Rating of
3.5/4
A great gulp of fresh air.
memento_mori - wrote on 07/03/13
Possible Spoilers
I was skeptical at first, when I heard Iron Man 3 was being made, because I was still struggling to get the taste of Iron Man 2 out of my mouth. Then I heard Shane Black was attached to the project and I became a little more optimistic. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is to me one of the most underrated and overlooked movies of all time, as well as a personal favorite. Plus, he wrote Lethal Weapon.
The end result: Great. Just what I expected.
Let's start out with the problems. While I love Shane Black, I think his writing style was a little over the top for this film. The way he wrote Tony Stark was spotless and had me laughing every few minutes, but he made a risky decision by adding a twist in the middle of the film. I liked it, but for other audiences it will turn out one out of two ways: 1) They will go with it, or 2) they will rage and throw their popcorn at the screen.
Another problem was the completely rushed ending. It felt like a short video blog of Stark recounting what happened, and it felt lazy.
The character of Aldrich Killian was unbearable. He was just stupid. At the beginning of the film, he confronts Stark with an idea, showing himself off as the most nerdy computer wimp that walked the planet and later he feels insulted because Stark rebuffed him. That was just stupid.
Putting those flaws aside, here's what worked:
The direction, the character development, the inside humor, the kid wasn't annoying (YES!!!!), the dialogue, the pacing, the action and the villain and his twist.
There is a moral within the story, within Tony Stark. This film has the best development of the three and delves deep into the meaning of Iron Man, just like The Dark Knight Rises explored the meaning of the bat suit. It's brilliant.
The relationship between Tony and Pepper, while amusing to see them argue, is a very good demonstration of what is straining and pulling them apart.
Along with great direction and excellently-written characters, this sci-fi action piece is a very good conclusion to the Iron Man trilogy, conveying deeper meaning that the suit isn't Stark's best creation, but it is his love Pepper. Awesome.
