REVIEW - Iron Man 3 (2013)

Hot off the heels of Marvel Studios' success of The Avengers last summer, fans and moviegoers alike have been anxiously awaiting the next chapter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that would kick start the road down Phase 2 that will lead to Avengers 2. That brings us the return of Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark in Iron Man 3, chronicling his personal events as he copes with the aftermath of what happened in Avengers.

How does this third outing in the Iron Man film series (seventh installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe) fair compared to the blockbuster that was The Avengers?

The Plot: (FULL Spoilers Below)

In a flashback, Tony Stark recalls a New Years Eve party in 1999 with scientist Maya Hansen, inventor of Extremis, an experimental regenerative treatment intended to allow its users to recover from crippling injuries. They are approached by crippled scientist Aldrich Killian, who offers them a place in his company Advanced Idea Mechanics, but Stark arrogantly rebuffs him.

In the present day, some time after The Avengers, Stark's experiences during that film are causing him great anxiety, and he has built several Iron Man suits, creating friction with his girlfriend Pepper Potts. Global tensions also run high in the wake a string of bombings by terrorist the Mandarin, which have left intelligence agencies bewildered by their lack of forensic evidence. When Stark Industries security chief Happy Hogan is caught in one such attack, Stark overcomes his stupor and issues a televised threat to the Mandarin, who responds by destroying Tony's home with helicopter gunships. Pepper and Maya, who had come to warn Tony, survive the attack. Tony then finds himself in rural Tennessee after his artificial intelligence JARVIS follows a flight plan from Tony's investigation into the Mandarin. Tony's experimental armor lacks sufficient power to return to California, and the world believes him dead.

Teaming with Harley, a precocious 10-year-old boy, Tony investigates the remains of a local explosion bearing the hallmarks of a Mandarin attack. He discovers the "bombings" were triggered by soldiers who had been subjected to Maya's Extremis virus, which in its still-imperfect state causes certain subjects to explosively reject it. After veterans started growing unstable and exploding, their deaths were used to cover up Extremis' flaws by manufacturing a terrorist plot. Tony witnesses Extremis firsthand when Mandarin agents Ellen Brandt and Eric Savin attack him.

With Harley's help, Tony traces the Mandarin to Miami and infiltrates his headquarters using a variety of home-made weapons. Inside he discovers the Mandarin is actually a British actor named Trevor Slattery, who is oblivious to the acts carried out in his name. The Mandarin is a creation of Killian, who appropriated Maya's Extremis research as a cure for his own disability and expanded the program to include injured war veterans. Killian reveals he is the true Mandarin and has kidnapped Pepper and subjected her to Extremis, intending to infuse her with superhuman abilities and turn her against Tony as leverage to gain Tony's aid in fixing Extremis's flaws.

Killian has also manipulated American intelligence agencies regarding the Mandarin's location, luring James Rhodes — the former War Machine, now rebranded as the Iron Patriot — into a trap to steal the armor. Tony escapes his captivity and reunites with Rhodes, discovering that Killian intends to attack President Ellis aboard Air Force One. Remotely controlling his Iron Man armor, Tony saves the surviving passengers and crew but cannot stop Killian from abducting Ellis. They trace Killian to an impounded oil drilling platform where Killian intends to kill Ellis on live television. The Vice President will become a puppet leader, following Killian's orders in exchange for Extremis to cure a little girl's disability.

On the platform, Tony goes to save Pepper, and Rhodes saves the President. Tony summons each of his Iron Man suits, controlled remotely by JARVIS, to provide air support. Rhodes secures the President and leads him to safety, while Tony discovers Pepper has survived the Extremis procedure. However, before he can save her, a rig collapses around them and she falls to her apparent death. Tony is forced into confronting Killian and traps him in an Iron Man suit that self-destructs, but fails to kill him. Pepper, whose Extremis powers allowed her to survive her fall, intervenes and finishes Killian once and for all.

After the battle, Tony orders JARVIS to destroy each Iron Man suit remotely, as a sign of his intention to devote more time to Pepper. The Vice President and Slattery are arrested. Pepper undergoes surgery to remove Extremis, and Tony to remove the shrapnel embedded near his heart. He pitches his obsolete chest arc reactor into the sea, musing he will always be Iron Man, even without his armor.

In a post-credits scene, it is revealed that Stark has been recounting his experiences to Dr. Bruce Banner, who awakens, having fallen asleep at the beginning of Tony's story.

The Verdict: 

What can I say, Robert Downey Jr. never ceases to amaze me with his uncanny charm and natural fit into the role of Tony Stark. Without a shadow of a doubt, you're going to get a ton of shits and giggles from the comedy stretched out across the film's first hour before any of the action starts. By the time the second half of the film kicks off into motion, the film begins to drag along, much like Iron Man 2. 

If I'm completely honest, I thought Iron Man 2 was a complete bore, save for it's final 30-45 minutes. Iron Man 3 falls into a similar pattern. The first half of the film is lackluster and only held together by Downey's humor and charm, while the plot struggles to move forward. At this rate, we all know what to expect from RDJ as Tony Stark. There's no need to force his humor down our throats every 3-5 minutes. It's starting to feel like a Seth Rogen or Adam Sandler film where you're expecting to hear a dick joke every few minutes, except in Downey's case, you're expecting a sarcastic remark every other sentence. 

Gwyneth Paltrow continues to look stunning as Stark's love interest, Pepper Potts, while the alluring Rebecca Hall acts as Stark's old fling, Maya Hansen. I have to feel sorry for Paltrow in this film as her character has not shown any sense of growth since Iron Man 2 and the same can be said about Don Cheadle as James Rhodes as well. I personally thought that casting Ben Kingsley as The Mandarin was a questionable choice until I saw the film first-hand. Kingsley is a definite shoe-in for a menacing Bin Laden-like terrorist figure in the film and plays the part to an exceptional degree. 

I can't believe I'm actually saying this but I honestly felt that the Ironman: Armored Adventures episode titled "Extremis" handled this subject manner far better than this film did. Anyone who knows me personally can easily tell you I hated that cartoon with a passion, but they handled this storyline, which is regarded as one of the best Iron Man storylines of all-time, in a manner I was looking forward to see this film to strive for. Not imitate it completely, but at least do it in a way that makes it Marvel Studios' own.

The moment when everything in the film really went downhill for me was when Killian killed Maya. That decision seemed premature and like a knee-jerk reaction at that stage of the film. If Killian was going to kill her then why the hell he didn't kill her when he found her with Pepper moments earlier? It just really wasn't well-thought out at all. 

I know I'm talking about the Extremis comic book storyline a lot here, but if you haven't read it and want to read a summary of it yourself, look no further than here. 

Here's MY version of the last 30-45 minutes of the film: I thought her and Tony would have gotten together to finally perfect the Extremis formula to cure Pepper and the other super soldiers under Killian's control. Alternatively, I was half-expecting Stark to get into a pre-mature battle with Killian or Eric Savin, who ends up critically damaging his arc reactor that is keeping him alive. To save his life, Maya injects Tony with the perfected Extremis that  they have been working on together. It bonds to his DNA, repairs his heart and grants him the ability to communicate to all technology with his mind, instead of the lame remote control method that seemed to be never completely explained throughout the narrative. This allows Tony to remotely summon his entire armory of Iron Man armors Mark 7 through 42 to his command. This in turn makes the last fight sequence a bit more of a spectacle to behold as it's Tony's incredible mind behind all of the armors as if he is inside all of them at once. Plus, this removes the tacked on 'treat' of Pepper beating the fuck out of Killain for Tony at the end. Talk about removal of masculinity there, Tony... Seriously, if they wanted Pepper to help out in the action they could have had her in armor as Rescue for another cheap nod to the current comics. Hey, I'm just saying. 

Lastly, I'm going to attempt to answer some lingering questions about this film for my fellow film goers.

What was the point of re-skinning the War Machine armor? Oh wait, it was a cheap plug for Norman Osborn's Iron Patriot armor worn during Marvel's popular Civil War storyline in the comics. Nothing more. On second thought, I guess America does have to have something waving it's colors when going into battle against Osama Bin Laden -- err The Mandarin. You cannot deny that symbolism there when Stark made things personal after Happy Hogan was put into the hospital.

Why the swerve/trolling with The Mandarin? I personally think that Marvel Studios didn't have the balls to attempt to pull him off accurately in a single film. We can't deny that he really exists in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as it was hinted in the original Iron Man film that references him from the terrorist group called "The Ten Rings." It really killed my buzz for the dynamic of the film when they revealed that The Mandarin was just a ploy to give terrorism a face to the masses. A bad one, if I may add, that comes off as cheesy and cliched as Bane did in The Dark Knight Rises.

My humble suggestion would have been that the rings of Makluan that he wields could have been mysteriously activated after the arrival of the Chitauri in Avengers. After what Stark did to The Ten Rings in the original Iron Man it would be easy to imagine that the terrorists would want to take the fight to him.  

Why did they tie Killian to the Advanced Idea Mechanic? Simple, A.I.M. does business with every shady individual in Marvel Universe, from Doctor Doom (commonly through Lucia Von Bardas as his representative for transactions) to The (REAL) Mandarin to common terrorists and lesser super-criminals. Marvel Studios can easily have A.I.M. continue shop with another figurehead in future films. 

My best bet is that A.I.M. and HYDRA will be the major antagonists in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the SHIELD-based spin-off TV series, pulling all of the strings from behind the scenes. 

Why was there's NO SHIELD involvement in this film after their hands-on approach for all terrorist activity throughout Iron Man 2, Thor, and Avengers? No idea on that one. I'm assuming they have their hands full with whatever is going on during the course of events in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I'm sure the horny fanboys missed seeing Scarlet Johannson's goods as Black Widow in this film. Don't fret. She'll be back as a main character in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. 

Does this film serves a proper follow-up to Avengers and encourages viewers to be anxious for what's to come on the road down Phase 2 towards Avengers 2? No, not at all. This film gives that same lackluster vibe that The Dark Knight Rises gave off in its finale. The hero puts all of his toys away and rides off into the sunset, thinking that they can sleep quietly at night while evil still waits out there while the hero act nonchalant about it - clearly ignoring their responsibilities as hero. Yes, I'm going with that old school Spider-Man mantra. We, the viewers, are not given anything to chew on in terms of substance to hold us over as the plot unfolds for Avengers 2. I'm not going to sit here and believe that Stark's just going to sit back and not don the armor again as we all know what's on the horizon for Avengers 2, but the ending just seems to pull the curtain down on Downey's role as Stark. For those that don't know, Downey is reportedly ending his tenure as Iron Man after Avengers 2, so if this is send-off then I look forward to seeing who will pick up the role in his wake if this is the redundant and lackluster mark he is leaving on the Iron Man series.

Downey is not entirely to blame for this film's shortcomings as it's the writers who are the blame more than anything. I wish more time was put into the narrative instead of crafting a few cheap nods to Warner Brothers' The Dark Knight Rises instead. You have to have an idiot to not see the similarities in the hijacking airplane sequence and similar approach to terrorism as that film from last summer. Lastly, let's not forget Stark's detective work that can be easily compared to the Caped Crusader's handiwork. While I understand that this is a film about Tony Stark coming to grips with the events that transpired in Avengers, it's pretty strange to say this is a film called Iron Man, but we rarely see Tony suited up in the armor at all until the film's finale. 

With a heavy heart, I have to give this film a 8 out of 10. It's not as much of a snooze fest as Iron Man 2, but there's too much of that "been there, done that" vibe to get too excited about. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this film was a bad one, it's just that Marvel Studios left a lot to be desired here. After last summer's Avengers, Fox's The Wolverine around the corner, and with Snyder's Man of Steel on horizon, I thought Marvel Studios would have pulled out all the spots on this one and really knocked it out of the ball park to set the bar high for super-hero films this summer. 

Oh yeah before I forget... Mad props for the end credits teaser. I know that's exactly how I felt if someone told me this movie's plot from start to finish.