First Hit: Loved and enjoyed moments and was bored silly at what seemed to be a dumb premise – very uneven film.
The opening credits and set-up were interesting and I was hopeful of a witty well done film in the genre of Iron Man 1.
Robert Downey Jr. was perfect in 1 and in that film he set a high mark for the character. He’s always done his best to fulfill the scripts given to him in all these films.
In 3 we see Tony Stark (Iron Man) spend all his time tinkering, having odd flashes of anxiety, and in a deeper relationship with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). The unbecoming part of this story is, someone came up with a drug to increase a person’s strength and would also fix their physical issues (like a cut, missing limb, etc.) – yeah it sounds both interesting and stupid and that is exactly how this film is.
The product has problems, so if you have anger management issues, it is likely you will explode like a small thermonuclear device. The guy who is controlling all this Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), who doesn’t want the limelight of being the head terrorist so he hires someone to be the primary public figure and names him “The Mandarin” (Ben Kingsley).
Killian gets people hooked on the drugs properties and uses them as weapons against society in a terrorist fashion. What is he aiming at? Whoa, that is the issue; because control of the USA is unlikely in the way the plot unfolds. There is nothing in the story development that gives you the sense that this end goal would result in anything.
Yes a film with a “not well thought out plot”. All of this “stuff” (and that is what it is – just stuff) is a way for the director to create a pretense for Killian and Stark to have clashes all over the USA – some in California, Tennessee, Washington and NYC. In another piss poor equipment twist (made to be funny); was when a bus runs into one of the many Iron Man suits, it completely breaks apart, while in other scenes the another suit withstands 10 times the punishment of a bus hit and is unscratched. Which is it? Is the suit strong, or is it a plastic mock up?
The kid Stark works with Harley Keener (Ty Simpkins) is perfect to bring out other sides of Stark.
Downey Jr. is as always witty. It is unfortunate that the storyline is so poor that his witticisms and incredible acting abilities are wasted. Paltrow, although a key character, has a minor role but does what she can within the confines of the mediocre script. Pearce is ineffective at portraying a character wanting to control the USA. Simpkins is enjoyable and one of the better parts of the film. Kingsley is amusing as The Mandarin. Don Cheadle, reprising his familiar role as Colonel James Rhodes, enjoys his “War Machine” (“Iron Patriot”) suit and it comes across that way. Rebecca Hall as Maya Hansen (maker of the juice that screws people up) is OK but lacked believability that she would have created this juice, let alone sold out to Killian. Drew Pearce and Shane Black wrote a very mediocre script with more thoughtless holes than Swiss cheese. Shane Black got caught up with his own story and therefore directed a mediocre film. However, I will say that the 3D effects were very good because it only enhanced the film and didn’t make it the object of the film.
Overall: This film ranks far below the original Iron Man.