The Film Reporter

Over the past decade franchises has risen dramatically as filmgoers who are are low on money (thanks recession) want to know what they’re getting when they pay £10 for a ticket. Iron Man fits that bracket, and I didn’t dare set my hopes up for this film because they often disappoint and after Iron Man 2, I had right to.

Iron Man 3 is set shortly after The Avengers when Tony Stark saved the planet by retuning the missile into the ‘wormhole’ shall we say to defeat the aliens. However Tony has now started to go through anxiety attacks. You may squint but I was happy to see that Shane Black had written this into a mental flaw for Tony after taking the reigns as director from Favreau. Iron Man has utilised one liners to attract a bigger audience and it does so in this film far too often, but for once we really see that Tony has suffered from his battle scars, it was just a shame the comedy undermined it.

So in this sequel to the franchise, a mysterious man who seems to be hidden away in the Middle East under the name ‘Mandarin’ has been the culprit for many untraceable explosions that has been set off in the Middle East itself as well as the U.S. The Mandarin calls himself the teacher and wants to teach the U.S a lesson, one of which infuriates Tony into provoking the Mandarin to which he complies and destroys Tony’s house which we so kindly revel in in the trailers.

Iron Man 3 does touch on sensitive issues, including terrorism threats from the Middle East and loss of Fatherhood but once again manages to undermine them. This is where I felt they really lost their way, the film had a lot of potential, and it’s worth mentioning most of us all love to see the one liners Tony pulls out the bag as they’re often very funny, which not to mention are in this movie, but are used way too often making him look, well, a bit of a dick and undermining almost every serious situation in the film to the point where I was like, you know what, who gives a crap?

However the main antagonist in this film is that hidden treasure, Guy Pearce who plays Aldrich Killigan, a hugely talented man who works for ‘AIM’. We see him in a prologue where Tony revisits a memory from 1999 where he teased Aldrich when he was a cripple creap, but has now become the founder of a hugely powerful organisation as well as reaped the rewards of physical therapy.

Aldrich has developed a physically changing process called ‘Extermis’ which somehow makes the body reach temperatures of 3,000 degrees on and off, but when it doesn’t work on certain subjects, develops into these ‘untraceable explosions’.

I’ll leave it there for you guys as many of you would not have seen this movie yet, especially over in the U.S. But don’t be fooled, this is still a good movie to watch with twists and turns that will keep an audience excited.

Iron Man 3 is in theatres everywhere.

Tagged: Iron Man 3 Iron Man Tony Stark Science Sci-Fi Superhero Terrorism Terrorist Death Guy Ritchie Robert Downey Jr Gwyeth Paltrow Comedy Drama Thriller SPX Review Film Marvel Comics