To much of what once was a good thing

Rating: 4/10 (25 September 2013)

When Iron Man flew onto the big screen in 2008 it was a breath of fresh air that star tracked Marvel to live it's dream of the eventual Avengers and also showed that they were more than mere spiders and mutants. Iron Man did so well thanks to it's unique take on the superhero genre and a flare that gave it life thanks to Downey Jr's great come back role and director Jon Favreau's touch behind the camera. Since that big screen outing we have witnessed Tony Stark cameo's, the lacking and forgettable Iron Man 2, the scene chewing yet still amazing The Avengers and now this (and seemingly final) Iron Man outing. And what a forgettable one it is.
Making huge amounts of money worldwide undoubtedly thanks to the love from The Avengers, Iron Man 3 is a film that shows you in all clarity that there can be to much of a good thing. What once seemed fresh and inspired here is nothing more than a riff and play of what has come before mixed in with a story that can only be described as uninteresting. A big flaw in the film is the use of Tony Stark himself, whilst interesting to see the never far from wisecracking billionaire deal with personal and more threating demons it just feels like we have learnt all there is to know about the American hero and have gone over his relationship with Pepper Potts enough now. Perhaps this would have been less noticeable if the films villains and central plot was more appealing.
Did director Black (again having references to the Xmas period) learn nothing from the over complicated Spider-Man 3 that more is definitely less. Iron Man 3 has dealings with Rhodes and his freshly named Iron Patriot, Guy Pearce's slimy villain Aldrich, James Badge Dale as his fiery henchman Savin, Rebecca Hall as old love interest Maya Hansen, Sir Ben Kingsley (wow talk about over acting) as Mandarin and for some reason Favreau as the reappearing Happy. All these characters are just in the film not a part of it. Not once did I feel like I liked or loathed any of these characters enough to care which in the case of Iron Man and The Avengers was never an issue.
Iron Man 3 is a film that will more than likely be appreciated by fanboys and "boys". It's clear that on the current track record Marvel are free to virtually make any film and live off the love from previous more respectable entries. The film offers up no real action that hasn't been done before or interplay between the characters to recommend it. One hopes that like Stark himself Marvel look for fresh possibilities and hang up the suit for a little while if not forever, unless of cause the Avengers are needed.
2 wisecracks out of 5 For more movie reviews and opinion check out - www.jordanandeddie.wordpress.com