Last weekend, Iron Man 3 flew into theatres with a new vision, a changed personality, and a new adventure. But don’t worry, there isn’t a Russian with electric whips this time.
After being thrown through a wormhole and barely surviving the trip back (“The Avengers”), Tony Stark is a changed man. He realizes that he doesn’t actually know everything, and that there’s much more to explore. You know, other than inventing a new element. This emotional realization leaves Tony a “piping hot mess,” working on new machines day and night, never sleeping, and horrified by what happened in New York. No longer the playboy of the past, Stark is now a working man, trying to protect the thing he cares about the most; Pepper Pots.
This character shift surprisingly doesn’t take away from the quality of the movie at all. Stark is still his badass self, with new toys, and the balance of Iron Man and Stark’s more blue collar role is just right. While Tony’s hit rock bottom, an international terrorist leader going under the name the “Mandarin” launches an attack on the United States, claiming he has many “lessons” to teach and aims to kill the president.Thankfully, a clever twist serves as comic relief and spices up the otherwise bland plot.
Again, Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, and Don Cheadle return as the main protagonists, but the part of villain is played brilliantly by Ben Kingsley. Without spoiling anything, the role of the Mandarin is both brilliant and terrifying.
But this is still Iron Man, an action movie, and it should be judged as such. For a good action movie, you have fun with it while you watch it, rather than focusing on meaning or plotline. And there’s a lot of fun to be had here. Stark’s addiction to his suits brings him to his 47th version of the Iron Man, and in the end, they all come to play in an epic battle of epicosity which will go down in history as one of my favorite ending fight scenes ever.
Iron Man 3 almost surpasses the first if you ignore some of the plot holes and the differences between book and comic. Keep an open mind and go in expecting to kick some ass, laugh, and not think too much about it, and you’ll have a jolly good time.
The Little Hawk score: 8/10
Critics’ score (Rotten Tomatoes) : 78%
