Iron Man 3

Iron Man 3 is something of an undersell.

"Unleash the power behind the armor."

Hey everyone, welcome back to the Tagline! Over the weekend I got out to the theater to see Iron Man 3, and it was quite a time! The movie takes place chronologically after The Avengers (about 6 months I think), and stars Robert Downey Jr.once again as Tony Stark a.k.a. Iron Man. Tony is a little worse for the wear since his experience in New York, what with almost dying through a worm hole into outer space and all, and is channeling his anxiety into making lots of crazy Iron Man suits. America is threatened by The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley, an expert at playing evil viziers and such) an evil mastermind who is launching untraceable and inexplicable attacks on various targets that seem to hold symbolic meaning, and seems to be winding up to a grand and destructive finale. When Tony's goon of a bodyguard (you know Jon Favreau) is injured in the mix, Tony decides that threatening The Mandarin and giving out his address is a good idea. As it turns out, it isn't the greatest idea actually. Stuff gets blown up, and the game is naturally more complicated than it initially appears. More danger happens, lots of explosions, you know the drill.

Meet the Iron Patriot, he tested well with focus groups.

Also featured in this movie, Guy Pearce as Aldritch Killian, a science guy who now isn't a crippled nerd like he was in the past, which clearly means he is a bad guy, and also Rebecca Hall (who I recently saw in a suspense ghost story called The Awakening, which I'll probably talk about soon) as Maya Hansen a scientist that Tony did once while drunk (not as if that was uncommon). Gwyneth Paltrow reprises her role as Pepper Potts, and Don Cheadle comes back for a second turn as James Rhodes a.k.a. War Machine a.k.a. The Iron Patriot, a.k.a. no not really that's it.

Sad Iron Man in the rain.

Mostly those folks aren't super central to the plot of the movie though, with the exception of Ms. Potts of course. That's because this movie, as would be appropriate for a movie about Iron Man/Tony Stark, egomaniac, is all about Tony, and his relationships with other characters (and of course himself most of all). This was I think a really good call, because after The Avengers, there's just no reasonable way to expect a single MEMBER of that team to one up them in terms of scope. Also with two movies behind us ABOUT Iron Man, you can't just do the same thing again. It's appropriate that a character like Tony Stark, an inventor, and a genius, keeps on reinventing himself, and Iron Man by proxy. That worked pretty well in this film, although initially I had a negative reaction to the amount of time Tony spent outside of the suit at first, similar to my issues with The Dark Knight Rises, but then I finally picked up the heavy note that the movie was putting down.

Spoilers: don't trust your ex-girlfriend/scientist.

You see, what the movie wanted me to understand even though I was almost too dim to get it, is that Tony Stark IS Iron Man. Even if he doesn't have the suit on, he's still Iron Man, and the movie certainly works THAT point in thoroughly. While there's plenty of action without the suit(s) all those scenes are still Stark-centric. The movie of course is full of stark-snark as well, and you can't go wrong there. A number of reviews I read seemed to complain about the amount of action in the movie, which... I thought was strange. I mean, it's a comic book movie about a superhero who uses a robotic suit to fight and fly. Moreover, it makes sense that the movie is more action-heavy than earlier entries. I mean, unlike Iron Man the first, we don't need to establish who the characters are, or an origin story. We already know those things and can get right down to business. I didn't have a problem with that, and if you do, well... probably watch a movie not about flying robot suit man?

That's all for today guys! Definitely go see Iron Man 3, I'd rate it about as good as Iron Man 2, which I quite enjoyed! Join me on Thursday, for more movie madness. Or just movies.