Three Stars

Rating: 5/10 (4 May 2013)

Damn. I hope this doesn't happen to Man of Steel. I hope they don't frontload it with comedy and dedicate only 20% of the movie to action/adventureespecially in a SUPERHERO movie.
Some movies, particularly comic book adaptations, don't put the title in the beginning of the movie, and when you finish with Iron Man 3, you'll know why. Okay, I'll just tell you: the original title had to be TONY STARK, because the film's trailer showed you Iron Man more than the film itself.
That's kind of unfair, albeit only slightly exaggerated. But, for the love of Marvel, it would have been nice to see an action-packed Iron Man movie. Hell, I would've settled for an adventure with Iron Man flying around.
To the movie's credit, it was pretty dang funny. I laughed out loud and enjoyed Robert Downey Jr. once again as Tony Stark – when he wasn't a baby, that is. And when the few moments of action did appear, it was pretty exciting, though nothing spectacular.
Further, to the film's recognition, were the excellent special effects. It's always fun to see Tony's virtual reality toys.
Sleep deprived and sometimes stupid Tony challenges a terrorist to a fight when his best bud gets hurt in an "attack." For the majority of the rest of the movie, Tony plays detective to track the most obvious of villains and connections since his first movie in 2008.
The screenplay lacked an additional couple of necessary re-writes as the plot holes were everywhere. In addition, and as mentioned, the film holds no surprises whatsoever; whenever a scene appears – and you know exactly when that will happen – and we're supposed to be shocked, it comes out as more of an eye roll. And furthermore, the motivations were questionable, the doors opened by the script were barely closed and if they were, the answers were too easy and the cast, with the exception of Downey Jr (of course) and an incidental child, had almost zero chemistry or charisma.
And while the humor was incredible at points, and had some good old fashioned references for people my age, it got a little overzealous with the slapstick. Namely from one character, whom I cannot reveal as that's way too much a spoiler. But, then again, you will see almost every twist coming, so you'll know soon enough who was just funny enough for a 5-year-old.
Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate the movie, but I came to see an IRON MAN movie and got something that spent far too much time with one-liners, a mostly suitless Stark and was just barely elevated from the disappointing Iron Man 2. And the first installment was fairly cliché and predictable as well, but it was Robert Downey Jr. fresh and the best he's been in any of the films, including The Avengers.
Overall, it's a funny, sometimes downright hilarious, film, but sometimes I would actually rather watch a superhero movie with, I don't know, the title character spending more time on the screen than his alter ego wisecracking and acting weak. If I wanted to watch a video with a whiny character with flawed traits, I'll just go to YouTube. It's cheaper, anyways.
IRON MAN 3 (3/5 Stars)