Iron Man
3 02/05/2013
Director:
Shane Black
Writers:
Shane Black & Drew Pearce
2013
We have
arrived at Iron Man 3, and the series is now well established, with a little
help from his friends, The Avengers. That film is a hard act to follow, and the
new Iron Man's story is very much a continuation on from that, featuring small
references as well as the anxiety Stark is suffering from, which is the driving
force for his character development. This was perhaps the wisest move made by
the writing team of Shane Black (also director) and Drew Pearce. They come from
the point of view that Stark is a talented mechanic, and that dealing with
gods, aliens, and a near death experience isn't what he set out to deal with
when he first donned his armour in Iron Man (2008).
There are
many ramifications of this – a threat to his relationship with Pepper Potts
(Gwyneth Paltrow, who got a bigger role), his obsession with building new
armour (now up to version 42, which in my opinion has a little too much gold on
it, but whatever, I can't even build a robot), and his general reluctance to
deal with his life. Stark has (certainly in the movies) always been more
towards the 'responds with a witticism and all winning self confidence' end of
the superhero brooding scale, and while there was elements of realism and grit
in the previous films, giving him genuine mental anguish changes the character
fundamentally. That risk paid off.
What worked
less for me was the external threat. Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin was
brilliant, being portioned out throughout the film in well made, and
threatening, monologues intended to strike fear in to (the Marvel version of)
the USA. It was a cool tactic, and I kept connecting the look of the character
along with the style of his videos with real world terrorists, particularly
Osama Bin Laden. However all the mystery and intrigue this created fell flat
towards the end of the film and I was left still demanding satisfaction. The
other threat – Guy Pearce as Aldrich Killian, while well acted, failed to
really get my attention. Perhaps it was because the Mandarin was initially so
well executed, but Killian never felt like a real threat, clever, powerful, and
dangerous: yes. Unnerving: no.
I was
entertained at all times, and that is what I want from these films. The action
was on par with the first two efforts (although I was dubious about the level
of threat Stark was able to deal with when not suited up), and the already
mentioned anxiety did not stop the now obligatory one liners, served with a
side of likeability by Robert Downey JR. who has been consistently high quality
over 4 films. I didn't see an issue with him being able to carry on with his
role for another couple of films at least. I will give a special mention for
the writing/acting of Harley (Ty Simpkins), a ten year old that helps Stark out
through a particular low point. I have an extremely low threshold to child
sidekicks/helpers in films, but there wasn't too much of this kid, he wasn't
trying to be anything that most 10 year olds aren't, and he was part of some of
the biggest laughs. What a nice change.
If you liked
the others, then this will still be worth a trip out, and in many ways it is
superior to them (character development). New director for the series Shane
Black did well attempting something different with the thriller aspects (though
I did miss Favreau's touch). Micky Rourke still takes the prize for the best
villain of the trilogy though, and I think that some of the cool concepts that
where available didn't have an impact on screen.
