Tin man gets a heart

Writing this review of Iron Man 3 was difficult in that I didn't want to reveal too many spoilers. Ultimately, this is the worst of the Iron Man movies. That doesn't mean that the movie is bad, but that the other two are pretty good. If I had to rank the movies from best to worst I would do so in the order that they came out.

Robert Downey Jr. is so familiar with the character at this point that it looks almost too easy for him to pull off Tony Stark. Somewhat surprising to myself in this one is how much screen time is devoted to Gwyneth Paltrow's character Pepper Potts. However, upon reflection, it does make sense, because the events center almost entirely around Pepper and Tony's relationship.

From the trailers I was expecting a very epic clash between a worthy mad genius foil for Tony Stark, ie The Mandarin. I will say this, Ben Kingsley can do no wrong. Spoiler alert, do not click this link about why comic book fans didn't like the Mandarin in this movie.

Apart from the aforementioned controversy this movie actually has the most tension of all the Iron Man movies. Iron Man might not make it through this time. The enemy is substantial, and the fight is larger than before. You've got all the necessary Iron Man whiz bang, and snarkiness. Don Cheadle is there to help out. And you know what, that is enough. Definitely a movie you wouldn't mind watching if it happened to be on, and you'd probably deem it a worthy waste of time.

7/10 Good cap to the series......so far, I mean they are going to make another, no way they don't

P.S. Guy Pearce is in this movie, and he is almost as scuzzy as he was in Lawless. All I've got to say about that.

Downey Jr. Continues his Jaunt as Snarky Billionaire

I watched Iron Man 2 recently. I would say it was as enjoyable as the first Iron Man. Much like my critique of the first Iron Man (which I saw about a month prior to viewing Iron Man 2) I bought into a lot of the characters. The movie was entertaining, and a good sequel to the first.

Often times sequels fail to live up to the standard that the first movie established. I'm thinking of things like: Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, The Matrix Reloaded, Die Hard 2, etc. It's not that these movies are bad per se, it's that they weren't confident enough in being their own movie, so they just did the first movie over. Now, it probably seems like the difference between the approach of those three movies to being a sequel and Iron Man 2's approach is not that different. I would agree with you in part, but disagree overall.

Iron Man 2 operates under a separate paradigm from the first movie. Here Tony Stark is known the world over as Iron Man, and things are pretty hunky-dory. But, of course things are not what they seem. There is trouble brewing in Russia. Iron Man has a dangerous secret. He wants to give up, but he finds redemption, and together with the help of his friends saves the world! Isn't that the same story arc as the first movie? Yeah, more or less, but so what? This movie was just as entertaining as I was hoping it would be.

Robert Downey, Jr. was his typical solid self. Mickey Rourke did a more than sufficient job as Ivan Vanko, ie the bad guy. Although, to be honest, it was a little hard to think of Rourke as some sort of tech genius. I'm not sure who should have been cast in the alternative. Maybe Peter Stormare? Peter Stormare can be pretty menacing. I mean if you told me that guy would be getting behind a computer, and then breaking someone's neck I would say "Sure, seems believable". Seriously, why didn't they call Peter Stormare? Other than that minor issue, I thought the returning actors did a good job, and the new additions (Don Cheadle, and Scarlett Johansson) were believable in their respective roles.

Oh yeah, Sam Rockwell is in this movie. Has there ever been a more outmatched villain than Rockwell in this movie? Yes. Vernon Wells as Bennett in Commando. Rockwell was very Rockwelly, and kind of annoying, which makes me question my assessment of other Rockwell movies.

All told, the movie was just as entertaining as the first one, and advanced the overall Iron Man story nicely. I look forward to the third installment coming out in less than a month.

7/10 would watch again, probably multiples