movies/tv Iron Man 3- Movie Review

[Trixie the Greatest 131]

 

(Warning, Spoliers galore- Read at own risk)

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Iron Man 3

 

Movie Review

 

Robert Downey Jr. returns as the illustrious Tony Stark, millionare playboy turned Avenger who must now confront one of his biggest adversaries known as The Mandarin in the third installment of Marvel's Iron Man.

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Tony himself narrates events that happened one fateful night at a New Year's party in Switzerland over 13 years ago, as he celebrated with a scientist named Maya Hansen who was in charge of an evolutionary prospect, an experimental regenerative treatment for crippled people.

 

Before Tony prepares to make this one of his many one night stands, another scientist named Aldrich Killian who is in charge of his own enterprise known as Advanced Idea Mechanics (comic book fans would know this is one of Iron Man's most notorious enemies in the Marvel continuity as AIM) tries to approach him with an innovative idea of his own, but gets the cold shoulder as Tony blatantly ignores him and celebrates the last moments of 1999. As Karma would put it, everything comes back to him in a very, very bad way. While Tony has cured himself of being an irresponsible playboy and has settled down with his permanent love interest Pepper Potts (who is still in charge of Stark enterprises while Tony lives his life on the side), he has a problem trying to set his own mind straight after the events that unfolded in the previous movie The Avengers. As it turns out, Tony developed a post traumatic disorder recalling the time he almost sacrificed his life as he closed the space wormhole that Loki opened to lead an alien invasion on Earth by attacking New York. Even the mention of said city drives Tony into a panicked anxiety attack that leaves him breatheless at times throughout the movie.

 

To compensate for his sanity, Tony keeps himself busy redesigning his Iron Man suits, which includes a way to summon parts of said armor to wear it in almost any other place without having to carry it on his own. Injecting himself with nanobots and programming a remote control, Tony can now "summon" the armor to wear it whenever he is away from his own residence. While this seems to work just fine for Tony, Pepper worries that it is taking time away from their relationship, which seems to be degrading since the events of the previous Iron Man movie when Tony declared his love to her.

 

While Tony juggles his love life and his health, The Mandarin, a viscious man leading an infamous terrorist group that can even block airwaves to send his message accross the globe, continues his growing reign of fear promising he will destroy the United States. Meanwhile, Killian , who returns as a reinvigorated inventor visits Pepper inside Stark enterprises to try and persuade her into joining his new project which promises hacking into the mind of human beings to advance evolution in humanity for a better future. As Pepper kindly rejects his offer, Happy Hogan watches in the sidelines not entirely trusting the head of AIM and makes an investigation on his own to find out what his true intentions are. During an explosion in The Chinese Theater in Hollywood, presumed as a terrorist attack by The Mandarin, Hogan is caught in the incident, which in turn makes Tony furious , challenging The Mandarin to face him in his own residence. Mistaking said person as Tony is about to attack while suited up in his Iron Man suit, his old date returns to inform him about an important finding. During the conversation, Tony's residence is attacked by said terrorist's group and utterly destroyed, sending Tony into the ocean which almost loses his life, if not for the fact that he wore his suit just before he was caved in by the debry of his own home. Moments later into the movie, Tony awakens in the far, far state of Tenessee as planned by his virtual assistant Jarvis, who was told to modify its destination for Tony to investigate into The Mandarin's activities.

 

As Tony struggles with a powerless suit in the middle of nowhere, Cody Rhodes, in his War Machine suit now dubbed The Iron Patriot, tries to hunt down The Mandarin after tracing its location when he sent a personal message to the President of the United States. He is driven to a blind goose chase until he is captured and sent to an unknown location.

 

Tony finds a kindred spirit in a kid, who is an aspiring inventor of his own and happens to know one of the persons that were involved in a mysterious explosion that matched the same heat signature that the Chinese Theater registered when said terrorist attack was attempted. Problem is, this explosion in Tenesse was never registered as such, but happened during the events when The Mandarin was starting to influence his terror in the airwaves. Tony merely escapes an assault by powered humans who try to kill him, and then mans up as said kid suggests a way to handle his anxiety. With makeshift methods to confront The Mandarin now that Tony knows where exactly said broadcasts come from, he ventures to Maimi, Florida to confront him personally while his Iron Man suit recharges back in the kid's garage in Tennesee.

 

Tony finds out that The Mandarin is nothing more than a fraud, an actor hired to be a face of said terrorist movement. Along the way Tony is ambushed and held hostage while the head of AIM who reveals to be behind the creation of the Mandarin, gives him a choice of helping him perfectionate his super human formula or let him watch Pepper's death, who is shown in a hologram as he explains that she has been injected with said formula. He goads in stating that either her body will fuse or reject it, killing her but meanwhile it is causing her severe pain. As Tony is left alone, his amor arrives in time to break him free and Cody Rhodes as well, who informs him that The Iron Patriot suit was being used to kidnap the President inside Air Force One. Tony flies and confronts one of the super humans that tried killing him before, but finds out the President has been long gone, along with the Iron Patriot Suit. Air Force One starts plummeting while its crew is ejected into the land below, and in an exceptional display of heroics, Iron Man rescues all just in time as he leaves them on the ocean to fly back and find Pepper and The President. Taking Rhodes along, both find AIM's headquarters and a climatic battle including super humans and several remote controlled Iron Man suits ensue. As Tony battles hand to hand with the leader of AIM, he fails to rescue Pepper, which pushes him to try and put him out of comission once it for all. Cody Rhodes meanwhile takes control of The Iron Patriot and flies the President to safety, as in a surprising turn of events, Pepper comes back and aids Tony in dealing with Killian in a display that even she couldn't believe herself after everything was over.

 

As it turns out, the formula she was injected with melded succesfully with her body, despite the fact that she was already injected with the serum that would negate said formula and turned her back to normal. Tony embraces Pepper and promises her that from this point on, he will have more time for her and less time with his suits, as he orders Jarvis to set a self destruct of the remaining Iron Man suits flying overhead. Tony then undergoes a surgery that helps him get rid of the sharpnel that was threatening his heart along with the artificial battery that kept him alive during previous movies. Hogan awakens in his hospital bed, and the kid is presented with a reward when he gets back home, thanks in part from Tony himself. The movie ends with a very nice montage of scenes and images from the previous Iron Man movies all the way to the third one, retelling how Tony became Iron man and overcome his own inner demons in the end. After the credits, Tony resumes nararrating to a very very bored Bruce Banner, who pleads him that he is not a therapist nor a doctor of any sort but a scientist. As Tony looks at him, he starts a new story, but this time of his childhood while Banner groans and tries to remain awake. It is hinted that Tony will return, but not stating if it will be in a new Iron Man movie or in the second instalment of The Avengers.

 

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There is no doubt in my mind that the third time was the definite charm as Robert Downey Jr. charms us all with his charismatic performance as Tony Stark. The number 3 in movies is pretty much a number which means bad luck to many movie franchises, as was shown with X-Men and Spider-Man, yet with Iron Man it completely solidified the entire trilogy thus far with a very believable superhero that jumped from the screen and led us to experience what an incredible journey as the armored avenger became when it first started years ago with the first Iron Man movie. Robert IS Tony, as much as Hugh Jackman is Wolverine. His various moments onscreen as he would act witty, sad, and panicked while maintaining the same formula that brought Tony Stark alive into the film is even more powerful than the early movies he starred in as Iron Man. The fact that it takes part after the events of The Avengers is a wonderful and welcome addition which blends beatifuly within the film stablishing the movie's own universe of the Marvel comics mythos. While some may be dismayed as to what became of The Mandarin, it is actually a positive strategy of not falling into the same abismal pit that was Spider-Man 3, having multiple antagonists with very little screentime to know what to do with them. I for one welcome that The Mandarin was a fraud and not someone that would do virtually anything with his ten rings as his comic book counterpart, which would, in my opinion, ruin the entire concept of having Iron Man in present day events. AIM as the main antagonist was a great choice as it is also a group of individuals that focus in technology and also to conquer the world as any ill gotten group with advanced tech would do.

 

One nitpick of mine would be that War Machine...or as in this case, "Iron Patriot", did not got much of the action that he did in Iron Man 2, and seemed that he was the butt of the joke for being The President's "personal attack dog" as the Mandarin stated in the movie. Him becoming something of an iron captain america was clearly a jab into politics and the way America views anything that is not, well, American, as if the terrorist motif wasn't clear enough in the movie. Nevertheless it was a highly entertaining and emotional movie, with plenty of action and humanity as Tony rediscovers himself and even fights WITHOUT the armor at some point, proving that the suit does not own him, but he owns the suit.

 

While the thought of him finally being able to restore his heart might be taboo to hardcore fans (or any fan of Iron Man for that matter), it is an interesting step which may be explained better in a future movie, wheter it is another Iron Man or the new Avengers.

 

Many armors featured include the juggernaut of the Hulk Buster, which comes in demolishing anything on its path to stop and serve as a weight to stop the AIM base from falling into the ocean. Other armors which may be familiar to fans make cameos as they punch, shoot, and toss super powered bad guys into oblivion. This was obviously a reference to the fabled Armor Wars, on which Tony must hunt down any single person wearing a suit to stop them from getting his plans from his own armors, including confronting War Machine. It would be that if that story ark had melded completely with Iron Man 3, then we would have a nice battle against The Iron Patriot, but it probably would deviate from the entire story that was already stablished.

 

As the end states, while Tony gives up on Iron Man suits, he is not giving up being Iron Man, and quite possibly will be seen again. How is yet a question to be answered. Curiously enough, Nick Fury as played by Samuel L. Jackson was not present neither was SHIELD, but it is to my guess doing so would also deviate from being integrated into the film which seemed to have been fine on its own without them. The Bruce Banner cameo was actually a nice touch in its stead.

 

But would that cameo be actually a foreshadow of what's to come? My guess is a solid yes.

 

And as solid as it yets, this movie deserves a well earned

 

A+

 

Watch it, experience it, and own it when it comes out for home video.

 

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Edited May 12, 2013 by Warpony