The Fall and rise of House Stark

Rating: 9/10 (27 June 2013)

At the time of first writing, Robert Downey Junior had finished his contract with Marvel Studios, and as yet there had been no announcements that he, or Iron Man will be coming back, beyond a tantalising "Tony Stark will Return" during the credits. Thus the news that he is coming back for two more movies is a relief, to say the least. RDJ has over the last 5 years strikingly embodied a character fans have been hoping for since the 60s, and made him cool, as well as kicking off Marvel's groundbreaking vision of a cinematic universe that other studios are now rushing to try and follow. Without him, there would not only be no Iron man, but there might not have been an Avengers, either. That said, Iron Man 3 ceases to be simply another superhero movie, and becomes a possible swansong for a cult hero of fans everywhere. Does it live up to the challenge? Hell yes. This is not Tony Stark's finest hour. What it is, though, is his best film to date. As Tony says himself, this is a film about demons, specifically those you create. We open in 1999, pre Tony's weekend away in an Afghan cave and adding a sense of continuity to the trilogy. Tony's casual snubbing of a nerdy geneticist who later becomes a villain is one of the film's few predictable plot points, and Guy Pearce's performance as Aldrich Killian manages to sell the moment. More on him in a moment. Back to Tony. We also meet the bright and innocent Scientist Maya Hansen, played by Rebecca Hall, inventor of a bio virus named Extremis, capable of rewriting human DNA, converting humans into sizzling skin-crawling lava lamps, regenerating limbs, and, um going boom. Snap forward 13 years, and Tony has locked himself in his basement, making a prehensile suit that attaches itself, piece by piece to his body, sometimes with considerable force. His only companions are robots, the social creature seen only 10 minutes previously hiding considerable PTSD with bravado and obsessively creating countless variations on the iron man suit. This self imposed exile is not without consequence. The Big Bad quickly shows himself as the Mandarin, a drawling Ben Kingsley offering anti-Western "lessons", usually ending with a claim of responsibility for something going boom without a locatable bomb device. After a casual approach leaves one of his friends in a coma and an overly arrogant invitation to his house leaves said house destroyed in an admittedly spectacular action sequence, Stark starts taking the Mandarin seriously, and the rest of the Movie takes off from there. The attack on the Stark Mansion is where we start taking the movie in general seriously as well. The reappearance of Maya coincides with a helicopter attack complete with missiles, explosions, and not one but two of the Stark Family suiting up thanks to the flying Mark 42 suit. Pepper suiting up is one of the many fan services done in this movie, and it is gratefully received. Following this adrenalin fuelled boom- fest, Stark finds himself alone, homeless, and really wishing he'd plugged the Mark 42 in to charge before going out. What follows then is where the movie begins to shine- Stark suit less, alone and working to track down the people behind the Mandarin and take them out for good. Without an Iron Suit Stark resorts to hand made weapons, exploding baubles and the help of a small kid named Hayley, cleverly sidestepping the superhero sidekick cliché with snappy dialogue, and being downright rude, whilst never becoming unlikeable as a character. Quite a feat. From there the plot develops as organically as possible, with so many plot twists that revealing here would spoil the story for anyone who hasn't seen it yet. The fact is, this a story about Tony Stark- not Iron Man, showing that as much as the suits are cool ( and they are- look out for the Mark 42), it's the man inside them, who really has our hearts and this film finally manages to balance some stunning action sequences with some real character development, Dark Knight rises style. Verdict: See it already! While not perfect, and not everyone may agree with Sir Ben Kingsley's portrayal of the Mandarin, this is definitely Stark's best outing yet, and if it had turned out to be the Golden avengers swansong, then he certainly would have gone out with a bang. (wink,wink)