Iron Man 3

• Directed by Shane Black
• April 14, 2013 (Grand Rex) / May 3, 2013 (US)
• Based on Iron Man created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Don Heck, and Jack Kirby

Tony deals with the emotional consequences of New York during a terrorism campaign on the United States masterminded by the mysterious Mandarin.

I remember when Iron Man 3 came out and people online (as well as some I knew) were very excited. Why? Because Shane Black was attached to this movie and he had worked on the original Predator. While he did do script work on that film, he also portrayed the only character in the original film you were probably happy to see die. A mixed bag there.

This is quite possibly one of the worst MCU films (at least by the time it came out) and is certainly the worst Iron Man movie. Its focus is on having cool scenes and not to tell a good story. It’s joke after joke which undermines everything. Like so much of the MCU now it takes the names of characters and concepts and slaps them on very similar if similar at all things. The most egregious of this is the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) who has been a long-standing foe of Tony Stark.

I have heard The-Mandarin-As-Trevor-Slattery appears elsewhere down the road in the MCU and gets a bit fixed but here he is completely nerfed. This comedic take is what largely kills the movie. I can certainly see going by another name for the character than using ‘Mandarin’. That’s like naming a character the Midwesterner. Beyond that though, turning him into a punchline and completely wasting an Academy award winning actor? Who thought this was a good idea? Most likely Shane Black. If nothing else he was certainly willing to go with this terrible idea.

Iron Man 3 is a vary by the numbers superhero movie. We’ve got a poorly defined political conspiracy with the true villain or sub villain (take your pick) pooped out of nowhere and seems shoved in to give a reason for all the evil without actually doing much of anything. VP Rodriguez (a wasted Miguel Ferrer) is just suddenly THERE! Until Tony calls him I do not think the character is even mentioned. Forgot about the character until watching this again! Much like so much else here until this viewing I had a hard time remembering any details of the story. It’s a multi million dollar completely forgettable film much like the two Avatar movies. 

There is very little Iron Man in Iron Man 3. Tony spends much of his time out of his suit which is malfunctioning in various ways depending on if a few seconds without a joke have passed or Tony needs to whine about something. Even the climax is largely Tony in street clothing sneaking around a compound with what looks like a Berretta or engaging in fisticuffs as the suits zip around in the background.

Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) is all smarmy and seems a little more together than the guy from the last movie. But his motivation with Tony is Tony was a jerk. Seriously. The same motivation of every character in Spider-Man: Far From Home. Being thoughtless these days is enough for extreme villainy.

Killian works with Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall) to use her creation of Extremis for purposes until she has a change of heart and goes good though not sure why. She goes from being all in to not being all in. Where did this abrupt set of morals come from? One speech by Tony Stark was enough? She clearly knew how terrible Killian was but never batted an eye until now?

From Rhodey (Don Cheadle) to Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow) to Happy (Jon Favreau) to the kid in the small town (Ty Simpkins), all the supporting characters get a good chunk of screen time limiting the presence of Tony Stark though he doesn’t have much arc to go through unlike before. He’s just there to keep the film moving rather than develop or go through anything despite the PTSD which clears up because, well, I don’t know.

The climax, both emotionally and story wise, feels completely unearned. Shane Black hit the runtime and needed to wrap things up. The forgiveness of Pepper for everything Tony has done comes just because she saved his life (she did more for him) and not because he’s learned any lessons feels weak. It solves nothing emotionally.

I will say this though, it’s better than I remember. Not quite great because it is still the worst of the Iron Man films, but it’s aged a little nicer than some of the other bad MCU movies. It’s just not a good one. This came out when the MCU didn’t even need to try and it shows in every aspect here. Shane Black gives some of the laziest direction with the cast putting in minimal effort.

Iron Man 3 is okay. It’s heavy on spectacle but light on story. You won’t feel like you wasted your time but if you are like me you’ll forget this movie and have to revisit it to remind yourself because there is absolutely nothing memorable about it.