Pass the Popcorn review

Rating: 7/10 (25 April 2013)

In superhero movie franchises there is the famous rule that the second movie is, usually, the best one with the third being the worst. Ever since the flawed Iron Man 2 came out, it was pretty obvious the Iron Man franchise wouldn't follow this rule. After that set back, on the other hand, it was rather unclear what to expect from the third one. Will it be, nevertheless, the worst one? Or will it completely negate the superhero franchises' rule and triumph as the best one? The answer to these questions is: Iron Man 3 is neither the best nor the worst Iron Man movie. However, it is the strangest. You may ask, what do I mean by strange. Well, first of all, unbelievable as it may sound, Iron Man 3 is not a superhero movie. Of course, there are some superhero movie elements here and there, but in its core Iron Man 3 is an action/comedy/thriller. To put in the words of director/co-writer Shane Black (who replaced Jon Favreau in the director's chair) - it's kind of a Tom Clancy style thriller. Because of that, Iron Man 3 is much more similar to another Robert Downey Jr. movie - also directed by Shane Black - 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang'. While I applaud the idea of experimenting with different genres, the ending result was not satisfying. Before I continue, I'll just say I have not seen the movie in 3D so I don't know how it holds in that aspect.
The movie follows Tony Stark, as usual,who apparently got PTSD from the events that took place in the Avengers movie. He has trouble sleeping and has panic attacks from time to time. As if that weren't enough, his luxurious Malibu mansion gets destroyed by a terrorist called the Mandarin. Now he has to deal with the Mandarin and other potential threats in the form of old acquaintances. Thematically, Iron Man 3 is similar to The Dark Knight Rises - destroy the hero, put him on his knees so he can rise once again. That being said, Iron Man 3 is more about Tony Stark rather than about, you know, Iron Man. The similarities with The Dark Knight Rises don't stop here. Both movies have overly complicated stories. Not complicated in the intellectual way, mind you, but in a way that there are just too many intertwined subplots in the movie. Since this is the case, Iron Man 3 is prone to have some plot holes. I, myself, didn't notice many of them nor did I let them diminish my viewing experience, but I'm sure other people will notice them and they'll get frustrated. Anyway, the question remains - why all the TDKR similarities? And it's not only me, I've already seen people on the internet jokingly call this movie Iron Man Rises. To answer this question, we'll need to go back in 2012 when the Avengers exploded at the box office. Iron Man 3 was the first Marvel movie to be released after the Avengers and the stakes were pretty high. No doubt everyone involved wanted this sequel to continue the Avenger's financial success. When everyone realised they can't possibly re-create that success, they turned their heads to another last year superhero box office juggernaut, and copied it instead. And that's how the Iron Man franchise also jumped on the whole Dark Knight Trilogy bandwagon. I find this to be ironic since DC is trying to copy Marvel's Avengers by creating a Justice League movie. However, all of this is strictly my opinion.
There's another famous rule in cinema, affecting especially superhero movies, which says that the movie is as good as its villain. And so we come to the Mandarin. Ben Kingsley's Mandarin, in spite of how hard the trailers wanted to convince you, is not the main antagonist of the movie. Which is a damn shame, since he may be Iron Man's most famous villain. Instead of being the main bad guy, he plays this disappointingly strange role which I can't explain thoroughly without spoiling the movie. So yes, the movie is as good as its villain - Iron Man 3 is disappointingly strange. It puzzles me why he wasn't given the role he deserves. The reason for that can't be the 'realism', since the real main villain's powers aren't convincing as well, which contradicts Shane Black's statement that Iron Man will be fighting real world-type villains. I'll just say that regarding the villain, there's a definitive Dark Knight Trilogy vibe.
Now that I got the two main things in superhero movie, the story and the villain out of the way, I must say I fairly enjoyed everything else - especially the humour. The acting is decent (Ben Kingsley being the best actor), the action is superb and the several Iron Man suits that show up in the movie are also nice. All in all, it seems that Iron Man 3 works best as a dumb popcorn flick. Unfortunately, it has no real re-watch value.
Rating: 7/10 Read more at http://passpopcorn.wordpress.com/