Shane Black's take on old red and yellow shiny boots

Rating: 8/10 (9 May 2013)

The third in the ever increasing popular Iron Man series, follows on from the enormous Avengers film where we find Tony Stark having to battle anxiety attacks and sleepless nights from his experiences fighting extraterrestrials in New York. Not able to cope or fully recover, Stark hides himself amongst his suits and gadgets neglecting his partner Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow in a more substantial role this time around). The story starts though with a flashback, going back to 1999, before Stark became Iron Man.
The events that unfolds, informs us of how a budding young scientist Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) comes to Stark with a new idea which unfortunately, he dismisses, this in turn results on his past decisions coming back to haunt him... Fast forward to the future and there is a more imminent danger in the form of The Mandarin (played with great joy and humour by Sir Ben Kingsley), who targets the US and threatens to kill civilians via bombings.
Stark ignores the publicity and news on the Madarian and doesn't see it as his duty to get involve but when his ex-bodyguard Happy Hogan (Favreau), becomes one of the latest victims and suffers from major injuries, Stark issues a threat on national news and announces his address to Mandarin which was an unfortunately the wrong thing to do.....
There is quite a bit of substance to the story and there is a some choice dialogue littered throughout the film. Not really surprising come from the director Shane Black. Anyone who is familiar with his screenplays will know he has some killer quotable lines (just check out The Last Boy Scout or Kiss Kiss Bang Bang). Stark is once again imbued with great charm and retorts, but it isn't only the heroes who come out with funny dialogues, even the henchmen come out with some comedic lines.
This is a much improvement compared to the last film, which did feel a little tired and more of warm up towards the big gathering of superheroes that was The Avengers, this time around Downey Jr is given more of a job of acting, instead of just his face in a helmet. The film's logically progression is to show what he can do with out his powers, or in this case his multi million dollar suits and gadgets....which is of course to rely on his wits and charm.
It's probably fair to say that this is more of Tony Stark movie than an Iron Man film. That's not to say it's a bad thing. There are still some amazing set pieces within the film to satisfy the action junkies (most notably standout would be the multiple passengers rescue in mid air). The plot just feels more meaningful and thought out.
If this is to Downey's Jr last stint as Iron Man (he will reprise the role in the forthcoming Avengers sequel), this is a good send off to a character he has made his own and anyone looking to step into those red Iron boots, will have a hellava job to match (let alone improve) his interpretation.
read more of my reviews here: http://fsfilm.blogspot.co.uk/