Iron Man 3 Review (Minor Spoilers)

I will start this review by saying that Marvel can not make a bad film. They can however, make a film that, although well done and dare I say awesome, pales slightly to the films that proceeded it. Now I am quite aware that the Avengers film was going to be a hard act to follow, and perhaps it is for that reason that Iron Man 3 in my opinion seems a bit empty. 

 Now before all the fanboys start writing me hate mail, I will say I really, really liked this movie. (Love is something I reserve for my friends and family, a movie is liked in various degrees.) It starts with a bang, literally, and although the pace slows when necessary it never drags.  Robert Downey Jr. is flawless as Tony Stark as usual and is given a bit more to chew on this go around, emotionally and physically. He is out of the suit more in this film which I think is refreshing, and it is great to see the brain behind the brawn. Also in the limelight a bit more is Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts, who when on camera has a bit more strength than in the previous Iron Man films. She gets her chance to prove her medal, oops, I mean mettle this time. Now I hope someone at Marvel reads this, GIVE DON CHEADLE/JAMES RHODES/WAR MACHINE/IRON PATRIOT his own spin off movie!!! He is great  and I would love to see him spread his armored wings in his own film. Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin...nuff said, if you need more you obviously need to watch more of this man's films. Now I like Guy Pearce, but here I feel he falls flat and is a bit generic. It is obvious there is supposed to be more, but it just doesn't come across for me. Rebecca Hall fills the role of Maya Hansen well and does a good job with it. James Badge Dale plays Savin the extremely self assured leader of the Mandarins troops with just the right amount of bad, as to not make him completely unlikeable but you still want to see him get his in the end. And what would an Iron Man film with out Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan (who was sorely missed in the Avengers in my opinion), and Paul Bettany as Jarvis. I do think both get to shine in this outing, with Bettany's Jarvis being able to stretch his humor muscles a bit as well as, dare I say, bring a bit more humanity to the role. 

I am not going to drop a whole synopsis of the film in here as it would be to hard not to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it. What I will do is make a few points on why I feel the movie is a bit empty. Now I didn't think about it until my friend Brian pointed out that one of the biggest problems this film has is the lack of acknowledgement of the other Avengers. The US is under attack by a terrorist and never once is Captain America or Nick Fury even mentioned. I wasn't sure but after I saw it a second time, it is a big hole that needs to be addressed in more than a throw away line over drinks. Another point is that I feel that there is a HUGE hole left by the absence of Clark Gregg's Agent Coulson. Spoiler alert! If you didn't know already, Coulson is not dead and will play a part in the new Shield television show next fall, this would have been a great way to bring him back and explain the reasons why no other Avenger is dealing with the Mandarin threat.  It was reported not to long ago that Shane Black had stated that he edited over an hour and fifteen minutes of footage out of the final film. I can believe it. There are a few places where responsive looks and glances are made although no comment was made to warrant them, conversations at times almost seem like there was missing information. Not horribly distracting but I would love to see a 3 hour directors cut of this movie to fill in what I felt where gaps.

That all said, again I really do like this movie, it was fun, it has the perfect amount of humor, it has some great action scenes, it has Ben Kingsley, and it has 47 different Iron Man suits. 47 suits...yeah of course it was a way to justify 47 different action figures and toys to sell. But who cares it has 47 DIFFERENT IRON MEN!!!! Sorry, sorry, my inner geek took over and...THE HULK BUSTER ARMOR....sorry that was the last time, I promise. Oh yeah I forget I have seen this in both 3D and 2D, and to be honest it works in both formats, the 3D isn't at all distracting and at times it seems almost negligible, which is good since it's there and you don't realize it is.  So please don't take my criticism to mean that you should not see this movie. If you are a fan of the other Marvel films, then by all means you will be thrilled with this one.  If you haven't seen the other films, first shame on you, second, go watch them because this one will make a lot more sense if you know the back story a bit. So out of a total of 10 stars this film rates a solid 8 in my book. SO run down grab your popcorn get a good seat in the middle of the theater, if you have 3D glasses throw them on and tell Jarvis to drop your needle.