The Best of the Iron Man films so far; Mandarin obsessives stay home

Rating: 7/10 (4 May 2013)

The Mandarin was going to be a problem.
Among Iron Man's rogues gallery, the Mandarin was going to be, perhaps, the toughest one to update. The visual basis for the character seemed to be the Fu-Manchu mold; his connection to the Cold War world of the original Iron Man was also problematic, but the Asian stereotype thing was either going to be straight up offensive, or mock-ably silly. The comics writers seemed to manage (just) to breathe new life into the character a bit, by choosing to develop the old character tropes in the light of a better understanding of Eastern cultures (sufficiently so for an ongoing comics series, anyway). But how do you bring a story arc with a character with that complicated a genesis to a major feature film series in the modern day without turning the story into an outdated Sax Rohmer adventure?
Bringing in Shane Black, who turned in a very good modern noir/ mystery/ comedy with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and Ben Kingsley, who plays a Mandarin, that those who hold the original Stan Lee (Larry Lieber?) and Don Heck creation as beyond reproach, may actually hate; too bad, because the pieces of the Mandarin that are thrown to the fire for Iron Man 3, fuel a cracking good storyline involving another Marvel villainous institution (AIM) and Warren Ellis' contribution to the mythos, the Extremis virus.
The film is framed as a confessional, as Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) recalls (as much as he can, that is) a very drunken Millennial New Year's Party (pre-super-armor), where he picks up researcher Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall), and is approached by AIM's Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), whose AIM proposal is dismissed by Stark. His brush-off of Killian and playboy tryst with Hansen will come back to haunt him...
... in "the present day", where Stark suffers restless insomnia and panic attacks following the mind-blowing cosmicness of his foray with aliens and gods in The Avengers. He tries to deal with it by endlessly tinkering with Iron Man armors, which friend Rhodey (Don Cheadle) and girlfriend Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) both agree is not helping. Also not helping are the exploits of The Mandarin (Kingsley), an apparent international terrorist in something like the Bin Laden mode, but, Stark notes, who talks like "a baptist preacher." When The Mandarin's bombings end up harming his longtime pal and head of security, Happy Hogan (the returning Jon Favreau, director of the 1st two Iron Man films), Stark decides to take things personally and impulsively issues a threat to the terrorist leader.
This impulsive act, unfortunately, directly moves Stark and his beloved Pepper (also Stark Industries' CEO) into the bull's-eye, and the ninety minutes that follow show us Stark as Iron Man, the hero, but also as a vulnerable human struggling to strategize his way out of an increasingly horrific situation.
Along the way, it was a complete delight to find an Iron Man film so entertaining and recognizably coming from the creator of the offbeat Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (and, for that matter, Lethal Weapon).
Black has a knack, an affection for offbeat, unbalanced heroes, and Downey's Iron Man is certainly the most unbalanced of Avengers' class of 2012 (okay MAYBE the Hulk, but his mood shifts are more on/ off switch volatile than kooky). Black's film also succeeds as a stand-alone that effortlessly exploits the larger Marvel cinematic universe, using Stark's Avengers experiences as a jumping-off point for some further (though never ponderous) soul searching. This is the smartest and funniest Iron Man (stand alone) film yet, and certainly among the smartest and most daring re-writes of a major comics property since Ang Lee's Hulk.
The difference? Ang Lee's film ended up confused and confusing, losing its' great green superstar in the process. Iron Man 3 leaves us a resilient and smart franchise with the chutzpah we should expect from a superhero.
And, naturally, you're staying till after the credits, right?