Iron Man 3 is an enjoyable, albeit disappointing, conclusion to the Iron Man trilogy

Rating: 7/10 (2 March 2014)

If there was any movie that I was really excited for at the beginning of the year, it was Iron Man 3. The trailers of that movie looked awesome! Recently, I went to go see the movie with my entire middle school. Was it as good as I thought it was going to be? Not quite. In this movie, Tony Stark is having a moral crisis. He's having nightmares and he's gotten crazy with creating suites. Meanwhile, a new villain named The Mandarin comes in and threatens America. Tony must find out the secret behind the Mandarin and discover himself as well. Okay, now onto the review. The story of Tony Stark is good. It shows more of an intense, serious side of Tony, which is nice to see. But it is ruined by the plot behind The Mandarin. It's really dorky and cheesy. It tries to be funny, but it comes off stupid with one of the most unnecessary plot twists ever. I'm not going to spoil what happens, but it's disappointing. It's too bad, because the first half of the movie was doing great! When the plot twist happened, it got ruined. Another problem I have with the movie is the humor. I know they're trying to be funny and quirky, but some of the jokes come out forced and unnecessary. I was kind of hoping it would be more serious, dark, and intense. Nope. The jokes are still funny and definitely chuckle worthy, but some of them weren't needed. What also bugged me was that Iron Man 3 didn't have enough Iron Man in it. Yes, Tony Stark made a lot of suites, and yes, he fights in them, but that's about it. This is more about Tony Stark as a person, and not as much as him as Iron Man. They could've called this movie "Tony Stark- The Movie" and be just fine. You may think I hate this movie from the looks of it, but the movie is actually pretty good. It had a lot of good elements, like the acting. The acting is good and believable. Sometimes you can see the stress in people. I may have complained that there isn't enough "Iron Man" in the movie, but it's also pretty good. It makes Tony a really believable and relatable character. I like how he acts less of a playboy and more of a man with his own weaknesses and more vulnerability. This is nice! I like this! The best part of this movie is the special effects. They are amazing. (WARNING: SPOILER ALERT): My jaw literally dropped when Stark's tower collapsed. (SPOILER OVER) They looked so realistic and cool! Very flashy! The fight scenes are very flashy as well. It's pretty intense and exciting. It's probably the most brutal Iron Man movie yet! Overall, the movie was good, but disappointing. It had a lot of good elements, like the story behind Iron Man, the acting, the believability of Tony Stark, the special effects, and the fight scenes. What really hurt the movie was the Mandarin plot. It's a good movie, but it's not as good as Iron Man 1 or 2. It's still definitely worth a watch. Just don't expect A+ quality material.