IRON MAN 3 [2013]

I MAY NEED TO STOP HAVING EXPECTATIONS

2013, USA
Shane Black
6 // 10



Is Iron Man ready for Christopher Nolan's reboot? Will Iron Man 4 feature zombie suits? Is it time to shift attention to DC Universe now? There's only one way to find out!

What is wrong with people? Everywhere I look everybody is raving about Iron Man 3 like it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Or at least since the original Iron Man. Some even say it's better. And you know what? I strongly disagree. As a matter of fact, I don't even find IM3 particularly good at all. So, is it because I'm turning into that old, grumpy fart, who's seen it all already and cannot be surprised or impressed with anything any more? Well, I still do get surprised and impressed on a regular basis, so I'm going to blame the film this time.

And yes, primarily I do blame it for not rising to my expectations. Or at least to the level the first Iron Man has set. So far, only the first film delivered a believable Tony Stark as a human being. A real, flesh-and-bone person. Who's arrogant, greedy and a bit of a bastard with a real edge to it, not like now, being a bit arrogant and self-obsessed but at the same time still charming and lovable. There is more personality to Tony Stark in a Taliban cave, than in the whole of Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3 and The Avengers together. This is not, what the first film has promised and neither it is anywhere close to the sinister and deeper feel that the trailers for the IM3 indicated. At least this is how I see it. I know that these films have to balance the visual attractiveness on one hand with any notions of originality on the other (that doesn't get neutered by film studios' officials whose only job is to make sure the box office smashers are accordingly dumbed down for the American audience). But we've had some examples in recent history, which show that you can do it successfully. The Batman trilogy, the first Iron Man, to some extent even the Bond series. But no... the franchise which started in such an exciting and promising way, is continuing by following the same paradigm as everything else in the Hollywoods's Big Box of Sequels. Make it bigger, make it louder, make it more. By the time I had forty odd Iron Man's suits flying around the screen I was almost ready not to continue till the actual end. Too much nonsense, too little idea about how to keep the viewer interested. So what's next? 500 suits? A suit to go to the Sun in? A shrinkable suit to get inside a human body, like in the Innerspace? Or how about making Tony Stark a real person again? How about making him fall not because of some fancy terrorist plot, but under the weight of his ow arrogance again? How about not falling into that horrible cliché with a little kid pulling a fallen superhero out of shit? I mean, it was already naff and laughable in the times of Superman III, surely we can do much better these days, can we?

So, what's good about it? Well, there are bits that are quite entertaining plus sir Ben Kingsley. Ben Kingsley himself made me score this film two points higher than I would have, I guess. In the entire film around him there's not half as much of acting skill pooled together he has put into the Mandarin. The man is simply a genius who doesn't take lightly any role that he's given. And when I say 'any' I really mean ANY:

Anyway... Iron Man 4? I'm not holding my breath.