I'd say this is a more focussed effort than _Iron Man 2_, but it's not the tight, fun experience of _Iron Man_ either. The Shane Black influence really manifests itself through the Christmas setting and its very specific sense of humour, which doesn't ever feels like it compromises the tension. Still, I don't think it's his best material by any means. To me Black writes his best dialogue when he's working with an R-rating, and combined with the Marvel framework he finds himself trapped in here, the results aren't always great. Take the (in)famous twist. I'm fine with the idea in theory (I even like this notion of deconstructing the terrorist stereotype), but the execution is just so lame and it completely tanks [spoiler] Kingsley's [/spoiler] performance. The new characters aren't all that well handled generally; I don't find the villain(s) particularly memorable and Rebecca Hall’s character is so underwritten that I wonder why she's even there. It also needed to place more focus on this PTSD arc, as that's supposed to be the emotional core of the movie and would've given more weight to the resolution at the very end. What's the point of taking away Tony's suit if you're not going to make this a more character focussed story? The filmmaking is overall pretty bland; the sound design and score are both incredibly generic, while the visuals lack contrast and colour. The set pieces include some excellent visual effects; however they're often lacking in imagination or suffer from overediting (e.g. the village fight). Its most memorable piece of action is this really well executed, brief plane rescue beat, which is interesting because the bombastic finale is so much more forgettable by comparison. Overall, I'd say this movie is at its best when it's letting the established elements of the franchise do its thing (RDJ, Palthrow, Cheadle, the suit), because the new stuff doesn't really work.


4.5/10

**THE WACPINE OF ‘IRON MAN 3’**

WRITING: 6
ATMOSPHERE: 7
CHARACTERS: 6
PRODUCTION: 8
INTRIGUE: 6
NOVELTY: 4
ENJOYMENT: 7

----

**The Good:**



Tony deals with personal demons after The Avengers while his relationship with Pepper struggles. I also really like how Pepper and Happy get more screen-time and solo scenes. We also get more “Tony Stark goes 007”-action than typical Iron Man-action here, which could be good or bad depending on how you look at it.



As much hate as Trevor Slattery receives from the fandom, his actor Ben Kingsley is nothing short of fantastic. He is so good it almost makes up for the laughably bad Mandarin excuse.



The scenes in Tennessee are a nice change of pace and show Tony's sweeter, more fatherly and vulnerable side perfectly. This side is returned to in the final two Avengers films.



AIM is the main villain here, another comic book classic and they’re involvement feel dangerous and realistic, one of the better-written aspects of the film.



Out of the trilogy, Iron Man 3 has the biggest and best-looking action scenes, which also happen to be some of the best in the MCU. The climactic battle with the different suits and the personal stakes is cool. The action scenes alone make up for the slog that is Iron Man 2.



Iron Man 3 provides what could be called as a type of closure for Tony, even though we know that he will still be involved in quite a lot over the next few MCU films and before that final closure.



----


**The Bad:**



This is old news by now, but Disney's decision to handle the iconic Iron Man villain the way they did, to avoid racial stereotypes, is a bit of a disaster. It's a pity that an amazing actor like Ben Kingsley is forced to play a joke of a character like Trevor Slattery.



The worst part about the Mandarin gimmick is that the film effectively builds up the threat and menace around the Mandarin and his presence before the major reveal towards the end ruins everything. It feels like a gut-punch after the build-up.



After a breathtaking first act, the middle part of the film slows down to a halt and doesn't seem to be able to develop the story very much. It's like the film begins building up a story in the first act, then gets lost in the middle before suddenly concluding in the third act.



Guy Pearce is okay but Aldrich Killian is just another generic superhero film villain. His fire-breathing persona from the film's final act is stupid.



----


**The Ugly:**



I just realized that Iron Man 3 is technically a Christmas movie.



----



**WACPINE RATING: 6.29 / 10 = 3 stars**

THIS IS BY FAR THE BEST
IRON MAN AND ONE OF THE COOLEST
MCU MOVIE'S,
ITS SUCH GOOD FUN AND IT'S SUCH A GREAT RIDE. TOTALLY EPIC FROM START TO FINISH.
ANTHONY IS SO VERY VERY COOL IN IT, COMPLETELY STEEL'S AND OWNS EVERY SCENE AND HE DOE'S IT WITH SUCH FURNESS AND SWAGGER, I JUST SIT THE WAY THROUGHOUT IN AWE WITH MY MOUTH OPEN. THIS INSTALLMENT IS PHENOMENAL AND SUPER ENTERTAINING, IT'S LIKE CHRISTMAS AND MY BIRTHDAY
ALL ON THE SAME DAY
(which by the way it is)
HOW COME THE 3rd AND FINAL INSTALLMENTS ARE ALWAYS THE BEST AND COOLEST ONE'S OUT OF ALL
THEY REALLY STEP IT UP AND GO ALL OUT
FOR THEM.
AND BY THE WAY ANTHONY'S SUITES IN THIS ARE LIKE THE BEST EVER AS IN
WOW...JUST...WOW.
HAD SUCH A GOOD TIME WITH THIS MASTERPIECE AND THAT LITTLE LAD WAS AWESOME AND I THOUGHT THE INTERACTION BETWEEN HIM AND ANTHONY WAS AMAZING AND I AM SO GLAD THEY BROUGHT THAT LITTLE LAD BACK FOR
AVENGERS ENDGAME. ALTHOUGH NOT SO LITTLE IN THAT BUT STILL THE SAME ACTOR, WHICH IS JUST SUPER FRICKING AWESOME ANYWAY.
JUST LIKE THIS MOVIE
I LOVE IT 3000
10/10
up by 2 points from
IRON MAN 1/2
NEXT UP GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

There can be many reasons why the original director of a franchise may decide not to return for a sequel, though they all usually have in common that they're very Hollywood-politically-correct. So exactly why Jon Favreau decided not to helm the third instalment of what is, for all intents and purposes, 'his baby' Iron Man, I can't be sure. But I can tell you one thing: something definitely changed.

Everything about IM3 feels different from its predecessors. The atmosphere is darker, which is not to say it's really just a lot less humorous (which is – let's be honest – precisely what we love about Iron Man). The new characters are terribly underdeveloped and overall it's just a great deal less interesting. The storyline was completely vague to me; I'm still not really sure what the whole point of it was. And probably the biggest flaw of all – the first two films had really cool, interesting villains. This one's just really quite weird and not charismatic at all. Possibly at the core of the problem is the fact that it wasn't just one bad guy, it was many. The leading roles are shared by Guy Pearce and Sir Ben Kingsley, and – big shock – it was the latter who disappointed me the most. Not only was his role quite small, I thought it was also incredibly lame. I'd love to explain to you why, but that would be a major spoiler. I noticed some people in the audience laughing at the plot twist of Kingsley's character, but I thought it was just completely stupid and weak, and a total waste of such a great actor. Pearce is not bad, but never really manages to elevate his villain to a higher level, largely because he had zero character development to work with. Same thing with Rebecca Hall. Or the rest of Pearce's cronies for that matter... Too many to count. Sigh.

Well, at least we still have Robert Downey Jr. He's as reliable as ever when it comes to carrying a film, but even he can't help it that his character is almost boring in this one. Where's the humour!? Where's the cynicism we all know and love?! Where's Tony bloody Stark! This is not the familiar overconfident, pompous macho we adore. All of a sudden, and for NO apparent reason whatsoever, this guy is insecure and suffering from anxiety attacks! What the F! Not to mention the fact that his superhero alter ego is almost completely absent for half of the film, because he's off somewhere in the middle of Tennessee finding himself or whatever... I mean, geez... I know the director left, but didn't any of the screenwriters return either? The fact that Pepper Potts had only about two minutes of relevant screen time also certainly didn't help. And when she was there, she was humourless and annoying. Big sigh.

The more I think about it, the more I'm having a hard time trying to think of good things to say about this film. At least the visual effects were solid, and the sound effects were awesome.

This was actually the first time I've seen a film in 3D. I've always avoided it because I was sure that it would be a complete distraction from the story. Turns out I was right in my assumption. I found it hard to focus on what was really going on, and this might have definitely been an influence in trying to follow the plot, so there's a big chance I missed a few things. Nevertheless, I can't help being very disappointed with Iron Man 3, especially since I love the first two so much.

This is definitely a filmmakers' case of "could've, would've, should've". They obviously tried very hard, but never quite manage to get there.

No story, no interesting characters, no filler. Nothing. Too bad.
_(June 2013)_

This was probably the first time a movie has made me this angry in the theater. It pissed me off then and it still pisses me off when it's on television. If I could summarize this film in one word, it would be: obnoxious. I wasn't really hyped for this film but I was expecting to have some fun since I did enjoy the previous Iron Man films. This was the movie that made me start to dislike the character of Tony Stark/Iron Man (RDJ is still the man though). Stark's narcissism had charm in the previous films but here, it made him into a complete idiot, dick, and coward. The Mandarin had potential to be an effective villain but the movie scraps him for a more lame villain than Justin Hammer from Iron Man 2. The comedy was forced and annoying and the story has plot holes that were distracting. I watched Thor 2 a while after this released but the taste from this movie was so bitter that even though I thought Thor 2 was alright, I just didn't want to see anymore films from this cinematic universe. This movie is what killed the MCU for me.