Film Review: Iron Man 3

As a note, this review is relatively spoiler-free.

Iron Man 3 does its best to spin numerous plates in the air at once, and it’s debatable as to whether or not it succeeds. There’s a lot going on here: Marvel gives you AIM, the Mandarin, an “Extremis” adaptation, a “Five Nightmares” adaptation and an Avengers sequel. Iron Patriot is thrown in, Tony has a million new suits and there are plenty of new names and faces to become familiar with throughout the course of the film. Shane Black compared the film to a Tom Clancy-type political thriller, and he’s not too far off in that this is perhaps the most realistic Iron Man film yet, balancing real world issues in a series that is more known for its improbability and comic book scope. The thing is, though, that the real world is not what Iron Man needs.

The biggest problem with Iron Man 3 is that it came out after The Avengers. Not for nothing, but The Avengers has essentially changed the tone and expectations for every subsequent superhero film within Marvel’s movie brand; not only do we expect fun and entertaining adventures, but we want the best that comic books have to offer mixed with cinema’s greatest achievements. Iron Man 3 doesn’t particularly offer that. Yes, it certainly has a good deal of comic inspiration, and sure, it’s definitely a superhero movie in the way we see superhero movies in 2013, but it has the unfortunate disposition of being the first offering of Phase 2 after the ultimate triumph in comic-to-movie storytelling. It’s like being given a good looking meal after a delicious main course — you eat it because you don’t want to be rude and you may even enjoy it, but you’re still not enjoying it as much as you probably could.

It’s a lofty goal to follow-up The Avengers with only one Avenger involved, and that’s Iron Man 3’s inherent handicap. Since it acts as a sequel of sorts to that film (which, granted, brings up certain issues about how Iron Man 3 shouldn’t be an Avengers sequel, in the same way that you shouldn’t have to read tie-ins to comic book events), there is this weight that hangs over the film that needs to be addressed within the central plot: Tony’s saving of the day in New York. While it is an interesting recurring plot element, it really only offers up occasional distractions to the story. Tony may be battling with a form of PTSD, but only for moments at a time. He’s Tony Stark, after all, and he’s going to save the day no matter what; you’d hope for more “Demon in a Bottle” allegories here, but apparently they said all they wanted to about Tony’s drinking problems in Iron Man 2. Unfortunately.

So Iron Man 3 tries to balance this tormented hero in a realistic world, but we’re not really interested in a realistic world anymore. In fact, it’s probably safe to say that most people want to see more superhero antics by now, Tony flying around in his suit and battling with people who can take him head on. We’ve already had two human-focused movies by now, both of which are different origin stories in their own right, and The Avengers pretty much paved the way for superhero movies to get to the point. That’s the one thing that most superhero movies don’t particularly “get”: they spend so much time building towards a final fight scene (because that’s what the trope calls for) that they miss the basic fact that everyone is there for the ending. Sure, maybe skipping all of that would remove the viewer from any form of emotional connection, but after three movies it’s not like we don’t already love Tony Stark and Robert Downey Jr’s performance of said character. If Whedon has proved anything by now, it’s that both a character’s humanity and the prime reason to see the film can be balanced quite well. By giving us a pseudo-political thriller in which Tony has to be a human for an hour and a half out of two hours, Iron Man 3 misses its biggest opportunity, and it misses it by a wide margin.

That and, honestly, Tony should’ve called for help. I can understand from a money/contractual obligation it may not have been as easy as all that to throw in another Avenger, but that’s the world these characters now live in, a world with the Avengers. If Tony doesn’t think he needs help when trying to save multiple lives from a major terrorist threat, that’s a poor reflection on his character, and if the script can’t at least acknowledge that in a humorous fashion (the “Super Friends” joke was alright, I guess, but lacking) then that’s a poor reflection on it.

However, if Iron Man 3 is a success in anything, it’s that it’s still a rather charming film. For all of the story aspects that it lacks, the script itself is humorous and easy to embrace, with Downey Jr’s lead performance as engaging as ever. Iron Man worked because the central character never took all of the events too seriously, and that formula stays true to this film, even in the face of real danger where Tony chooses to offer up a quip instead of an easy to understand or productive solution. This aspect is good for disarming the audience and allowing a few rather dark or emotionally devastating moments go by with ease, and helps to keep up a brisk pace throughout.

In fact, the entire cast of the film is at their best. Staples like Paltrow and Cheadle, while not doing particularly better than they had before, both bring their all into their characters; Pepper Potts is perhaps her most intriguing ever, and while Rhodey is underused, where he appears he shines as a strong foible for Tony, two men with cool toys and incredibly different relationships with their suits. Newcomers Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall and James Badge Dale all fit well into the formula in different places within Tony’s sphere of influence, with all three offering up different iterations of a singular idea in a way that grooves well into the machine. Young Ty Simpkins steals the show entirely as a young boy who comes to Tony’s aid, to the extent that you’ll probably want Ty to show up in Avengers 2 alongside Tony, or wherever else he may show up.

And of course there’s Ben Kingsley’s brilliant performance as the Mandarin, but that’s perhaps something best seen to appreciate. If nothing else, it proves how versatile an actor Kingsley can be.

The change between Shane Black and Jon Favreau as director is definitely a good maneuver. Black delivers a film that offers up a bit more intricacy than the previous films did. While the film is definitely played straight in a few aspects, Black’s script and direction offer up a relatively winding road, one in which the end is visible (in the way that it always is with heroic tales like this) but how they get there is clearly a mystery. As mentioned before, there are quite a few spinning plates up in the air throughout, and all of them fall one by one. The trick, though, is that as they fall, they don’t particularly seem to be doing so out of focus; where one aspect of the film falls, another appears to quickly replace it. It’s a rather strong dynamic, really, as everything that doesn’t work is quickly replaced by something that does. Scenes that feel short or dissatisfying are quickly replaced with ones that are more focused and plenty satisfying, and while there are perhaps a few too many instances of on-the-nose remarks and oh-so-clever deus ex machinas abound, that is Tony’s world. There’s no time to stop, there’s no time for too much levity, because that’s not the kind of character Tony is, and even if you stumble you always have to keep moving forward to the next obstacle.

Not only that, but if taken in context within the Iron Man Trilogy, it’s a satisfying close to the film series. It may not be too grand of an Avengers follow-up, but all threads from previous Iron Man films can be found here, including but not limited to the resolution of dangling story lines, the pay-off for lingering plot elements from the first film and a satisfying thematic close to the entire story of Iron Man. It may not be apparent at first, but through the three films we’ve gotten to see excellent growth of Tony Stark into the hero he always was meant to be. He may still be brash, impulsive and a bit of a prick, but he’s our brash, impulsive prick. We’ve been able to grow alongside Tony in his best and worst moments, and no matter how formulaic the film can be at times, there is definitely a certain triumph in watching the character truly come into his own.

And in spite of it all, Tony’s relationship with his suit is a rather nice aspect of the film. It drags at times, and is even frustrating to a point, but there’s something supremely fascinating about watching a man interact with such a literal aspect of himself. Iron Man 3 is not a subtle movie by any means in a lot of what it tries to say about terrorism and corruption, but the relationship between man and machine is still a nice metaphor, and the personification of the suit is well handled. Given that Tony’s humanity is in question for a large majority of the film series, this dynamic does give us a new take on Stark, which is certainly one of the better aspects of the movie.

In retrospect, Iron Man 3 is essentially exactly what you’d expect by going to see a film called Iron Man 3. The first two laid the grounds and the third one wraps it all up, but for better or for worse it doesn’t inherently improve on the formula. It basically just runs on previously established Iron Man blueprints: Tony is met by a force he can’t just quip away, Tony is forced to adapt, Tony adapts. But then again, that’s comics, isn’t it? Not to insult the medium, but it’s largely formulaic and repetitive; the question of value comes from the level of entertainment you receive. And with that, there is no doubt: Iron Man 3 is a very entertaining film. It’s not ground breaking, it’s not the best superhero film, it’s perhaps not even the best Iron Man film — but it’s a good time. There’s certainly something to be said for that.

There’s a line in the movie where a character taunted by Tony Stark asks “That’s all you’ve got? A cheap trick and a cheesy one-liner?” To which Tony replies, “That could be the title of my autobiography.” In many ways, that’s a pretty basic summary of the film. It’s clever to a point, but it’s also slightly repetitive of previous Iron Man films and moments, even formulaic to a point. Yet, there’s nothing implicitly wrong with that, especially when you look at the given nature of it’s source material. Where Iron Man 3 truly thrives is in its well assembled cast, strong direction and the few moments where it acts against basic established genre tropes of the Marvel Universe films, and that’s its biggest accomplishment.

Tony really should’ve just called for help, though.