"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Iron Man 3 (2013, PG-13)

As a comic book movie, Iron Man 3 is pretty great, and as a Marvel film, it’s pretty good.  Compared to its other Phase 2 siblings, I’d say it’s not as excellent as Captain America:  The Winter Soldier or Guardians of the Galaxy, but it’s more solid than Thor:  The Dark World.  The villains are a mixed bag, the action is terrific, and the personal stuff strikes a good balance, staying in the forefront without dragging the proceedings down with lots of manufactured drama.

After the events of The Avengers, Tony is, by and large, trying to avoid dealing with his post-traumatic stress.  He stays awake for days on end, designing and constructing an ever-increasing number of Iron Man suits, he’s been having panic attacks and intrusive flashbacks, and he can’t admit any of his struggles to Pepper.  As he scrambles for something solid to hang onto, some assurance that he’s as strong and in-control as he was before The Avengers, he throws himself into a clash with the latest public menace:  a cryptic figure known as the Mandarin, an international terrorist with an old-testament sense of justice and a flair for the theatrical.  Along the way, Tony’s recklessness and desperation gets him in trouble, and he winds up having to enter the fray without much of his usual protection.

It’s a nice film for Tony.  His PTSD issues feel much more organic than the stuff he deals with in Iron Man 2, and while he still spends a lot of time running from his problems, you can tell that he really is maturing.  I love the DIY Tony scenes, where he’s stuck in the field with limited resources and has to rely on his brains to MacGyver together some pretty impressive gadgets out of household objects.  There’s a subplot with an adorable moppet that gets a bit cheesy at times, but for the most part, Tony keeps just enough bite that it doesn’t feel cloying.

I’d say this film has my favorite Iron Man antagonists so far, although the baddies and their plans are still the movie’s weakest element.  The Mandarin is used in an interesting way, the final battle is pretty sweet, and one throwaway scene with a random security grunt eager to escape with his life might contain my favorite one-liner from a nameless character in any Marvel movie ever.  On the other hand, the villains’ “sci” gets too “fi” in places – I know Iron Man movies are all about their insane technology, but this is a bit much – and it generally feels like they go way too far to preserve what they’re trying to do.

I’m still loving Don Cheadle as Rhodey, by the way.  Some of it is definitely improved writing from his characterization in the first movie, but some of it is Cheadle’s acting, too.  Rhodey’s repartee with Tony is a ton of fun, and while Tony still takes advantage of their friendship and Rhodey has to play second fiddle a lot, he never feels like the franchise butt-monkey.  Instead, he gives nearly as good as he gets with Tony, and he pulls off some impressive fighting in the climax.  As for new actors in this film, Ben Kingsley does quite a bit with the Mandarin, Guy Pearce (though I’ve seen him in a lot of things, I always think of him first as Mondego in The Count of Monte Cristo) is effective as a former-geek-turned-think-tank-mogul, and Rebecca Hall (Sylvia from Parade’s End!) does a nice job in a relatively thankless role as a visionary scientist.

Warnings

Comic book violence (including some grisly images,) sexual references, and language.

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