When it comes to the Marvel trilogy series (Iron Man, Captain America and Thor so far) there is always one that fans put right in the middle. In the case of Iron Man the third edition, released in 2013, I was somewhat disappointed. Don’t get me wrong the movie has its moments, but a majority of it had me going “What were they thinking?” As always spoilers will be ahead. I DO NOT OWN THE PICTURE.
After the first Avengers film Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) has been having panic attacks, thinking about the invasion, battle and his brief space experience. Not getting any sleep Tony begins building dozens of Iron Man suits; putting a strain on his relationship with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). Meanwhile a mysterious string of bombings are taking place all over the world, and someone calling himself The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) is taking the credit for it; however intelligence agencies are confused as to how he and his group are making their bombs as there is absolutely no forensic evidence. After his friend Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) is attacked in the latest bombing Tony issues a threat to the Mandarin despite pleas from Pepper and a visit from scientist (and ex-girlfriend) Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall). The Mandarin sends gun helicopters to Tony’s house and destroys it; Hansen and Potts manage to get away as does Tony in another suit, but they are separated in the attack. J.A.R.V.I.S (Paul Bettany) directs the suit Tony is wearing to a rural part of Tennessee. Tony, and a 10 year old boy named Harley (Ty Simpkins), discovers that the bombings are not actual bombs but are soldiers part of an experiment gone horribly wrong. The experiment is called Extremis which is supposed to heal crippling injuries but instead turns the person into an unstable walking time bomb. Tony also discovers, along with Harley and best friend Rhodey (Don Cheadle), that the Mandarin is not who he appears to be (HUGE disappointment here but more on that later), and the person behind it is Aldrich Killian (Guy Pierce); a man from Tony’s past, who wants him to fix Extremis; and gives Tony the proper motivation to stop him. I probably shouldn’t say anymore without giving away the rest of the film.
I said earlier the film disappointed me, and I’m going to give you the reason why. Those familiar with the Iron Man comic books know that the Mandarin is probably Tony’s biggest and most powerful villain ever. I was expecting a big fight between the two based on the trailers, but what happened had me, as well as probably everyone else, annoyed was what they did to the Mandarin. Ben Kingsley’s character was an actor hired to pretend to be the Mandarin by Killian and he had no idea what those films were doing to people. I cannot even begin to tell you how many times my eyes rolled during the film when it was revealed; this was definitely a plot twist no one liked.
However other than the bad plot twist Iron Man 3 still had great moments. Downy Jr. was as always fantastic as Tony, Paltrow in my opinion was at her best (as far as these films go) as Pepper particularly at the end of the film, Cheadle was great as Rhodey and Favreau did well as Happy. Despite the bad plot twist Kingsley was good as the Mandarin films (after not so much), Hall was interesting to watch as Hansen, Simpkins wasn’t bad as Harley (although I admit not seeing him in anything after kinda rendered him a little obsolete) and Guy Pierce was a pretty decent bad guy as Killian (not the worst villain in the MCU but far from the best.) I loved the action in the movie, definitely the last 30-40 minutes with the plane and the big collection of the Iron Man suits; definitely worth the watch. The writing could have been better in a few places (you know where so I’m not gonna rant). Overall the third Iron Man film was a somewhat decent conclusion to the Iron Man movies. I won’t say no if someone were to ask me “Should I watch Iron Man 3?”, but I will say prepare for action and just a smidgen of disappointment.
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