Iron Man 3

After nearly losing his life saving New York City from alien invaders, billionaire industrialist Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is an anxiety ridden mess who can’t stop tinkering with his Iron Man armor. This puts a lot of strain on his relationship with Pepper Pots (Gwyneth Paltrow), who is also the CEO of his company. Meanwhile, a terrorist leader called The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) stages attacks across the world and taunts the U.S. with video “lessons,” something that Stark’s best friend Col. James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) insists is under control. When The Mandarin’s attacks hit closer to home, Stark must confront a terrible mistake from his past.

If the wildly successful Avengers represented a “Where do we go from here?” moment for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, then Iron Man 3 answers the question with “Somewhere entirely different.” For the third installment of the Iron Man franchise, Shane Black replaces Jon Favreau in the director’s chair (the latter still appears onscreen as bodyguard Happy Hogan), and the result is a film that is simultaneously darker and loopier. This should come as no surprise to those familiar with Black’s work: he scripted the first two Lethal Weapon films and wrote/directed the underrated Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (which starred Downey). Here, the franchise’s already snarky dialogue is ratcheted up even further, SHIELD agents are replaced by a precocious childhood sidekick, and a visceral, 80s-action flick “take revenge on the bad guys” ethos reigns supreme.

On paper, many of these changes sound debilitating, but in practice, some of them actually work. Much of the credit for that goes to Downey, who has owned this franchise from day one. He brings the perfect combination of vulnerability, snappy/flippant banter, and audacious tenacity to the leading role, and he allows the film’s message – that Stark is more than just the armor he wears – to ring true. Unfortunately, hammering home that point meant causing the Iron Man suits to malfunction or get destroyed frequently, something that diminishes the film’s cool factor.

Cheadle and Paltrow, returning from the last film, enjoy even better chemistry with Downey this time around and are given more to do. Black’s buddy cop bonafides increase the audience’s investment in these characters and allows the peril they face to rise above mere audience manipulation. Paul Bettany is back as well, and his voicework as Stark’s AI carries with it a humorous touch of doting mother.

Things are considerably less fluid on the villainous side of the equation. The story is a loose amalgamation of the comics’ Extremis arc (in which a virus causes superhuman enhancements at great risk) and assorted Iron Man lore, and many of the characters depicted are strictly in name only. In some cases, this is by necessity: while an undeniably powerful foe, The Mandarin is also an anachronistic Yellow Peril cliché that would not have fit the film’s tone. However, the reimagining of the other antagonists is disappointingly one-note. Extremis co-creator Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) is conflicted in the comics; here, he’s the Bond-villainesque head of Advanced Idea Mechanics. Likewise, Eric Savin (James Badge Dale) goes from a cybernetically enhanced anti-hero to mere muscle-for-hire. At least the last film’s bad guy (Mickey Rourke) was tragic enough to be interesting.

A key point that comes up repeatedly in Iron Man 3 is that Stark can now operate his armor remotely. Thus, Iron Man looks exactly the same, but the knowledge that there isn’t a human being inside risking his life diminishes his heroics considerably. The same can be said for this film: it has action, comedy, and talent all-around, but there is something vaguely hollow about the whole experience. That, and there’s no AC/DC on the soundtrack.

7.5/10