Iron Man 3

After The Avengers ended Phase One of Marvel's cinematic takeover, I was curious where things would go. We knew we were getting an Iron Man 3, Thor 2, Captain America 2 and The Avengers 2. But, where would the individual series take us? How would the individual movies weave through what came before and would they discuss the other characters, or explain why they do not call The Avengers to help? I feel like those are pretty common questions to have had once Phase Two began this weekend. With the second biggest opening weekend ever, Iron Man 3 proves that marvel is still doing things right, and they managed to create a film that works as a stand alone picture without ignoring the events from The Avengers. If you were looking for something that basically continues the Avengers, you are going to be disappointed. You will also be disappointed if you want a film that plays exactly like Iron Man and Iron Man 2. With Jon Favreau stepping away from the director's chair, Iron Man 3 looked to infuse new blood into the franchise by bringing in Shane Black to direct and co-write the script. If you do not know who Black is, stop reading, go find Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, watch it and you will understand why Black being brought on to this project made me infinitely more excited than I already was. Yet, you will also understand why the movie was probably going to be a bit different. Black likes to turn tropes and cliches on their heads. He likes to fake out the audience and subvert expectations. it is what made him such a highly sought after screenwriter in the early 1990s. Giving Joss Whedon the keys to the franchise for The Avengers showed that Marvel/Disney was not afraid to take chances and letting Black take over the most profitable character that Marvel/Disney have, shows even more guts. And if you think letting Whedon direct the Avengers was not risky, you are a silly human being.

Set months after The Avengers, Iron Man 3 finds our hero, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) still shaken. He does not sleep. He cannot explain what happened to anyone. He experiences severe panic attacks. In order to cope, he tinkers in his workshop all day and night. He is currently working on his 42nd Iron Man suit. There is clearly something wrong, but he cannot figure out how to deal. He stands up Pepper (Gwyneth Pantrow) for date night and eventually breaks down to her, but it does not fix anything. Quickly his world is rocked by a villain who calls himself The Mandarin. The Mandarin is setting off bombs across the world, but no one can find the bomb after the mess clears. He also likes to take control of the airwaves with videos of Anti-American rhetoric, threats and ominous warnings. Stark wants Rhoades (Don Cheadle) to give him some information on The Mandarin, but Rhoades tells him it is not superhero business. Stark lets it go until The Mandarin sets off a bomb in Los Angeles and knocks Stark's former bodyguard Happy (Favreau) into a coma. Then it becomes personal and Stark's ego gets him in trouble when he announces his home address on television daring the Mandarin to come get him. On other side of things there is a man named Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) who used to know Pepper and actually met Tony in 1999. In 1999 Killian was a nerdy ugly guy with a limp and Tony had some fun at his expense. In 2013 Killian is a very good looking well put together man whose Think Tank has come up with a way to regenerate human limbs. He brings it to Pepper to invest, but she sees it only as a weapon and a way to create super soldiers, so she passes on it. Killian and The Mandarin are working together but in what way?

Iron Man 3 is not perfect, but it is ridiculously entertaining and even reaches beyond just being entertaining. The movie does not, however, deliver on the expected. It is a move that will probably frustrate hordes of comic book fans for years to come, and it was a daring move, but remember what I said in the opening, Shane Black likes to subvert our expectations. Rarely is a summer blockbuster shocking or surprising and honestly Iron Man offers one hell of a shock about 2/3 of the way in. Black and Marvel gets props for being willing to take that risk and while I will not divulge it here, I will say this, it worked for me. It worked for me because the rest of the movie is so awesome and because Ben Kingsley's performance as The Mandarin is so great. He throws himself fully into the character that I wanted to follow it wherever it was going. That being said, I understand why people would be disappointed, but if it is the sole purpose for not liking the movie, I cannot get behind that. Black's screenplay is not perfect and a second viewing pointed out one glaring hole that I cannot seem to reconcile story wise, but his handling of the twist and his handling of Stark's character post The Avengers is excellent. I did miss having Nick Fury and Agent Coulson around and I was a bit dismayed that Coulson did not get a shout out, seeing as how close Pepper and Coulson had gotten, but since this is essentially a stand alone picture, I understand.

For his part, Robert Downey Jr. is mesmerizing. I know it sounds silly to think he should be considered for awards nominations for this, but that is how good I felt he was. He gives Stark a few new layers in this film and he commits to every new layer and every new character development. Yes, the smug wittiness of Stark is still front and center, but the panic attacks, the sudden insomnia all show chinks in his armor. There is even a moment early on when his new suit, the 42, basically attacks him as he tries to get it on. It sets up the metaphor of his suits attacking his life in a great way and that metaphor carries through the movie as his suits are called a distraction by more than one person. For me, through, the greatness of RDJ comes out the most during the middle section when Stark has no suits and he is in Tennessee investigating a bombing that looks eerily similar to The Mandarin's but happened before the Mandarin started taking credit for the bombings. Stark joins forces with an 11 year old kid, Harley (Ty Simpkins) and their chemistry and their rapport are just stellar. I love how Stark talks to the kid like he would any other adult. This shows that A. Stark is a bit out of touch, and B. That smugness of his is not actually a front. It is who he really is. The best lines in the whole film come during their scenes together. It is when the film is at its funniest and also its most interesting because we are not used to seeing Stark in need of anything, well except that whole thing above his heart keeping him alive.

The action sequences are well paced and well timed and they flat out rock. The first big action sequence where Stark's mansion gets destroyed is quite thrilling and quite a feat of Computer generated images. It was very quick and serious demolition and to see Stark's mansion destroyed with such ease was kind of shocking, even though we see it happen in the trailers. There was something about seeing it happen with such ease that put me in the mind that maybe Stark was really going to struggle in this film. The CGI is leaned on heavily in this movie and I felt they did an excellent job. Once the secrets are out about Killian's experiments and we see all of his soldiers with this fiery lava coursing through their veins, the film really takes off in terms of action. Without his suit, Stark has to avoid these seemingly indestructible beings, using just his wits and his fighting technique. He gets tossed around a bit which was, again, weird to see. I loved that action sequence though because it showed that Iron Man is not just a suit of armor. Stark has become heroic in every sense of the word and even without his suits, he finds a way to be a hero. The scene I was most looking forward to in the film was hinted at in the trailer where Stark has to catch a bunch of people who were free falling after Air Force One was compromised. The movie did not disappoint me in that scene. it is not the biggest action scene and it is not a loud explosive scene, but there was this thrilling element to it and even though I figured the outcome, I was still on edge. Plus, it had a weird humor to it and it felt very much like something Black and RDJ would have concocted together.

With any big budget action movie, you have to have a massive scale climatic action sequence and Iron Man 3 is no different. Stark and Rhoades, outnumbered by a whole grip of Super Soldiers, call on Stark's ample supply of Iron Man suits to save the day. What we end up with is these remotely controlled suits battling super soldiers, Rhoades trying to save the President, and Stark trying to fend of Killian and save Pepper all at the same time. It is a dazzling display of camerawork, editing, effects and pacing. There are explosions galore, great hand to hand fights and this incredibly cool sequence of Stark going in and out of all these different Iron Man prototype suits as Killian slices through the metal with his fiery body. The climax is one of my favorites from an action movie in a while. No, it is not as thrilling as The Avengers climax, but what is?

Iron Man 3 is a clever, fast, and thrilling summer blockbuster. it also manages to wonder aloud how a world can be afraid of anything human after they watched aliens and Gods all over television in The Avengers. it turns out the answer is to give them a face on fear. Give them fear they can recognize. Give them a fear that looks an awful lot like the face of fear in a post 9/11 America. It makes perfect sense. The thought might not be fully flushed out in the film, but I can see what Black was going for. There is a pageantry to the human terrorism in this movie and Stark remarks about the theatrical nature of the fear. When we are given a face to put on fear, it focuses us. Killian understand that. This film understands how much fear we still have of people from another country bombing us. We hate fear we cannot understand from humanity. I think that fear from aliens or Gods makes sense, but fear from other humans is still the most terrifying thing.
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Final Grade: A-