A great movie with superb acting and really great action

Rating: 8/10 (2 May 2013)

Before you read this, note that English is not my first language so expect some grammatic errors down below...
I loved the first Iron Man movie but I thought that Iron Man 2 was an unnecessary follow up that didn't match the greatness of the first one. I for one was really looking forward to this movie and I wanted to see if this was the sequel that Iron Man really deserved.
When the first trailer for this movie hit, a lot of people, including me, thought that we were to expect a darker and grittier movie. That turned out to be false alarm. This is by far the funniest movie in the series and it feels fresh and new, despite it being the third installment in the Iron Man franchise.
The movie starts with a voice over by Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) and he tells us his story, in case anyone didn't know about him yet.
You can say that the whole story of Iron Man has been a long journey of character development. In the first movie Tony Starks world is changed when he is kidnapped and he decides to use his technology for the good of mankind. In the second movie Tony grows into the role of being a superhero. Tony has to accept that he isn't the only superhero in the world and the fact that some things are beyond his control in the Avengers.
In Iron Man 3 Tony has to kind of go back to his roots and realize what is worth fighting for.
When we get up to speed we see tony tinkering with his new armor, MK 42, in his workshop. It turns out that Tony has been busy building new Iron Man suits as a distraction to forget the scary events of the Avengers.
The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley), a terrorist leader, starts to threaten the whole United States in live videos sent directly on TV. When Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau), Tonys body guard, gets injured and put in coma by one of the Mandarins attacks things get personal for Tony and he declares war against the Mandarin.
The story centers around Tonys journey to get the terrorist leader while he is hunted by figures from his past such as Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall), a brilliant scientist and one of Tonys old one night stands, and another scientist called Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) who works on the serum called Extremis. Extremis can by hacking its way into the repair center of the brain repair body parts and oh, I forgot, turn the hosts into burning soldiers. These burning soldiers look really nice on screen and they provide some terrific action scenes. The Extremis serum is an essential part of the movies plot.
Along the way Tony has to rely on his own intellect and not on his trusty suits that he is used to do.
Iron Man 3 offers some of the best action scenes I have ever seen both with Tony and his friend Rhodey (Don Cheadle). Even Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) is in the action this time. And wow, what action she offers!
This is in my opinion a fantastic movie. The acting is top notch from almost everyone, especially from RDJ, Sir Ben Kingsley and Guy Pearce. It is good to see that Gwyneth Palthrow and Don Cheadle get more space in this movie as well, since they had pretty dull roles in the previous movies. One thing that hit me was the chemistry between every actor. Everyone is acting so well against each other and it makes every scene interesting and enjoyable. Like the scenes with Tony and the fatherless boy, Harley (Ty Simpkins). Ty and RDJ are so well synergized and the lines that they exchange are spot on.
The score made by Brian Tyler is fantastic and really hits the right notes (no pun intended). Sometimes it even rivals the Avengers soundtrack by Alan Silvestri (and that says a lot).
Maybe some of you reading this have heard about the twist that involves the Mandarin. I don't want to spoil it for you but it is pretty interesting. It may not be the most original twist ever but it's still a nice move nonetheless. I would've maybe preferred a more ass kicking Mandarin but I liked this version of the character anyway. I like when directors can take some space and do what they think would be good even if that involves changing an already established character.
Oh and I almost forgot! The visuals for this movie are really good and all of Tonys suits look great. You can really tell that the budget for this movie was high and used in a great way.
I love this movie because it feels well thought through, it has breathtaking action, the acting is great and that the story has a nice focus. I only have some minor complains about this movie but that is not enough to drag this movie down. Iron Man 3 is a summer blockbuster with all the right ingredients and this truly is the sequel we all wanted for Iron Man in the first place. 9/10