Review: Iron Man 3

by Joe Moss
★★★

SUMMER TIME!! The season begins with a bang. Well…ok a bang, a crash, a crescendo of explosions, some melting metallics and a cacophony of screams and shouting.  Welcome once again to the summer blockbuster movie season and the newest installment of the Disney/Marvel Universe—Iron Man 3. Director Shane Black (“The Last Boy Scout”, “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang”, “ Lethal Weapon 2”, and “The Long Kiss Goodnight”) stays true to his identity as a film maker by cramming Iron Man 3 with plenty of shtick humor, long action sequences, and plenty of physical substance. Enough to make the average movie goers oohhhh and ahhhh all the way to the bank.

But…once you look past the green screen production into the plot development of the film, now there we can see a few small issues—a lack of substance and development in the screenplay written by Shane Black and his collaborator Drew Pearce. Once you get past the obvious main plot of the film—Mandarin (played by Ben Kingsley) attempting to give America a lesson in humility the small nuances of the under-story begin to show too many gaps.

(warning….some small spoilers are present)

1)      Where is the character development of the Mandarin? He was alluded to in the first installment of Iron Man, but just appears suddenly with no real back-story. Additionally, as I am not a avid comic reader by any stretch of the imagination, even I know that the Mandarin is supposed to be aristocratic Chinese with 10 power rings of alien origin. This is not quite what we get in the movie…

2)      Who is Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce)? While we are provided a small amount of interplay during a 15 minute back-story involving Tony Stark and Dr. Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall) this does not seem enough to truly foreshadow the events that occur throughout the remainder of the movie. Then we are hit with a small segment that mentions Aldrich used to attempt to woo Pepper. Hmm?

3)      Finally the most glaring omission revolves around how the film was billed as an attempt to examine whether Iron Man makes Tony Stark  or whether Tony Stark makes Iron Man. And this theme plays throughout the majority of the movie quite well—and ultimately answers it at the end with sweet aplomb. What doesn't really work with the Iron Man image is Tony’s self pitying introspection intermingled with panic attacks when questioned?? Tony…panic attacks?? I understand how the Shane Black was attempting to humanize Tony Stark, but he doesn't give us a reason to believe.  It is mentioned that Tony is having difficulty dealing with the events of New York (from The Avengers), but the screenplay never really gives us substance in this regard. What were the problems? Why can’t Tony sleep—a dream about falling is all we get.

The cinematography by Oscar winner John Toll (Legends of the Fall, Braveheart) are perfectly on par; and the film editing by the partnership of Jeffery Ford and Peter S. Elliot is visually flawless. So, even with these small questions left unanswered for me, I do have to say that Iron Man 3 is a spectacular movie and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.