Film Review: Iron Man 3

     A year after the groundbreaking, spectacle that was Marvel's The Avengers, fans once again return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the world of Tony Stark where the eagerly anticipated Iron Man 3 provides many laughs and awesome action sequences that unfortunately falls short while not quite living up to
the hype it was given.

     Set some time after the events of The Avengers, Tony Stark finds himself suffering from a sort of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder-like anxiety due to the extra-terrestrial invasion of New York City. Because of this, Tony has spent a considerable amount of time creating many different types of suits and also enhancing his armors abilities which ultimately is creating a love-triangle of sorts between Tony, his armor and his girlfriend and current CEO of Stark Industries, Pepper Potts. Global tensions are also on the rise due to an emerging experimental tissue regenerative and ability enhancing virus known as Extremis, a series of unexplained bombings and the appearance of a terrorist  who calls himself "The Mandarin". After a close friend of his falls victim to one of the bombings, Tony proceeds to go on a personal vendetta against The Mandarin all the while asking himself: "Does the Suit make the Man? Or does the Man make the Suit?"

     After Jon Favreau's departure as director of the first two installments, Shane Black was hired to screen-write and direct the third film which would reunite him and actor Robert Downey Jr. after working together on the 2005 dark comedy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Those familiar with Black's work can expect his usual plot devices such as a kidnapping of one of the characters and the film being set around the Christmas holiday come into play. While a new director at the helm of a much beloved franchise is expected to make a few changes, Iron Man 3 is significantly different compared to it predecessors; both in its visuals and sense of tone as well as starting and ending the film with a narrative voice-over from Stark and not opening the film with an AC/DC soundtrack. But as can expect from a Marvel film, there are plenty of laughs, both subtle and not so subtle nods to comic lore and incredible set pieces that will have the audience cheering for a now much adorned superhero.

     Robert Downey Jr. reprises the role of Tony Stark for his fifth appearance and with no surprise stealing the show with the usual wit, smart-ass, lovable jerk attitude that has become so synonymous with the character. Guy Pearce provides a fresh, deceptively cunning, love to hate villain that could quite easily be considered the best live-action Iron Man antagonist to date. Those who have wanted to see more of the two most important figures in Tony's life are in for a treat; Colonel James "Rhodey" Rhodes played by Don Cheadle  is finally given a more significant role that is not only essential to the plot but also to put his best friend Tony in his place and the beautiful Gwyneth Paltrow reprises her role of Pepper Potts for the fourth time with this appearance definitely giving the character a much more important role to the overall story as well as finally breaking the stereotypical damsel in distress cliche. The biggest issue in an otherwise fantastic cast is the inclusion of Sir Ben Kingsley as The Mandarin; was nothing more than a waste of a talented and big name actor offering little screen time with the big reveal and revelation of the characters true nature will surely anger and disappoint hard core comic book fans.

     The first film and everything it delivered was the start of an incredible cinematic journey that eventually led to one of the most ambitious films of all time as well as setting the standard for all superhero movies to come, it's sequel was panned by critics and fans alike due to it's messy plot that was all over the place and two dimensional villains and now Iron Man 3 was immensely hyped up to be the first, big follow up to Marvel's The Avengers but sadly didn't quite deliver as it promised to. The first film to begin Marvel Studios' "Phase Two" plans for their Cinematic Universe, did nothing to show fans what to expect in upcoming movies. It had great acting, great character development and great action set pieces but Iron Man 3 simply did not deliver in what it hoped to be.