Review: Iron Man 3 (2013)
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Guy Pearce
Director: Shane Black
Country: USA
Genre: Action | Sci-Fi | Thriller
Official Trailer: Here
Editor’s Notes: Iron Man 3 opens tomorrow, May 3rd. For an alternative take, see David’s review. If you’ve already seen the film we’d love to hear your thoughts on it, or if you’re looking forward to seeing it this weekend, please tell us in the comments section below or in our new Next Projection Forums.
If the original Iron Man was a rollicking, mildly transgressive blast of superhero movie madness, and Iron Man 2 was a wheel-spinning reiteration of the same old elements, then Iron Man 3 is the creative jolt that saves the day, providing real emotional depth for its jet-setting smarm-hero and resetting his course for legitimate comic-inspired heroism. Like all Iron Man films, it’s kind of a wild rollercoaster of witty banter and slam-bang action ingenuity, but it mines the humanity of its titular hero in a way its predecessors seemed to laugh off. It was always evident that there was a tortured soul toiling underneath the bright buzz of the arc reactor; Iron Man 3 is the first film in the franchise to recognize that, too.
That recognition owes no small debt to Joss Whedon, who first handed Tony Stark a self-sacrificial challenge in The Avengers, the aftermath of which becomes the basis for this film’s story. After finding the will to put his life on the line for the greater good, Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) finds that surviving the risk comes with its own set of pitfalls. He is haunted by memories of the Avengers struggle and plagued with visions of what other evil might still be lurking. Having committed to a woman for the first time in his life, Tony’s love for one-time assistant and new Stark Industries president Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) is actually propelling him to alienate himself from her. Instead of spending time with his ladylove, Tony spends his insomniac hours isolated in his lab, devising elaborate new ways to protect her. There are countless new gadgets, most notably an Iron Man suit that, when pinged by censors embedded in Stark’s arms, fly from any distance to snap securely onto Stark’s body.
It was always evident that there was a tortured soul toiling underneath the bright buzz of the arc reactor; Iron Man 3 is the first film in the franchise to recognize that, too.
“Fly from any distance to snap securely onto Stark’s body?” you might be asking. “I know this is a superhero movie, but what kind of twisted comic logistics must be applied for something like that to make sense?” Yeah, I asked myself the same question during the film. There are others, too… like how Tony, who finds himself in a sleepy Tennessee town to investigate the roots of The Mandarin’s (Ben Kingsley) reign of terror, stranded with a broken down Mark 42 suit and no lines of communication, manages to scramble the resources to not only craft a variety of microgizmos but also travel to Miami with said gizmos in order to raid The Mandarin’s compound without the aid of the famous suit.
Those are the kinds of logic sacrifices Iron Man 3 is willing to make in order to allocate enough time to fulfill its primary purpose: to give us the Tony Stark character study we’ve been wanting since the original film in 2008. The surface sheen of Marvel’s bastion of suave charm and countless vices is endlessly entertaining for its brashness, but in order to engage with the character for four whole movies (and presumably beyond), we have to see the surface crack and get a peek into what drives the man inside. Whedon started the ball rolling with his conclusion to The Avengers, though with a cast so sprawling, there was no time to fill in the details. Shane Black, who took over directing duties from Jon Favreau and co-wrote the screenplay with Drew Pearce, has the time, and he spends most of it not on Iron Man, but on Tony Stark.
The action here is better than it was in Iron Man 2, though that’s not so much a matter of superior filmmaking as it is giving the audience a stake in the action. Having finally been given an insight into what makes Tony Stark tick, we have much more at stake when the metal starts clanging.
Iron Man 3 shifts its creative juices to focus almost solely on the Stark pathos. We are no longer mere bystanders to Tony’s wit and charm, but participants in his internal struggle. The mythic psychological character study bears some resemblance to the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films, though this franchise nevertheless maintains its own edgy, cynical tone. Stark narrates his plight with equal parts snarky wit and wounded vulnerability; he is striving to reconcile his status as a worldwide hero with his inward fear of failing the one person he truly cares for, Pepper. To make matters worse, The Mandarin—possibly aided by Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), an uber-genius whom Tony once snubbed—takes square aim at Tony, destroying his palatial Malibu estate and leaving him without the technology that simultaneously makes him famous and makes his festering nerves settle.
The action here is better than it was in Iron Man 2, though that’s not so much a matter of superior filmmaking as it is giving the audience a stake in the action. Having finally been given an insight into what makes Tony Stark tick, we have much more at stake when the metal starts clanging. So it’s a little easier to forgive the narrative shortcuts that this already-far-fetched superhero saga takes, because we realize they are shortcuts to a far more fulfilling destination.
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