Iron Man 3


This is the kind of movie summer movies ought to be chock full of.

I've heard an awful lot about how bad "IM2" was.  Not personally from actual people, but online in reviews and what-have-you.  I loved "IM2".  It portrayed RJD's Tony Stark as an egotistical, way-too-proud-of-himself megalomaniac that would probably beset him had he actually done the things he did in the first "Iron Man".  He's one of the smartest, richest, most clever people on earth.  How else would you expect a guy to turn out?  That movie's main villain, Whiplash, played just fine by Mickey Rourke, along with Justin Hammer (played furiously good by Sam Rockwell), fit the bill for a followup for me.  The icing on that cake was in the form of Scarlett Johanssen's Black Widow.  The main annoyance of that movie for me was the shameless AC/DC plugs throughout.  I'm a traditionalist when it comes to movies for the most part.  I like a good score as opposed to a pop rock soundtrack.

IM3 pretty much takes the cake with the franchise though.  Jon Favreau, director of the first two films, was canned in favor of Shane Black, most famous for the success of the 'Lethal Weapon' franchise.  Looking at IM3, you get the impression that Marvel/Disney gave him a blank check to spend whatever he wanted to get whatever he wanted.  And what we get is a lot of bombast, furiousity, and adrenaline laced battles that don't let up until the show's over.  What IM3 has that perhaps its predecessor lacked is less jokey ha-ha content and more depth with the plot and it's numerous twists, the biggest of which I won't spoil.  I do have to say though that I laughed pretty hard when the big reveal came and I just did not see it coming.  The villains in this movie are played nicely by a number of characters, some not so familiar, some plenty familiar though.  Ben Kingsley paints a portrait of the big Iron Man baddie Mandarin, pretty much the Green Goblin to Spiderman.  Guy Pearce makes a great turn as Alrich Killian, delivering Stark his biggest threat to losing his love interest in Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). 

There's a ton of edge-of-your-seat action here that actually is anchored in plot points that matter.  There's not a whole lot of wasted screen time by anyone here, except for one twist in Paltrow's character that actually made me groan a little and kind of spoiled what could have made this a great film, shading it into very, very good territory instead.  Make no mistake though, this is a comic book film with a comic book sensibility that asks you to stretch your capacity for belief, or suspend it altogether.  That being said, fans of the comic might be somewhat disappointed in the Mandarin because of its take on the character.  Those familiar with Iron Man because of the movies only, though, will surely be thrilled.

This movie is most certainly Smooth Gravy.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Awesome review I loved the movie

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