Review: Iron Man 3 (2012)

By Doug Heller
May 4, 2013 Reviews 3 Comments

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Cast: , ,
Director: Shane Black
Country: USA
Genre: Action | Sci-Fi | Thriller
Official Trailer: Here

Editor’s Notes: Iron Man 3 opens today, May 3rd. For an alternative take, see David’s review.

Iron Man 3 (2013) is the sequel Iron Man (2008) deserved in place of Iron Man 2 (2010).  Its primary focus is on the characters instead of action, though there is plenty of that as well.  The story begins with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) unable to cope with the events seen in The Avengers (2012).  He is unable to sleep and spends his time in his workshop making model after model of Iron Man suit (he’s up to Mark 43 now, I believe he was on Mark VII in The Avengers) while his now live-in girlfriend/former assistant/apparently still CEO or some kind of high position in Stark Enterprises Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) runs the company and frets about him.   Coming out of his seclusion for a minute, Stark turns on the television and sees that there have been several terrorist attacks being claimed by The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley).

Iron Man 3 (2013) is the sequel Iron Man (2008) deserved in place of Iron Man 2 (2010).  Its primary focus is on the characters instead of action, though there is plenty of that as well.

At the same time, Pepper is at Stark Enterprises speaking to an old boss, Aldrich Killian (Guy Pierce) about a project, Extremis, he has developed with AIM, his thinktank, the creation of which was discussed in a flashback of Tony’s to New Year’s Eve 1999 when Killian approached he and Maya Hansen, who is played by Rebecca Hall.  Maya is developing a process that will alter DNA so plants and eventually humans can heal themselves perfectly, even replace lost limbs.  Killian wants Stark money to develop it further and put it on the market.  Pepper feels that it could be weaponized and therefore passes on the investment.

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Truth is that AIM has been testing Extremis on people and it has had disastrous effects, making people into living incendiary bombs, which The Mandarin is using for his terrorist attacks.  This is witnessed by Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau, reprising his role), but it puts him in a coma so he can’t tell Tony his discovery.  Tony vows revenge against The Mandarin and is stupid enough to give his address, which is then blown up by helicopters during a visit from Maya seeking help from Tony to stop Killian and solve the instability problem in her design.  During the attack, Pepper and Maya escape and Tony gets into his new Iron Man suit and flies away unnoticed and is therefore presumed dead.

He ends up in Tennessee due to Jarvis (once again wonderfully voiced by Paul Bettany) plotting a flight plan there because it was the site of a non-Mandarin claimed thermal explosion discovered by Tony and Jarvis while trying to get a pattern or just what the bombs were (they knew it was a thermal explosion but no bomb remnants were ever left at the scene).  Since Jarvis had been damaged during the battle at the mansion, he just flew to the last place they’d discussed.  The suit is in ruins and Tony has to rely on himself without Jarvis or any of his technology to help him.  This is where the film gets its heart.  Tony’s just a guy now, no suit to protect him, and he meets Harley (Ty Simpkins), a 10-12 year old boy who discovers Tony in his garage.  He helps Tony in lots of ways, not just providing a place for him to stow his suit until he can fix it.

Of course, Rhodey is in the picture too played again by Don Cheadle.  He’s now War Machine full time for the military, but he’s been rebranded to be the Iron Patriot and has a spiffy new red white and blue paintjob to go with the new name.  Apparently, War Machine sounded a little too aggressive.  He is captured by Killian (who is in league with The Mandarin) and the suit is then used to kidnap the President (William Sadler in a rare, non-villainous role).

The story is solid and maintains itself throughout its long running time of 130 minutes.  That’s rare for a film lately, having enough story to sustain a long running time.  And as much plot as there is, there is also tons of room for character development and the series trademark humor.

At this point, I can no longer continue with the plot description because it would give away too much and I don’t want to ruin the surprise, because it’s a pretty good one.  Admittedly the plot is convoluted, but that is a staple of films based on comic books, which are (no disrespect, I collected comics for a long time and remain a fan if not a consumer) illustrated soap operas focusing on people with extraordinary powers and abilities.  This film is adapted from an actual Iron Man storyline from several years ago titled Extremis (there’s a pretty good motion comic put out by Marvel Knights).  The story is solid and maintains itself throughout its long running time of 130 minutes.  That’s rare for a film lately, having enough story to sustain a long running time.  And as much plot as there is, there is also tons of room for character development and the series trademark humor.  Tony is in a bad place in his life because he cannot process the events he took part in while in New York with The Avengers.  He is now having panic attacks whenever he thinks of it or someone mentions the city (which Harley does frequently until he sees what effect it has on Tony).  This gives Downey more room to explore Stark than did The Avengers or Iron Man 2 because he is vulnerable, not just because of his newfound panic but because he is without his tech that has saved him so many times before.  Downey gets to play the man of Stark unburdened by shareholders, the press or his friends.  The freedom Stark has lets him remember who he is, without the suit.  He ultimately concludes that he is Iron Man…with or without the suit.

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Favreau steps aside as director and gives the reigns to Shane Black, who also co-wrote the screenplay.  Black is best known for penning Lethal Weapon (1987) and writing and directing Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) where he first worked with Robert Downey Jr.   Knowing this is to know where a lot of the wit and verbal interplay comes from in Iron Man 3, but it’s really not so different from the other films.  Just this time recaptures the freshness and vigorousness of Iron Man and sidesteps the sequel blues that was Iron Man 2.  Apparently Favreau stepped down as director because he did not know how to accurately portray The Mandarin in the Iron Man universe he started, which is more realistic.  The Mandarin is a man with magical powers in the comics, so putting that into a realistic setting doesn’t really work.  The Mandarin in this film is radically different from the one in the books and it is in that change that he ceases to be as dangerous and terrifying as he could have been.  Realizing that Iron Man is in the same universe as Thor (2011) and The Avengers (2012) both using magic, other dimensions and aliens, it would be easy to create The Mandarin as he should have been.  If I have a gripe about the characters, that’s it.

Iron Man 3 ultimately succeeds on levels that many sequels, especially Iron Man 2, fail on.  Instead of taking the characters as given and not bothering to do anything with them outside of put them into more dangerous situations than the last film, as kind of a one-up on the previous installment.  It’s true that Iron Man 3 does up the ante on the previous films, but in a natural progression of events in the life of the character, not some invention of the filmmakers sitting around a room saying “How about we do this to him? That’s way bigger than what happened to him the last time!”  The situation is organic and completely fits with the character of Tony Stark and what he will get himself into.  I think that’s the highest praise I can offer the film, that it is organic to the characters and never really strains to maintain itself.  It also thankfully breaks the streak of Iron Man having to fight someone else in an Iron Man type suit at the end, which was a very welcome change for me.

89/100 ~ GREAT. Iron Man 3 ultimately succeeds on levels that many sequels, especially Iron Man 2, fail on. The film does up the ante on the previous films, but in a natural progression of events in the life of the characters and never really strains to maintain itself.

By Doug Heller
Sr. Staff Film Critic: I believe film occupies a rare place as art, entertainment, historical records and pure joy. I love all films, good and bad, from every time period with an affinity to Classical Hollywood in general, but samurai, sci-fi and noir specifically. My BA is in Film Studies from Pitt and my MA is in Education. My goal is to be able to ignite a love of film in others that is similar to my own.
  • http://twitter.com/JessFortunato Jessica Fortunato

    Thank you for solving a major mystery for me. I found the narrative at the beginning and end of the movie to be so similar to that in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, I thought I was over-analyzing. Now knowing the same person wrote both, it makes total sense. It seemed awkward in this movie though.

  • Doug Heller

    It is unless you stay through the credits. The epilogue explains why there is a voice-over, which makes it make total sense.

  • http://www.facebook.com/bryan.murray.33 Bryan Murray

    I really enjoyed this one … especially with all the old film references