Monday 29 April 2013

Iron Man 3

So yet again I am sorry it has been quite slow recently here on my blog but I am back and ready to review Iron Man 3, you didn't think I'd miss this one out did you? And as always the review is spoiler free! The Avengers made a tonne of money so Marvel can now put more into their solo films making this the biggest Iron Man film to date, but was it the  best? The start of Marvel Phase 2 is here and it kicks off with a bang! After a lacklustre sequel is Iron Man 3 the best film of series so far?

In this instalment we see Tony Stark at his lowest after the event of The Avengers have taken their tole on his mental state and unluckily for him The Mandarin is at large. After series of attacks on America and one that hits too close to home, Tony must go after the worlds biggest terrorist. The story takes some elements of the Extremis story arc in the comics however new director and writer Shane Black only takes elements of this storyline and a few others to make his own piece.

As you may have already guessed Robert Downey Jr once again kicks ass as Tony Stark as does Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts and surprisingly Don Cheadle, who is less annoying this time round as War Machine/Iron Patriot, much better than Iron Man 2 as he was given a bit more to do this time round. New additions to the cast include Ben Kingsley who plays the brilliant role of The Mandarin but a different type of villain to the one you may have seen in the comics. We also get to see Rebecca Hall as scientist Maya Hansen and Guy Pearce playing Aldrich Killian, both great in their roles also.

After a not so great sequel, Iron Man 3 returns to the original by stripping Tony away of everything, no Avengers or S.H.I.E.L.D to help him, allowing us to see the man we saw in a cave in Afghanistan creating the Mark 1 suit. However the threequel does also feel very different to it's predecessors, sometimes this is not always a good thing with the film dipping it's feet in many different genres such as comedy, action, thriller and even at one point it felt like a family movie with the introduction of a child who stays at Stark's side for a short period of the film. Not as annoying as it initially may sound.

There is a lot of cool action in this film and the best of it is not when Tony is suited up, instead it is when
he only has parts of his suit on him or none at all. The full suit action was just as fun, though it does seem that they are a lot more breakable than the other films. The effects as always are pretty awesome and are at their best during a scene where Iron Man must save a bunch of civilians falling out of a plane. The look of the new suits are awesome as well and I am very happy that they decided on revamping War Machine to The Iron Patriot suit.

There are a lot of twists and turns in this film which is great and some really bold moves by Marvel. One twist however will leave the audience in two minds,
you will be either be happily surprised or disappointed  I am yet to make my mind up.

The writing from Shane Black is great and Tony Stark continues his funny streak from The Avengers some jokes may fall flat with some people but I had a blast. My criticisms of the film would be that some sequences were quite predictable and the ending seemed a bit rushed. The soundtrack also lacked the awesome ACDC tracks that I feel really complemented Iron Man in the first two films. The film as whole though is a lot of fun, it was a lot better than Iron Man 2 but failed to blow me away the way the original did. A lot of critics are saying it is better than The Avengers however I do disagree with this, either way this was a very good start to Marvel Phase 2 and I cannot wait to see what the rest of the films have in store and what Joss Whedon has up his sleeve for The Avengers 2! I am giving Iron Man 3 a rating of 4/5.

Remember to stick around after the credits and look out for yet another great cameo from Stan 'The Man' Lee.

Thanks for reading! What did you think of Iron Man 3? Please comment below.