No. No. No. No. No.
This was pretty much my reaction upon
the credits rolling at the end of this film, it was a film that didn’t deliver
and seemed more interested in clever one liners and jokes than telling any kind
of interesting story.
Spoilers beyond this point!
Iron Man 3, is the
first film after last years mammoth release The
Avengers which brought together it’ four main heroes and few secondary ones
(where they were during the events of this film is an issue, don’t let fan boys
tell you it isn’t) and made around $1.5bn. It’s also, obviously, the third in
the Iron Man series. A franchise that after a great opening instalment, failed
to deliver or evolve in its sequel Iron
Man 2, which became more of a two hour commercial for the rest of Marvels
Cinematic Universe. So there was a real need for this franchise to get back to
it’s earlier form.
Let’s start with the good parts of Iron Man 3, Robert Downey Jr is superbly entertaining as usual,
delivering numerous one liners that pepper the script with perfect precision
both in terms of timing and the tone needed to carry them off. He makes the
best of a somewhat sloppy central arc, adding much more to it through his look
and physical state than the dead on dialogue that he has to deliver.
It’s going to be hard for Marvel to find a replacement for
Downey Jr, if he decides enough is enough with this character and series, and
judging by the weariness that seems to be on show with the series as a whole,
that day may not be far off.
Bin Kingsley and Guy Pearce give solid if somewhat standard
performances as the villain, its seems as though like Mickey Rourke in the
previous film, they weren’t given enough time to really capitalize or fully
build there characters. Which is a shame, considering how charismatic Pearce is,
and how superb Kingsley is as the Mandarin. Pearce’s few scenes with Paltrow
are some of the most sinister of all the Marvels films, it’s a shame we weren’t
given more of it.
Unfortunately that is pretty much where the good ends, yes
the effects are good, but that is never something that a film of this size
should ever hang its appeal on. The overall plot of the film is muddled, we
have Tony trying to solve a mystery and Rhodes hunting down the Mandarin, or if
two scenes can really be construed as a hunt. A lot of time is given to
character moments with Tony, but its most definitely at the expense of the
film, jokes are strong in the short term, but not when they restrict the pace
or drive of the main narrative. As opposed to it being an action film with some
comedy, it ends up as a comedy with action set pieces once in a while.
The set pieces in themselves are relatively low key and
passive, maybe with the exception of the CGI filled finale that sprawls through
a port, aided by the convenience of multiple suits to sustain the little
tension there was . The best set piece is set in a small Tennessee town, where
Tony doesn’t have any of his technology and must out think the people chasing
him. In fact, this is probably the best action sequence in which Iron Man has
finished, it actually has a sense of peril and tangibility that all the others
didn’t.
Major Spoilers from here on!
I am no Iron Man enthusiast, I’ll admit this now in case
these are true and accurate interpretations of these characters.
Now we get to the two biggest problems I had with the film,
the first was the grand plan, or even the motivation for the main villain
Killian (Pearce) had, as it seemed to involve getting revenge on the President
for some ship sinking and spilling oil everywhere, but no “fat cats” facing a
day in court. This is revealed within the last 20 minutes, but no reference to
this event has been made to the ship or incident in the previous 110 minutes.
I’m not if this is some kind of reference to do with the BP disaster a few
years ago, but if it is, it’s a very poor one and should have probably been
left out.
The twists, there are two of them, let’s get to the more
conventional and the one that didn’t kill the film. Killian has been developing
the extremis program, something that helps in limb restoration and basically
promotes people to have almost superhuman abilities, regarding strength and
regeneration. The president I assume is against it, as one of his cabinet
appears to be in league with Killian, because what is either his daughter or
granddaughter is missing a limb. So he is obviously pro-extremis.
This second twist, although I think occurs just before the
above one completely killed the film for me, taking any momentum from that
particular storyline and character. It involves the reveal of the Mandarin
being nothing more than an English actor playing a role, the reasoning for it
is fairly solid that Killian gives, but the actual reveal is played for laughs
and yes RDJ and Kingsley are very good, but the Mandarin was shaping up to be
an interesting villain. But instead he is jettisoned along with what could have
been an interesting dynamic between him and Killian. Oh well, a cheap laugh is
better than an interesting character.
Spoilers end.
Shane Black is a great writer and director and if you want
to see him and RDJ on top form, go and buy Kiss
Kiss Bang Bang, it’s so much better than Iron Man 3, more exciting, amusing and with one of RDJ’s best
performances.
If this is how Marvel are launching Phase Two, then bar Thor: The Dark World, you can count me
out of the rest of this. They are creating a brand of their own within the comic
book genre, one of mediocrity and no ambition (Thor excluded).
Honestly, give it a miss, the man of iron is dulled and
boring, we need a Man of Steel.
