Iron Man 3 Review

It's been a long time since I've blogged about anything. I realize this. Between college classes, fraternity life and a part time job at a newspaper, I've had no time to write anything since my "Hollywood shared universe model" piece. But school is winding down, and if there's anything in the nerd world that can get me out of my self-imposed blogging exile, it's Iron Man 3. 

I've already hyped up this film enough, between naming it among my top 2013 films I'm looking forward to, analyzing all of the Phase One films including Iron Man 1 and 2, and even commenting on the necessity of the trilogy model in Hollywood. And then of course there are the two Iron Man 3 fanfics I posted, where I tried to cobble together a plot based on fan conjecture and what I knew. I'd like to say in some parts I was actually right on the money, and in other parts...I clearly wasn't. The point is, now that Iron Man 3 is out, and I've actually gotten a chance to see it a couple times, I can make a fully detailed review about it, flaws and all.

Let's start out by saying that, like the first two films, "Iron Man 3" is incredibly well-acted. RDJ kills it as Iron Man/Tony Stark, but what I really love about this film compared to the other two is how the filmmakers decided to brake new ground with the character. Instead of being ego-driven like he is at the start of every other film, announcing his presence while blasting AC/DC, this film starts out with the opening credits singing "Blue Da Ba Dee," signalling a change in tone for our favorite genius billionaire playboy philanthropist. 

This film finally sees some great character development for Stark, building off of "The Avengers" to give Tony panic attacks at the very mention of aliens. His penchant for technology has become a full-blown addiction. Screw Demon in the Bottle, Tony's real problems lie with his overreliance on suits. It's no wonder he creates over 40 of them (all really cool by the way-fangasms abounded when the Silver Centurion and Hulkbuster suits showed up). I reveled at how this film showed a different side of Stark, playing off his anxieties and showing that it's his genius and integrity that make him worthy of being an Avenger, not how awesomely advanced his suit is. 

To that end, the suit isn't actually featured that much in the film, besides the obvious Iron Legion climax. My guess is the filmmakers took a cue from "The Dark Knight Rises" and "Skyfall" by crafting a film that would strip its hero of his toys to show exactly what makes him tick. Thankfully, while Tony is the main focus, his supporting cast get more to do as well. Pepper and Rhodey get bigger roles, with Rhodey's Iron Patriot being a great buddy cop to Stark and Pepper subverting the damsel in distress archetype when she gets her badass moment towards the end. A kid named Harley, who shows up during the second act, also nearly steals the show thanks to his chemistry with Stark, and Stark's inability to treat him as a child. Their energetic rapport signaled something truly new for this series, and Harley came off as innocent without being annoying.

James Badge Dale and Stephanie Stozak are great as Extremis goons, reveling in the power their fiery regenerative abilities give them. Jon Favreau is hilarious in his brief return as Happy Hogan, who may not be the director anymore but whose fate actually kickstarts the plot. The only real downside character-wise is Rebecca Hall's Maya Hansen, who acts fine but never gets a chance to completely flesh out her character. But I've stalled long enough. Let's talk about Mandarin.

Oh yeah, Mandarin. The elephant in the room. In a way, I was looking forward to IM3 even before I thought "Avengers" could happen, thanks to all the interviews saying they were constructing Iron Man as a trilogy and making Mandarin, his ring-wielding arch enemy, the Emperor Palpatine/Lord Voldemort/Sauron puppet master controlling it all. And then when they casted Ben Kingsley, I knew they were going to deliver on that promise. Then the film came out. You know it, I know it, everyone knows it by now-Mandarin in the film is not actually Ben Kingsley, but Guy Pearce's Aldrich Killian, a bit character from the Extremis comics here reimagined as the head of A.I.M. and an intense business rival to Stark. As for Kingsley? He's really Trevor Slattery, a drunken actor hired by Killian as a scapegoat to cover up his faulty, exploding Extremis soldiers. 

What to say about this twist? Well, when I first saw it, I thought it was hilarious but also disrespectful to the canon. I get that the MCU is a separate universe, but the appeal of the films thus far was that they remained relatively faithful to the comics. Why did Shane Black decide to change this character so radically? I'm positive that this subject deserves a rant article all its own, but suffice to say that the Mandarin, while Iron Man's archenemy, is still an incredibly dated character that needed to be upgraded. 

Kingsley's Trevor Slattery was played for laughs, but when Killian is revealed to be the true Mandarin, it's definitely threatening. With his Extremis-fueled martial arts moves, dragon tattoos, and overly complex plan involving manipulating the post-Avengers climate by creating a scapegoat supervillain, I thought he totally came off as a worthy antagonist. He may not have embodied the Mandarin visually the way Kingsley did, but he more than made up for it with his intelligence, insanity, and utter ruthlessness towards Stark and his allies. For reasons better explained in another article, Killian fully deserves to be the MCU's Mandarin. 

His final fight with Tony in particular is also easily the best climax out of all three films. Iron Man finally fought a foe who was truly worthy of facing him physically, one who didn't need a suit of armor to go toe-to-toe with him. The comedy was memorable and well-staged, offering Stark and his friends some of the best one-liners of the trilogy. And unlike "Iron Man 2," this film actually stood on its own. It didn't need to set up another movie, and focused more on closing out Tony's story arc. Him blowing up his suits and removing his arc reactor may seem radical to some, but it's a perfect representation of how he's overcome his anxiety disorder, kicked his technology addiction, and reinvented himself yet again to be the man Pepper needs. 

The ending and the twist, combined with a lot more comedy, will of course be polarizing to many fans. It is certainly a little alienating to see Marvel deviate so far from the formula of Phase I. Instead of subtle comic references, this is an entirely mainstream product. New director Shane Black used Iron Man, and RDJ in particular, to make a throwback to '80s action-comedies. As a fan of movies in general, it makes me happy that the director and Marvel decided to take a chance with changing things up this time out. It certainly does make the film feel fresh, and it fixes many of the flaws of "Iron Man 2," which stuck to the formula a little too much. But in trying to change things up in order to be original, this film doesn't feel quite as magic as the first one, if only because it was doing things just for the sake of being different. 

When comparing this to its predecessors, "Iron Man 3" is right in the middle for me, not as good as 1 but not as average as 2. Since it's the beginning of Phase II, I feel it's wrong to really compare it to other Phase I films, especially the Avengers. However, if I had to rank it among its MCU brothers, it'd be lower than Avengers and Iron Man 1 but higher than all the rest, if only for how, unlike the majority of the Phase I solo films, more emphasis is put on making a great movie with excellent characterization than building towards another film.What I ultimately love is how the standalone plot did allow Tony to gain closure for his solo trilogy, while also logically  building off what his character went through in the previous "Iron Man" films and "The Avengers." 

It's truly a standalone film set in a now fully established shared universe, and succeeds wildly at it. I'd also like to add that, like I pointed out in my trilogy series, that this film heralds a new model wherein franchises can create standalone trilogies that don't necessarily need only three films to complete a character arc. Iron Man 3's character arc works because it's set after Avengers, thereby upending the need for just a trilogy while also functioning perfectly as one.  

This film may not have been the ultimate Iron Man movie I was hoping for, but its willingness to buck expectations and constantly deliver in the action, comedy, story and character moments make it a wondrously entertaining and worthy entry in both the solo "Iron Man" and larger Marvel sagas. It's a great start to Phase II, and I hope Marvel keeps toying with formula and genre conventions in the future so the MCU can continue to be a trailblazer for the film industry. 

As a postscript, the end credits scene was hilarious, but more reminiscent of the Avengers' schwarma scene than anything nerdgasmically awesome like in all the solo Phase I films. It was great to see Mark Ruffalo as Dr. Banner again, even if it was just dozing off at Tony's story. Then again, anyone who reads this could have  had the same reaction Banner did if I went into detail about what I thought of the Mandarin. For my full rant on the Mandarin, and what I think it signifies for this franchise, check back in later.