Iron Man 3 (2013)

Director: Shane Black

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Guy Pearce, Ben Kingsley

 

Iron Man 3 is a decent enough entertainer that mishmashes various story-lines from Marvel’s Iron Man universe.

Film is technically sound—showcases some state of art 3d/special effects. Director here clearly tries to match up to the genius of ‘Iron Man 1’ and even plots the film around ‘America hating’ terrorism, but film never really punch above its weight and is an action-comedy at best. Air rescue sequence was quite awesome; perhaps best action from film. Comedy is good wherever justified, though mostly it is your usual cliché—you might/might not like it.    

RDJ, with his charm, is indeed ‘The’ Iron Man but his antics here seemed a little superfluous and, at times, enforced. It should have either been a serious film with subtle humor and a message or an all-out action-comedy—it was somewhat irritating to see every serious scene end with some needless chaff.  

Strictly for Iron Man geeks (might contain spoilers):

From comics/cartoons point of view the film can be described in 3 simple words: “What a sham”. It wouldn’t have bothered me that much had they mucked up ‘Mandarin’ with either poor acting or some modification but what they did was criminal (I hope Marvel sues them and every geek bays for their blood).  Perhaps in light of real-world political tensions they tinkered with Mandarin’s mainland China origin and made him a British instead. Even that is fine, when you have a heavyweight actor like Kingsley portraying him as fabulously as he did (prior to the lamest twist of cinema history of course).

Now, I am little perplexed after the events of the film:

• Are they actually saying, Lex Luthor, Superman’s main nemesis, is just propaganda (Joker for Batman)? Trying hard to avoid any spoilers…hope you get the drift.   
• Is Aldrich Killian the real Mandarin now, who will come back to life with some silly retcon?    
  
• What is going to happen with the ‘Ten Rings’? Why did they even show it…

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As a film Iron Man works well; as an adaptation it is like a ‘Just for Laugh’ joke. Frankly, I could have done without Iron Man 3, however, as just a film (not a comic book adaptation) this is a decent watch; doesn’t matter how disappointed the comic geek in me sounds!

Go enjoy it for some high-octane showdown.

7.4/10