Iron Man 3 Review

Marvel Universe's Phase II has begun.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with Phase I, here's a list of the movies in that series:

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Iron Man

The Incredible Hulk

Iron Man 2

Marvel One-Shot: The Consultant

Thor

Marvel One-Shot: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer

Captain America: The First Avenger

The Avengers

Marvel One-Shot: Item 47

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Now, under the direct guidance of "Avengers" director Joss Whedon, Phase II is set to unfold as follows - with a couple of yet-to-be-revealed Marvel One-Shots to be inserted hither and thither:

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Iron Man 3 (Now)

Thor: The Dark World (November 2013)

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (T.V. series, airdate currently unknown)

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (May 2014)

Guardians of the Galaxy (August 2014)

The Avengers 2 (May 2015)

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So how is "Iron Man 3"?  Is it a promising start for Phase II?  Sure.  It's really solid.  Quality-wise, I think it's an improvement over Part 2 yet not as good as Part 1.  It definitely breaks Marvel's "Curse of the Part Threes".  Before this one, the third entries in previous Marvel movie series have all sucked ("Blade: Trinity", "X-Men: The Last Stand", "Spider-Man 3").  I take this as a good sign for the future.

Honestly, I'm going to need another viewing to formulate a final opinion.  There's a lot of stuff packed into this film that it's borderline overstuffed with ideas, characters and plot lines.  I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about the villain's machinations, Stark's sketchy tech, or exactly what the rules are for those wacky Extremis soldiers.  I might have missed some bits in the midst of all the sturm and drang (easy to do).

At its heart it's about Tony Stark coming to terms with his life after the Earth-shaking events of "The Avengers".  Robert Downey, Jr. is in top form, as always, and is the primary highlight of this film (and this series, frankly).  The other returning cast members (specifically Don Cheadle and Gwyneth Paltrow) are a little short-shrifted, but get to bask in their own little shining moments of coolness (especially Paltrow's climactic whomp).  Guy Pearce is good as Killian.  He's kind of one-dimensional, but Pearce seems to be having fun playing a bad guy (the fire breathing moment was dumb, though).  Then there's Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin.  He practically steals the show from Downey, though I won't reveal why (spoiler territory - go elsewhere to ruin the twists).

Speaking of that twist, what happens later on in the movie regarding this character is really pissing off hardcore Marvel fans.  Not being much of a comic book geek myself, I thought it was a rather fun turn of events.

All-in-all Shane Black did a fine job with this, his first big budget movie.  Best known for writing classic action/buddy movies of the 1980s ("Lethal Weapon 1 & 2", "The Last Boy Scout", etc), "Iron Man 3" is only his second directorial effort after 2005's "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang", the movie which not only reintroduced Robert Downey, Jr. to the world but is one of my favorite comedies of the last decade, period.  His directing style is more irreverent, nonlinear and wizenheimer than previous "Iron Man" director Jon Favreau, but he has a more assured grasp on choreographing action sequences.  Hopefully he'll be back for Part 4.

Let's see, what else is there.  Brian Tyler provides another fantastic, sure to be overlooked score.  Unlike most other film composers these days, Tyler is not afraid to produce a memorable, hummable musical theme.  And he's good at it, too.  The 3-D was high quality, but varying in its effectiveness.  Good, in other words, but not as fantastic as the 3-D for "The Avengers".

I recommend "Iron Man 3" for a good time at the movies.  The End.

Oh yeah, there's an extra scene after the credits (as per Marvel movie tradition).  It's funny.

The End.  For real.