Stark, Tony
Stark. Man, Iron Man, back once again after a near death experience in The Avengers, dealing with what seems to
be a form of post-traumatic stress after the incident. Then add a crazy
terrorist blowing up his house and you´ve got yourself a good day for Tony.
As the film
started the first thought I had was “oh no” and that thought stayed in my head
for a while. The film´s first half hour had me thinking this was a major
disappointment, which somehow maintained an above 90% on Rottentomatoes. The
problem with the first half hour is that it throws so much emotion at the
audience right away, before the audience has even gotten settled into the film.
It almost felt like we were getting emotional payoffs to an emotional conflict
that we weren´t introduced to yet. The biggest problem all then became the fact
that since the first half tried to do character in a way that didn´t work,
basically nothing happened story wise and so it became awfully boring for a
while, however then everything changed. In the trailer we saw Stark´s house
getting blown to pieces and this is the moment that the film really gets going.
All of a sudden the film has a fairly engaging plot and the characters start to
work and from there on the film was a joy to watch.
One could
say that it is a no brainer that Robert Downey Jr. gives a good performance,
but somehow he doesn´t quite nail the emotional scenes, especially in this
first hour, but that may be due to them feeling forced and unnatural all over. That
being said, he can still make us laugh, the audience, including myself, was
laughing left and right due good writing and comedic timing. However, the two
standout performances were from Guy Pearce and Ben Kingsley, both being perfect
in their roles.
Shane Black
does a pretty good job directing, despite the occasional choice that betrayed
your suspension of belief, but could easily have been avoided. Scenes like the
one briefly seen in the trailer where Iron Man has to rescue several people
falling to their deaths is sure to be one of the most impressive scenes you
will see all year. What was quite neat about the directing is that often
reminded me of an old-school Bond film, a tone that I would argue worked very
well for the film. The climactic action scene is pretty big and bulky with
Michael Bay level of explosions and robots, however the stellar directing keeps
it being fun, with a very cool end fight scene.
Now there
is one scene that needs to be talked about, even though I can´t really talk
about it as it would spoil the film, but anyone who has seen the film will know
what I am talking about. A certain twist in the film, which puts everything on
it´s head already has Iron Man fans worldwide in fury and understandably so.
However, as someone who has never read an Iron Man comic, I thought this was an
ingenious twist, which really brought the film up a notch, however if you read
the comics there is a good chance you will be enraged by this twist.
Iron Man 3
had a lot of potential, but also a lot of pressure. Sadly I can´t say it was
quite what I had hoped for, due to a very lacklustre first half-hour, as well as
too many moments that seemed silly or unbelievable even in a world where Iron
Man is real. The plot is full of holes and maybe not the strongest plot I have
seen, but it is effective and it does have some nice character moments, as well
as the best twist in recent memory. Despite it´s many flaws it is a very
enjoyable (only the original beating in being the best Avengers film) film for
the most part, one that should be seen in theatres with a bunch of your friends
and some popcorn. Oh, and don´t forget the post-credits scene!
3.5/5
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