Knowing all too well the sight of Pepper's 'bedroom hair',
Tony's suits decide to step out for a late lunch and give the couple some room.
We're really up to the third Iron Man film already? Wow. I don't really know how to feel about that; on the one hand, it still feels like barely any time at all since I was astounded to hear that the first would actually become a reality, so this crap is starting to make me feel really old. But on the other hand, it's testament to the bold (but well-deserved) confidence that Marvel Studios have had with their multi-property 'Avengers Series' movies to date, and I love the fact that they've got so sure a handle on everything about their little universe right now. Plus of course, Iron Man was and is my nostalgic favourite amongst all superheroes, for admittedly simple reasons - I'd already fallen for both the '80s Transformers series and '90s Spider-Man series before I even knew Tony Stark had his own show, and man, getting Marvel Universe action AND robots at the same time? Mana from heaven for Junior Craig. Iron Man 1 remains to this day one of my all-time favourite movies - I gladly forgive its somewhat flimsy 3rd act for how deftly it flies through the preceding 70 minutes, and not since Raimi's Spider-Man had any single comic book movie feel so right, like every single part and piece was operating at full capacity with nary a hint of strain. And Iron Man 2 was, well, it was alright. Fun, inoffensive, its greatest crime being...laziness? 3 years on, it seems pretty clear that the sequel was something of a rushed job, made purely since the first had done such good business that Marvel couldn't pass up the chance of lightning striking twice, and though it set up a few elements that bore fruit in Avengers (Assemble) I expect there was already a plan to put those pieces in motion during Thor and Captain America. Even so, I can't bring myself to hate a movie that realised armour-in-a-suitcase.
But all of that's behind us now anyway, since it's time for 'Phase 2', with the 3rd (last?) solo outing for Tony Stark and his tin can, facing off against his most sinister enemy yet - that unnamed, unknowable force that prevents the 3rd movie in any series living up to its predecessors!
Don't worry though, he kicks its ass. (POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOLLOW)
"Tony, I love you, but if you keep staring at me like that
I'm gonna go blind."
The Plot: It is some indeterminate time after the events of Avengers (starting to sense a theme with movies this year...) and all is not well in the House of Stark. Without the luxury of pestering Cap with old-age jokes, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) has retreated to his workshop, where he tinkers on unseen projects for days without sleep, his few relaxed hours plagued by anxiety attacks and night terrors relating to his experiences from what's now termed 'the New York event'. While his lover and business partner (and perhaps last thread of sanity) Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) wants him to open up, his military pal James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) manages to give him something else to think about: a sequence of mysterious, symbolic bomb attacks put in motion by a charismatic terrorist named the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley). As Tony brashly challenges the madman to take his best shot, he finds his tiny bubble of security all too easily burst and is forced to go on the run, with no friends and few resources, to stop the Mandarin from finishing his 'education' without putting the people he cares about in any more danger...
The Good: It's an Iron Man movie. And I don't just mean it's a movie with a Marvel logo at the start involving Downey Jr. sometimes wearing metal long-johns, I mean it has that constant sense of cheer and camaraderie, and that quick-fire wit that never lets up but still manages to find the room for emotional attachment - and, importantly, never becomes annoying. Sometimes I take these qualities for granted, but there really is no other movie series that hits these notes and makes it look so damn easy quite like the Iron Man films.
...but on the flip side, it's what's not like an Iron Man film (or not like the other Iron Man films) that makes 3 stand apart, and dare I say it stand above even the first. Where once the villains were simply minor teething troubles getting in the way of Tony's personal life - and realistically, no matter how boss he looked or how much menace Mickey Rourke put out with his performance, Whiplash was less of a threat to Tony than Tony himself was - now they are borne of believable, verifiable consequence, and they move and act with a sense of self-assured righteousness that would equal and match Stark's own smart-mouthed confidence...except Stark is now frequently a gibbering nervous wreck. Iron Man got off lightly in his first sequel, but it seems the filmmakers kept all their 'darker' ideas for this one, and now he's up the creek without a repulsor-paddle. There's also a stronger sense of thematic conformity in play, with nearly every character beat centering around the notion of masks and false identity and why we show different sides of ourselves to others. Retreating further behind the shell of Iron Man than ever has put Tony on a downward spiral, and in the end it's only by shedding that steel skin that he can save himself.
New director Shane Black and his co-writer Drew Pearce had a hell of a task in trying to both honour the style of the earlier movies while also finding new ground to break, and they've done it with aplomb. Now, I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on Black's filmmaking preferences (I haven't yet seen all the Lethal Weapon flicks and all I recall from Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was that I really, really liked it a lot) so other than the somewhat arbitrary to set the bulk of the film at Christmas I can't say how much of his personal tastes affected the final product. What I will say is that this is a hell of an ambitious production to mount for only Black's second-ever directing credit, and he handles it with the skill of a master. Every shot is spot-on, every sequence is paced to perfection, and the cast - actually, let's keep them to their own paragraph. Suffice to say that I really hope this isn't the last Marvel movie Black and Pearce have a hand in. Kevin Feige should keep them on speed-dial forever.
"Agree to my demands, Amurrrica. Just do it.
Do you WANT me to make 'Gangnam Style' a thing again? Because I will."
Saying that Robert Downey Jr. has nailed it is...a complete waste of time. Of course he did, this is his 4th turn at a role he was practically born for. But it's worth noting that he's not phoning it in or anything, and the increased stress and paranoia nagging at Stark this time gives him room to stretch the role in previously-unseen ways, and of course he's fantastic. Even so, what makes him this much fun to watch is that the rest of the cast are sharp enough to keep up with his dynamite wit. Gwyneth Paltrow has a tough old time as Pepper, occasionally threatening to reduce her to damsel in distress status, but her handle on the character is too strong to let it slip that far - and toward the end she turns it around, getting some great air-punching moments of joy all to herself that more than makes up for earlier doubts. Don Cheadle is a lot more comfortable as Rhodey than in Iron Man 2 and his back-and-forth competing chatter with Downey Jr. in the 3rd act - a time when the film is almost a buddy-cop movie for a spell - has a strong sense of well-meaning mockery that believably keeps Stark grounded. Ex-director Jon Favreau gets more to do as Happy Hogan and clearly relishes it, and new addition Rebecca Hall slots into the existing universe very smoothly - she's clearly bright but also effortlessly funny, and there's a little part of you (well, me) that wonders what would have been if Tony had been the sort of guy to hold down a long-term relationship back when she was around.
And of course there are the baddies, and I looooove the baddies. Most of the marketing has been centered around the Mandarin, which is wonderfully appropriate given how the character operates within the film...of which I will say nothing more, except that there's more to him than what there seems to be, and Ben Kingsley slays it every single time. The bizarre tone of voice, nutty beard and metaphor-heavy speeches could have been ludicrous but he hits his notes just right and the elements all gel together into something memorably creepy (see Bane in The Dark Knight Rises for an example of when this doesn't work). On the flipside, Guy Pearce as Aldrich Killian is, at least at first, a more simple affair - an unprincipled if undeniably magnetic science/business magnate with sky-high ambitions, he's built from Bond Villain cloth and Pearce plays him at that level. He has preening arrogance down to a tee and gets some fantastically smug quips in. Lower down the villainous pay-grade, James Badge Dale and Stephanie Szostak are given the space to let their henchman roles breathe and use it well, making their smaller turns memorable. There haven't been many 'thug'-level baddies in the MCU films 'til now, and I've kind of missed that, so this makes for a nice change, and at least gives the accompanying toyline a little more diversity...oh wait, sorry, my mistake, Hasbro aren't actually making any bad guys in their IM3 figure range. I guess all the Iron Mans will just punch each other, then.
With films of this size and budget, actually crediting everyone for great work done is impossible, but a few special nods need to go to composer Brian Tyler and the various VFX teams. Speaking for myself, I loved what Ramin Djawadi did with the score for Iron Man but felt the sequel's music was lacking, but Tyler gets things on track again, with a simple and effective main theme that gets twisted and turned into different tones and sounds with each reprise, and the music always supports the action, the stress and the feeling of each scene very well. Additionally, this film sees a massive rise in the sheer volume of effect shots compared to the previous 2, and I can only begin to imagine how bloody massive the workload must've been for Weta, Digital Domain and the assorted other companies who had a hand in it. That nothing in the film ever rung as 'fake' is testament to their skill.
...nah, the jokes are too obvious.
The Bad: Erm...?
Honestly, it's really hard to think of missteps in this film. I suppose if I viewed it through the lens of a devout comics fan I'd be grumpy with the liberties taken with the Mandarin, in that his rings don't shoot fire or ice or clouds of pure darkness, and he doesn't live in a castle, isn't actually Chinese etc., but it didn't really bother me in practice. The spin the film puts on the character is interesting and plays brilliantly, and if they really wanted to there's nothing stopping the Marvel bods from resurrecting the name and applying it to a more faithful version of the character. So, I guess that's not really a bad point. Oops.
OH WAIT I GOT ONE! There's some lip service paid to Pepper and Killian having worked together in the past, but that particular thread never really amounts to much except giving Guy Pearce an excuse to act like a bit of a pig around Paltrow. It feels like there was a bunch of things cut out there. Oh, and though time (and future movies) may fill in this blank spot, there isn't any solid reason given as to why Tony is the only hero (Rhodey notwithstanding) trying to stop a massively destructive, highly-publicised terror campaign. Granted, I knew going in we weren't going to have Avengers cameos, and I respect that decision, I'd just like it to be justified a bit more strongly in-universe. I mean, even SHIELD as a whole doesn't do anything, and they're a worldwide spy organisation with a flying invisible aircraft carrier - they can't spare like 5 guys for an investigation? Damn that Fury and his penny-pinching ways!
Ah hell, I forgot about the 3D. On the plus side, it didn't make the screen all dark and barely watchable, but it added so little to the film I felt like a numpty sitting there with the glasses on. Opt for 2D if you've got the choice, just for the sake of economy.
Pepper wonders if maybe Killian was born with it
(or maybe it's Maybelline).
The Verdict: Iron Man 3 did not need to be smart. Iron Man 3 did not need to take risks. Iron Man 3 did not need to do anything but give the public more of Downey Jr.'s snarky charm and some heavy metal fetishism. That it does take the risk of being more than it needed to be is laudable, and that every risk pays off in spades damn near makes me cry with happiness. Iron Man 3 is a film - possibly the film - of our time, acknowledging that the world is a chaotic, unpredictable, somehow disturbing place where bad men thrive and good men die for poor reasons, but it always remembers that there is hope, that if a massive jerk with no social skills or coping mechanisms can sort everything out then so can we. On top of that, it's just really, really, really fun and I never undervalue that where I can help it. It's a 10 out of 10 without hesitation. Roll on the rest of Phase 2.
"Okay, I see how this might look bad, but if anyone asks,
the pilot totally wasn't looking when HE hit ME, got it...?"
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