Iron man 3

Rating: 9/10 (31 July 2014)

In 2008, Iron Man ushered in a new era of superhero movies that would push the genre to unbelievable success over the next 5 years. Iron Man 2, although not as strong as the first, proved itself a worthy sequel on the road to The Avengers. Now with The Avengers all assembled, Iron Man 3 kicks off Marvel's second stage of their cinematic universe with a solid, but not amazing film, much like Iron Man 2 was to Iron Man 1. Let's get the negatives out of the way. The number one problem with this movie, and the reason it could turn hardcore fans off, is the plot, or more specifically, the number of plot holes. There are a few of them, and I'll skim through them quickly. First off, while this is a stand alone Iron Man movie, the cloud of the Avengers was hanging over the movies head the entire film. The main villain, The Mandarin (who I'll talk more about shortly) is a terrorist who is severely threatening America's national security. You'd think that maybe Captain America might be able to help out with this crisis because, I don't know, he has America in his name! And we know he exists in the same world as Iron Man,and his job is to protect the stars and stripes right? My point is that although this is an Iron Man movie, now that the Avengers has been released I fear that all of the stand alone movies could suffer from the same question that this movie has; where are the rest of the guys? Second, is the villain. When Ben Kingsley was announced to play Iron Man's greatest foe, I was pumped. The trailers looked awesome and in the first half of the movie, The Mandarin is a scary and fun bad guy. But this all changes with a plot twist that totally makes you do a face palm. Following this twist, the movie just isn't the same, and is hard to take seriously. There are other plot holes that I'll avoid talking about due to spoilers and length, but there are a few more. Besides the plot, the only other complaints I have is that there simply was not enough action from Iron Man himself and when there was, it was fast and minimal. Iron Man never gave off that super bad ass vibe that he did in the first movie, but still was awesome in his own way.
Now, with that all being said the movie had many positives going for it. The action was exciting and fun and the CG effects added to the action very nicely. The comedy in Iron Man 3 is plentiful, and between the high-octane action and the comedic relief, there is never a dull moment (excluding the face palm moment). While the action makes up for possibly the best parts of the movie, it would be nothing without the actors behind those sequences. Robert Downey Jr. once again shows us that he is arguably the most entertaining actor to ever play a superhero on the big screen. Simply put, he steals the show once again. Whether he's cracking a joke, kicking major butt, or battling with his inner demons, Downey Jr. is a treat to watch. And surrounding him is a wonderful cast of supporting characters such as Iron Patriot (Don Cheadle), Pepper Pots (Gwyneth Paltrow), and Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) to name a few. The acting is one of the best parts of the movie.