Lacks innovation

Rating: Null/10 (5 July 2015)

To me this is one of the lesser Marvel films, meaning it belongs to the same category as Iron Man 2 and The Incredible Hulk in terms of quality. By all objective accounts it's still a good film, don't get me wrong, but it cannot hold a candle to the better Marvel films.
Why, you may ask? A couple of reasons. First, the general plot. It's simply the same story that we've already seen in the two previous Iron Man films. In the first one it was great. Science, technology, gorgeous flying around, missiles, explosions, quick-witter banter, Robert Downey Jr. in the role of his life. The second one also benefited from those same qualities and failed for other reasons. But now, in the third installment of the franchise? The novelty has truly worn off. Sure, one might argue that it's nice to have a formula and that it wouldn't feel like an Iron Man story without certain elements. I argue that it'd be nice to explore other aspects of Tony Stark's character instead of watching him endlessly battle enemies of his own making. At least this time the villain isn't just a carbon copy of him, only evil. Well... he kind of is, but at least not as blatantly.
And to the film's credit, there is some new ground covered and it's nice that the plot takes the events of The Avengers into account. Downey Jr. is still a fantastic Tony Stark and in this film he's given a chance to explore and play the character at his lowest point, which works pretty well indeed. The action also works, the suits are still gorgeous, the special effects beautiful and it's a professionally done film in every way possible.
The second problem, however, are the characters, at least the new ones. They're simply not all that interesting. There are a couple of good twists, but when a guy walks into the room and he's so smarmy that he might as well carry a flashing neon sign with VILLAIN written on it, it's not that much of a surprise when he turns out to be the bad guy. The new kid sidekick they bring in is also aggravating, annoying and needed about as much as an ice cone machine in Greenland.
Iron Man 3 is not a bad film. It's perfectly functional as a summer blockbuster and a good popcorn film by all accounts. But when you compare it to the Phase One movies, its flaws start to show.