GREAT balance GREAT movie, it gets everything right!

Rating: Null/10 (21 April 2013)

Iron Man 3 is BEYOND a typical summer movie. It's everything an entertaining movie should be, and much, much more. There's a serious subtext to the story and it leaps out of the very first moments of the film. The brilliant, hard-drinking, fast-talking, now traumatized superhero charms from opening scene until the last.
The movie gets everything right but maybe its number one strength is the fact that they cover new and exciting ground. Downey again brings a winning personality to play as Stark; he finds his pathos, too. Don Cheadle certainly has the acting chops to hang with Downey. Ben Kingsley's Mandarin is not what he seems and wonderful. No one, not even the villains are one dimensional characters. Guy Pearce is perfect in his role and, at the end, you can see why he was cast. Gwyneth Paltrow and Rebecca Hall certainly add sex appeal but beyond that they also deliver real performances and truly deep characters. This is Pepper Potts best film by far and is every bit the perfect match for Stark. The interaction and the relationships all work well and are truly a highlight of the entire movie. All the dialog is superb. You would expect nothing less from a Shane Black film. This ranks right up there if not surpasses Lethal Weapon and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
A lot of superhero comic book movies seem to share a problem in tone. Most films try to cope with wild concepts by emphasizing darkness, even over-emphasizing it. IM3 is somewhat dark but keeps in line with the wonderful tone already established for this character and universe. Again, this movie's creators mix everything so well. It leans towards dark but touches heavily on every other tone and emotion. Maybe it's the character or maybe it's because they had Downey's talents to play with but Downey's performance leads to more clever banter and genuinely real dialog than most other movies have ever delivered, regardless of genre. So much of the humor works because of this and all the dramatic beats really click. Downey's Stark is glib as ever but there's something bubbling under the surface that we haven't seen before. He never loses his likability and grows in to something more than what we've seen. That's true character turn and development in a summer film!!!! What's also rare for any popcorn movie is that every plot turn carries real emotional weight. This is what you get when you mix great acting talent with outstanding material. They make it shine and give you a remarkable summer movie. In terms of action, what we came to expect in Avengers is delivered here as well. Iron Man kicks butt again and again, he's not alone. The CG is perfect and the action is intense and very well done. That's no shocker.
What was a pleasant surprise was that Iron Man 3 is now officially in the running for best movie of the year, again regardless of genre.