Movie Review: Iron Man 3
Robert Downey, Jr. is back as Tony Stark in the three Iron Man movie. With last year’s The Avengers, this is the fourth full-length Iron Man movie starring Downey, Jr, and he was really made for this role. Without him, this would have been another generic action movie with big explosions and special effects. Downey, Jr. makes the movie fun and sets it apart from the rest of the pack.
With a new director, Iron Man 3 feels a lot different then the other installments. It’s not a bad thing, but even with the same characters, this just doesn’t feel like it’s part of the same series. Jon Favreau, who directed the first two, tried to make a superhero movie that still felt realistic and authentic. Newcomer to the series Shane Black, best know for writing such 1990’s hits as Lethal Weapon, Lethal Weapon 2, and also some real stinkers like Lethal Weapon and Lethal Weapon 4, throw realism out the window and goes for a more campy tone (he doesn’t go nearly as far as Joel Schumacher did with the third and forth Batman movies). The result is mixed. It gives the series a bit of a shot in the arm that is needed after Iron Man 2, which was a bit long and slow at times. But what I liked about the first movie is that despite the ridiculous premise, it “felt” real to me. This Iron Man may be no more ridiculous then the first, but it doesn’t feel that way.
The bad guys are really good, just as they were in the other two movies. Ben Kingsley does a great job in a relatively and suprisingly small role, and it’s great to see Guy Pierce back in a prominent role.
Some people will be annoyed by the fact that Tony Stark spends most of the movie on the run and without his Iron Man suit. In fact, he doesn’t have a fully functioning Iron Man suit until close to the end of the movie. For me this was a plus, as we got to see more of Downey, Jr., which is really what makes these movies great.
I liked this movie overall and would recommend it to anyone, but here’s hoping that Downey, Jr. makes another Sherlock Holmes movie before he dons the iron suit again.