Tony Stark is the James Bond of the Marvel universe. With his bravado persona, he has the money,
the gadgets, the girl and the perfectly groomed goatee. Yet with Iron
Man 3, we final see Stark at his most vulnerable. Stripped of the suit for much of the film and
suffering from anxiety attacks after the events of Avengers Assemble, he is a desperate man seeking to protect the
woman he loves.
The film doesn’t try to hide its blatant parallels to
America’s war on terror, especially relevant after the recent bombings in
Boston. As such, the plot is fairly
standard Hollywood blockbuster fare with all the typical villains, cute kid
sidekicks and explosive action that you could expect. Yet the series is reknowned for Downey Jr’s
portrayal of Stark and Iron Man 3 delivers
a new slant on the character, with a more serious story and believable terrorist
threat (with a comic book twist of course), whilst retaining the trademark
tongue-in-cheek humour. The script is
frequently hilarious, undercutting any seriousness with comedic one-liners
delivered as charmingly as ever by Downey Jr.
The narrative is well paced, slowly weaving its story threads with surprising
and unpredictable twists, albeit with plenty of plot holes. Guy Pearce’s slimy villain Aldrich Killian
follows a typical story arc with implausible motives, Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper
Potts (far from the strong woman we’ve seen in previous films) is mostly
reduced to helpless victim, and Don Cheadle’s Iron Patriot is more symbol than
man. Yet the film focuses heavily on
Stark and is carried by Downey Jr’s performance – easily the most endearing
Marvel hero.
In comparison to other Marvel superhero films, Iron Man 3 is heavily story driven with
only a smattering of well-directed action sequences. Then just as you feel there’s not enough Iron
Man involved, the film crescendos towards a suitably spectacular finale that
has more suits than you could hope for, accompanied by a rousing score. Iron
Man 3 ultimately does little that the previous films don’t, but provides a
fitting conclusion to the most exciting Marvel hero. As pure, simple popcorn entertainment, it
doesn’t get much better than this.
4/5
