PG-13, 130 minutes
Starring- Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle, Ben Kingsley
2/ 5 Stars
Iron Man 3 picks up just a little while after the events of last years The Avengers so everyone knows about mythical gods, aliens, and superheroes but people don’t seemed all that phased by this. Tony Stark (Downey Jr.) has a great life and is at the top of his game, but he is plague by nightmares and (many, many, many) panic attacks. While he is dealing with these attacks on his mind that push away his girlfriend Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow), he has to deal with a new threat from the East in the form of a terrorist called The Mandarin (Kingsley.)
Let me start by saying that I quiet enjoyed the first Iron Man. I thought Iron Man 2 was a mess and I was hoping for a good change of pace. No, no change of pace. Overall, this was just a boring slosh of explosions that left me feeling as if I had seen this before. (And thinking about it, I had. This is basically The Dark Knight Rises Tony Stark edition with more explosions and less story.) I admire Downey Jr. as an actor and he plays the role of Stark with gusto, though I just find Tony Stark to be an unlikable jerk most of the time with little to no redeaming qualities.
The acting in this is all fine and well, though the best part of this film is The Mandarin who sadly receives little screen time, but the story is what really brings this potentially great film to its knees. The story is so convoluted, uninteresting, predictable, and is reminiscent of the disastrous The Green Lantern. Yes, avid moviegoers, I would put Iron Man 3 in the same ring as The Green Lantern. Everything in this is designed for cheap thrills and cheap laughs that have all been done before. The script is flimsy with gaping plot lines lingering at the end and there are so many unanswered questions that left me scratching my head at the abysmal ending which should have come a half hour sooner.
In the end, I was left feeling numb. My head hurt from all the explosions I had just seen, I didn’t feel for any of the characters, the story devolved into a poorly arranged ballad of chaos and I walked out the theater thinking, “man, I’m starting to get really fed up with all these superhero movies.” If I, a seventeen year old male who is the target demographic for these types of movies, am feeling bored, overwhelmed, and uninterested by all these movies, studios should really rethink the movies they’re pumping out every action packed summer. Iron man 3 is grand on explosions and effects and skimpy on just about everything else a good movie needs.
