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