**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**