Tony Stark is suffering from Post Traumatic Syndrome (PTSD) from his experience fight the aliens in THE AVENGERS.   He is working on developing a better Iron Man suit and he is consumed by it and his relationship with Pepper Potts is on the blink.   Meanwhile, the Mandarin is causing terrorist acts and cyber attacks broadcast the Mandarin.   Also Pepper Potts meets with Aldrich Killian, the head of AIM who has developed something called Extremis with a scientist (Maya) that Tony had a fling with back in Zurich circa 1999.  Extremis has created these glowing weapons that can regenerate and also explode (because Extremis isn’t stable to everyone).   Tony has to deal with his own issues and decide where he wants his future to go.

IRON MAN 3 is as fun as THE AVENGERS.  It has some great humor and action sequences.  However, Shane Black does unfortunately steal from his past movies and scripts by setting the movie during Christmas (LONG KISS GOOD NIGHT) yet again and having the big climax taking place on a freighter (LETHAL WEAPON 2).  Then you have the movie decide to break some kind of closure to the story of Tony Stark which is the wrong way to go since Tony or someone else will be Iron man always.  I don’t think he can walk away from it.  It feeds his ego too much and he wants to save the world.  He doesn’t want to put Pepper in harm’s way, but outing himself as Iron Man at the end of the first IRON MAN always means Tony (and those he cares for) will be a target for bad guys.   IRON MAN 3 is an enjoyable thrill ride with some great action and a great cast.  It is interesting to see Tony trying to rely on his wits more than the technology (the Iron man suits), but I could have seen less Tony controlling the suits remotely like drones.

 This movie is more about Tony Stark as a person and lot less about Iron Man.   I loved how the first two films balance the person and the suit.   IRON MAN 3 is too close to THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (just it is not as winding as TDKR).   I loved the little note at the end of the credits saying Tony Stark will return, but I wish we had more Tony in the suit instead of Tony controlling the armor remotely.  Ben Kingsley is great as the Mandarin and the twist to the characters works well for the movie since I don’t know how they would have translated the comic book version with his power rings to the big screen.   If they do another IRON MAN (which looks likely since it has already taken in $345 million worldwide in one week), I hope they get back more to the tone of the first film.  Too bad they couldn’t have done the Demon in the Bottle storyline (since Disney thought it was too dark for the character and Marvel Studios didn’t want to go in that direction).   I do think you still should see this fun action spectacle now.  I’m going to go watch THE AVENGERS again.

this movie review is (c)5-3-2013 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com