credit should also go to Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin who is the best character in the piece due to a tongue-in-cheek development that emerges half-way through and Kingsley’s ability to play the character up. Gwyneth Paltrow also gets filled out as a character, though a possible emotional conclusion is reversed in a signposted chickening-out moment that the film shouldn’t have done.

The Mandarin aside, there are a few other subtle twists and turns during the two hours that make you question what you are seeing and, though it may seem a cliché, the multitude of suits in the piece are animated with character and add to the moments of humour scattered throughout the piece.

It’s not a perfect film. The ending is a little bit too whizz-bang for its own good, the ‘Iron Patriot’ and the use of the term Extremis put in for name-checks and little else, and overall it lacks the solidness of the original Spider-man films or the re-booted Batman flicks, but its witty script, solid effects and strong plot certainly make this one of the better comic book films. It’s just a shame that it feels out of place in the May schedules with lots of references to Christmas which, even if explained away as ‘A Christmas Carol’ parallel, feel extraneous to the plot and just stand out as odd.

Overall, though, ‘Iron Man Three’ is a fun, well written and composed film that holds your interest for two hours. Not quite as good as the first – by a whisker – but one of the strongest comic book films committed to celluloid. Just don’t bother waiting until the end of the credits for the closing scene; it’s not really worth it.

(6.5/10)