Good film, but still left the nasty taste of iron in my mouth

Rating: 8/10 (20 May 2013)

I kept hearing how this film was better than Iron Man 2, which I actually enjoyed so my expectations were a bit high. However, I tempered them a bit as I could see what was going to disappoint me a lot when I was watching the trailers. So I went to the film, and I enjoyed it for the most part...I liked it a bit better than two. Mainly due to the longer action scene at the end, but the disappointment was there too. What disappointed me so, you ask? The villain of the piece, of course. Being a fan of comics in general it was just a tough pill to swallow. Still, the film still managed to be very entertaining all the same.
The story, has Tony Stark recounting a trip he had in Switzerland back in 1999, where he had a fling and kind of was a jerk to a man insistent on seeing him. Flash years later and a terrorist known as the Mandarin has been planting bombs and is at war with the U.S. The U.S. responds by sending Col. James Rhodes and war machine, now dubbed The Iron Patriot after him. Well Tony is going through some trouble, frequently having panic attacks, most likely brought upon by the attack upon New York seen in the Avengers film. Tony is brought into the hunt for the Mandarin when his friend and former body guard Happy is severely injured in the Mandarin's latest attack. Tony dares the Mandarin to come get him and the Mandarin does just that sending attack helicopters that decimate Tony's home and leave him stranded in Tennessee where Tony is able to piece together the full story and finds that there is something going on and it has nothing to do with a terrorist detonating bombs.
The story played out pretty good, but the whole Mandarin thing was a disappointment. I had been waiting to see Iron Man's main nemesis since movie one. I am still waiting as what I expected to happen did. The Mandarin was just a fraud and the real villain is very easily figured out. I was happy that the real villain did have powers, but it was kind of like Molten Man's power. The villains heat up to a high temperature and can melt through even the Iron Man armor. People try to say they were doing something different, but I think that is only a small portion of it. For one, the director had stated he did not really want to do the Mandarin. Why get a director that has issues with a character? It is like forcing Venom on Sam Rami who hated the character or putting Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich in charge of Godzilla when they hate Godzilla. It doesn't make sense. Another reason, and the main one is that I am guessing they had already decided to put as many Iron Man suits on display as possible. This takes time and money. Well the Mandarin uses ten rings in the comics each with a specific power which translates in Hollywood to ten costly special effects that they were to cheap and lazy to do. Much easier to do the same effect for the villains over and over. So no Mandarin in his true form and thanks to the introduction of him in this film, no Mandarin ever unless they reboot the series.
Once again, the film was still good. I enjoyed it, I just would have enjoyed it more with the real Mandarin. The action was done very well, it had a lot of funny moments and it was cool how they referenced the Avengers film. So a lot of good to be found. Just the nerd in me that is severely disappointed. It would be like if they made a Batman film and had Batman fighting a villain and they crash into a birthday party. A clown at the party sprays Batman with a flower and Batman pushes him angrily saying, "Out of the way, 'joker'" and this is what counts as the Joker in the movie. Sure, it was funny, but also highly disappointing. It is also disappointing that Robert Downey Jr. will no longer do any stand alone Iron Man films as they do make for a good super hero film. So was it better than two? Yes, but not by all that much in my opinion.