Let’s talk about taking chances. Or, more appropriately, how Iron Man 3 fails at it. The film is less of a new installment to the past two Iron Man films but more of an Avengers sequel. These are all things you’ve heard before though. Tony Stark has been traumatized by the events at the end of The Avengers and is suffering from an unhealthy cocktail of insomnia, PTSD, and workaholicism (just pretend it’s a real word). This is why he has been ignoring his girlfriend/former personal assistant/CEO of Stark Industries Pepper Potts to go off and build a ridiculous number of Iron Man suits instead.
The task of shepherding Iron Man and by association the rest of Marvel Studio’s cinematic heroes into the next phase of post-Avengers films is handed to second time director Shane Black. Black’s directorial effort, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, is fantastic and underrated modern noir also starring Robert Downey Jr. Black’s true talent however comes more from the keyboard than the camera. Having written many classic action films like the original Lethal Weapon, Monster Squad, and The Last Action Hero in addition to co-writing Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and this film, Black clearly knows how to write smart action along with snappy dialogue with a much needed edge, something that fits a character like Tony Stark perfectly. Within this praise however is where problems first arise. The first half of Iron Man 3 is fantastic. The film is smart and plays completely against what is expected of a superhero movie (how many films can you say open with Eiffle 65’s regrettably popular 1999 song “Blue”?). However Iron Man 3 loses the good favor it gains with the audience quickly.
The well paced introductions to The Mandarin throughout the beginning of the film do a great job of displaying the character’s menace. Shown for most of the film in only grainy videos forced at the American people, Ben Kingsley’s interpretation of the character is an amalgamation of modern terror. This works well, until we are shown the true side of The Mandarin that is, which is when the film takes one of the worst twists in recent memory. This review will stay spoiler free for the most part, but it goes without saying that the treatment of certain characters in Iron Man 3 are not ideal. It’s not so much the twist itself but more so the inappropriately comical way it is delivered.Iron Man 3 suffers heavily from identity crisis. It isn’t sure if it wants to be a dark political thriller, a buddy cop style action-comedy, or spoof. The results of what we get come of like a bad MTV Movie Awards skit. Even when the film tries to save face with the obligatory final battle, it just feels like a hollow shell of wasted opportunity. What is most on display in Iron Man 3 is the film makers profound amount of disrespect for the characters’ and fans of both the film and comic franchises, and what was a promising end to a trilogy can now sit comfortably with Spiderman 3 and X-Men: The Last Stand. It is with a heavy heart that Iron Man 3 gets a C-. The core theme of Iron Man 3 is deception, and in that way it is successful. It deceived people into believing it was a good movie.