Good

Rating: 6/10 (8 August 2013)

This is a good movie...!!! :-)
As the latest model from an assembly line that has produced two blockbuster franchises, "Iron Man 3" is bulletproof. So it's pointless for a critic to complain in general terms about sequelitis and superhero overkill. But judged solely in comparison to its corporate cousins, "Iron Man 3" is a defective model. It's lightweight but slow, padded with cheap jokes to disguise how hollow it is. At the helm again is Robert Downey Jr. as playboy inventor Tony Stark, whose arrogant schtick grew so tiresome in "Iron Man 2" and "The Avengers" that he wisely tries to spoof it here. It's a welcome change of pace, but eventually there are so many broken-gadget pratfalls and moments of deflated egotism that they lose their effectiveness.
Still the jokes are better than the sad attempts to give Stark a heart. In the very dull first half-hour of the movie, he is aching about the events in "The Avengers" — you know, that finale when all of Manhattan was reduced to rubble by the superheroes and their adversaries. The widespread human cost of that cataclysm is barely even mentioned, except for how it left Stark feeling vulnerable.
Boo freakin' hoo.
The focus of his fears is girlfriend Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), who has taken over the gizmo manufacturer Stark Industries. When a former research geek named Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) visits the company with a hunky new image and a technology for supercharging human DNA, Pepper politely declines his invitation to invest. So Killian takes the technology to a television terrorist called the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley), who uses it to turn humans into time bombs. Unlike Pearce, Kingsley is a memorable villain, particularly when he channels his inner Russell Brand. But except for a crew's freefall from the besieged Air Force One, the overblown 3-D action sequences are forgettable variations on the rallying cry "Iron suits assemble!" And director/co-writer Shane Black ("Kiss Kiss Bang Bang") tarnishes the entire franchise with a sticky subplot in which Iron Man crashes in a Tennessee town and adopts a little-kid sidekick (Ty Simpkins). "Iron Man 3" is the creakiest comic-book movie in Marvel's recent history. But hey, if your idea of a good time is dodging exploded logic, scattershot wisecracks and war-on-terror scare tactics, knock yourself out.