Iron Man 3: Pretty Good

Rating: 10/10 (25 April 2013)

Iron Man 3 is Marvel's latest entertaining cash-cow. As a huge fan of comics in general, I was really looking forward to this movie. From the trailers I had already resigned myself to the fact that we live in a "post 9/11" world. Having accepted that, I was ready for a movie about terrorists or evil corporations or wars with other countries. This was not what I had expected. In fact, it took some risks and liberties with the Iron Man mythos that may upset hardcore fans. However, I consider myself a hardcore fan and I liked it fine.
There was this little movie that came out a while ago called Avengers. This is a direct follow-up to that independent low-budget cult film (ok enough sarcasm). Iron Man 3 takes place a little after the 'New York' incident ' (the events of the Avengers, not to be confused with 9/11), where after Tony Stark has decided to do what every millionaire superhero does in the third part of a trilogy: become an obsessive hermit. He builds better stronger multi-application suits in his spare time. What can I say, he's better at pissing away money than Bruce Wayne. Stark narrates the film, possibly reading from a copy of Warren Ellis's 'Extremis' (I really wanted that to be the ending). I won't write what happens in case you haven't read that book, but I will say this is more of Stark's past coming back to bite him in the ass... much like the other 2 films (albeit in a different way). This sequence sets the tone for the rest of the film.
The villains are terrorists using bio-enhancements. That's about all I can say without spoiling the movie, really. (there's a spoilers version on my blog)
Shane Black takes charge of this part of the trilogy, which was a great choice of directors. I'm a fan of his amazing dialogue and very intelligent, elaborate fight scenes. Keeping in mind this is Shane Black, I was expecting a darker plot. Gladly, he kept it light and campy when it needed to be, but also wasn't afraid to pull out a death scene. He really knows how to pump up the intensity. I felt like this was a true successor to the Avengers in terms of tone (and I think music as well), but also wasn't afraid of exploring it's villains a little deeper. It's still comic booky and it's REALLY soaks that in. It's not afraid to be over-the-top, which I admire. I thought that was a major flaw with the Nolan Batman films. They seemed to be ashamed of being comic book movies, so they ended up not feeling like it.
The fight scenes are goofy as hell but just what I want to see from a comic book movie. The dialogue is ridiculously good. Stark is snarky and always has something to say, just the way we like it. They don't ignore the existence of the rest of the movies. In fact there are clever references all over the place. The soundtrack does it's job. If you were a fan of the Avengers soundtrack, you'll notice the similarities (particularly the ending scene track of this movie and 'A Promise'). Musical motifs linking the movies are definitely in there.... (Go to Full Review to read the rest)