IRON MAN 3 (review)

By Stefan Blitz

There are few actors that have embraced a role so fully as Robert Downey Jr. and Tony Stark.  And in his fifth big screen appearance as Stark (Yes, I’m counting his cameo in The Incredible Hulk), the character for the first time seems real.

Establishing the backstory in 1999 (with a clever cameo of Shaun Toub reprising his role as Ho Yinsen from the first film) and then jumping to the present, several months past the events of The Avengers, the film immediately establishes a very different Tony Stark.

Sleepless, obsessed, wrought with panic attacks, Stark is a changed man.  Vulnerable for the first time onscreen, Stark is no longer the cocky asshole and instead is trying to make sense of his place and purpose.

When an international terrorist known as The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) commits a series of horrible attacks, Tony volunteers his services to Rhodey (Don Cheadle), who has been rebranded as Iron Patriot.  At the same time, we catch up with a character introduced back in 1999, Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), a scientist who pitches his Extremis project to Tony’s love, Stark Industries CEO Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow).  Killian has a plan to rewire DNA and wants Pepper’s support.  She declines, fearful of it’s possible weaponization.  And so it begins…

Without going into spoiler territory, Iron Man 3 might be my favorite of any of the Marvel Studios releases.  Co-writer/director Shane Black and cowriter Drew Pearce have actually produced a movie that focuses on the man inside the suit.  So much so, in fact, that much of Iron Man’s actual exploits don’t even have Tony inside.  This film reminds us that it’s Tony that’s special, not Iron Man.

There are laugh out loud funny moments, my favorite being Stark bodyguard Happy Hogan (Iron Man 1 & 2 director Jon Favreau) in 1999, dressed as a Pulp Fiction inspired Vince Vega.  Black and Pearce also introduce Harley (Ty Simpkins), a young boy who’s workshop becomes Tony’s base of operations post Mandarin attack.  Teaming up the hero with a kid seems like a ridiculously bad idea, but Harley helps center Tony by asking both the audience’s questions and centering the panic attack stricken hero.

Other notable cast members include Rebecca Hall, James Badge Dale, William Sadler, Miguel Ferrer, Stephanie Szostak and the indispensable voice of Paul Bettany as Jarvis.

Since The Avengers was released, I’ve though that the film represented the appropriate ending of the Marvel movie universe.  These characters now know one another.  If one’s in trouble, they should all come a running.  Yet, Iron Man 3 establishes the once cocky Stark as a more vulnerable, smaller piece of his universe. 
 
And that vulnerability makes Iron Man 3 not just a good comic book movie, but a good film overall.