Iron Man 3 gets Tony Stark’s trajectory back on course. Director Shane Black (who previously worked with Robert Downey Jr on Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) knows how to maximize the Iron Man’s talents, and here Tony Stark spends most of the film suit less. Despite an overlong exposition, Iron Man 3 does exactly what a summer movie should do: it gets lots of laughs and excites with some wonderful elaborate action sequences. Iron Man 3 finds the secret for Tony Stark: he should spend some time talking to kids.
Iron Man 3 is more of an Avengers sequel than an Iron Man sequel. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is in the middle of fits of insomnia and anxiety attacks due to the alien invasions from the Avengers. Little does Tony know his own past is coming back for him. 15 years ago, Tony was given a New Year’s Eve business proposal from Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce). Tony elects to miss their meeting by hooking up with a botanist (Rebecca Hall). In the present, an assassin called the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) is wreaking havoc on the United States with bombs that appear out of nowhere. When someone close to Stark becomes involved in one of the bombing attempts, he makes an open threat to the Mandarin, not realizing how it may affect the other people in his life, Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Col. Rhodes (Don Cheadle).
The exposition in Iron Man 3 is surprisingly long (don’t worry, there are a few cool explosions along the way). Exposing what is truly going on takes some time; one of the successes of Iron Man 3 is keeping the audience’s attention during this time. Downey gets to have a relationship with a little kid (Ty Simpkins) that generates the biggest laughs in the movie (with one giant exception: the fate of the Mandarin). It’s risky keeping Stark/Pepper/Rhodes apart, but their relationships are already established in Iron Man lore; splitting up the principals allows more relationships to develop more quickly. Not all of the exposition is adequately explored, but there is enough to make the climax have stakes.
The biggest failing of Iron Man 3 is due to the logic leaps. Now that we know the Avengers exist in the same universe, any story that escalates to the President should involve the whole team. Captain America and the Hulk should be ashamed of themselves. The secrets behind the bombs are never properly explained; a few lines of dialogue would have solved that problem. More importantly, the bad guys weakness isn’t properly diagnosed, so the climax is left completely up in the air and arbitrary.
Lots of the fun from Iron Man comes from the special effects, and Iron Man 3 builds upon the previous two entries. The raid on Tony’s home is pretty spectacular, capturing the intensity of falling into the ocean. The final 30 minutes have two wonderful sequences that rival the end of the Avengers: multiple people falling from a plane, and a raid on an industrial complex. The raid in particular is exceptional, the special effects are brilliant, but the dialogue and humor are still present and surprising. The climax of Iron Man 3 never loses sight of what makes audiences love about superheroes, and in that sense it makes the climax all the more enjoyable.
Iron Man 3 puts even more pressure on Robert Downey Jr., as he has to be by himself in tiny towns most of the time with new characters. Downey is up to the challenge; his Stark is mostly himself, and even a little more distressed with the anxiety attacks. Downey’s charisma is intoxicating, elevating any performance when bouncing off of him. Gwyneth Paltrow gets to show off some physicality (even donning a suit) as Pepper, and Don Cheadle is in on the joke this time as Col. Rhodes. Upstaging Downey is Ben Kingsley, who’s take on the Mandarin is surprising and gut busting. I was near tears watching Kingsley’s interpretation and Downey’s reaction to it. Guy Pearce is really good at playing oily characters, making him a good Killian. Rebecca Hall is underutilized as a former fling of Tony Stark; she needed more screen time.
Iron Man 3 is a great start to the 2013 summer movie season. The Avengers went big last year, so Iron Man 3 goes home. It is big but not upstaging, and takes solace in the fun banter of its leads. Now that we know Tony Stark can interact with kids, I”m ready for his next adventure. I’d love to see him interact with all manner of things: give him a dog, a cat, a really old person, or a doll. Downey is so magnetic he could mine any of those relationships for all they’re worth.