What did we think?
Coming off The Avengers (2012), which nothing short of a miracle, it was tough to judge what would happen to this film. It was new ground – how do you come off a blockbuster, and go back to one character? Iron Man 3 manages to pull it off. Clunky parts prevent it from being a perfect film, but there’s enough style and fun on show here to make it a success.
What helps is that they made a Tony Stark film. Robert Downey Jr was such a big star, and although happy to be just one of the Avengers, was wanting to do more in what would end up being the last Iron Man film. So we get so much Stark out of the suit, and it’s great.
The action sequences are stunning. Marvel upped the budget after the success of Avengers, and considering how long these films take to make, it would have gone into special effects. The Air Force One scene and the final battle are technical marvels – inventive and exciting.
It’s not perfect. The villains are terrible, and it has now surfaced that the villains changed after production began. Do they have a plan at all? Is Killian actually The Mandarin? Is the problem with Extremis solved now? We can safely grow limbs, right? Trevor Slattery was hilarious though.
There’s not much for Pepper, Rhodey or Happy to do either. The film doesn’t really suffer for it. But they only get less screen time from here. And The Iron Patriot was just a paint job.
But if some of those big things don’t work, the small stuff did. Black is such a great scriptwriter, and the film is filled with small moments of cinematic magic. From the sweetness of Harley, Tony dragging the suit through snow, Tony not understanding guns, the big bunny. Lots of memorable bits, more than they needed.
What’s sad was it turns out this is the final Iron Man film. Perhaps a 4th could come in Phase 4, and Stark is around. But there’s another world with the adventures of Tony, Pepper and Happy that ends here. Black and the team actually tie things together nicely, completing the trilogy. But this one made us not want that story to end.
Best bits
- That Air Force One stunt.
- The big fight at the end.
- Small town sweetness with Halley. We missed the small level stuff.
- The whole Shane Black-ness of it all.
- The gadget fight
Not best bits
- Why does Tony Stark ever put on the suit at all? I guess Ultron, but still.
- Killian’s motivation seems especially stupid, even for Marvel.
- Mandarin/Trevor is kind of stupid.
- Iron Patriot is pretty stupid.
- So – did we just invent a way for people to grow limbs or what?