Ironman 3– movie review

A movie franchise always has it's highs and lows, and each person will remember the best of a series of movies and regret watching the lows.

Robert Downing Jr IS the Ironman, and he has added the personal touch to the man in the metal suit, with his larger than life megalomaniac style, and it will be hard to think of another person who can play this superhero better.

Nevertheless, the high in the franchise, most will probably agree, is the first movie or the combination Avengers movie, helmed superbly by Josh Weldon.

The trouble with the third installment is perhaps the need to break out of the same mold with more of the over the top larger than life RDJ swagger, and new cool gadgets and the like.

So they bring in Shane Black, best known for his efforts in writing Lethal Weapon, and he tries to add a more human factor in, plus a bit of conspiracy into the show, and he throws in heavyweights like Ben Kingsley, expands Gwyneth Paltrow's role and adds another star who can act and fight in the form of Brit Stuart Pierce. Rebecca Hall (The Town) also plays her small but important role with much gravitas.

With two Oscar winners thrown in, Iron Man starts the movie fighting a seemingly invincible and terribly cruel villain in the form of Mandarin, but there is a twist and Iron Man runs around in this movie with rather larger proportion of his time without his super suit actually.

So does this new formula to rescue the franchise work? There is still good chemistry between Don Cheadle and RDJ, but when you add too many elements, characters and a rather unconvincing conspiracy, there seems to be too many things, and also too many iron suits running around.

Sure action aficionados will be pleased, with plenty of explosions at rather deafening volumes, but you find that even that lack the Michael Bay touch and it's too much too many in way too many scenes.

Nevertheless there were a few really funny moments and the chemistry RDJ had with the kid who helps him was sweet and hilarious. Ben Kingsley does a wonderful job in his role and for those who missed it, it seems Mandarin is a Liverpool fan! 

It's spectacular to watch in the cinemas, and probably will have kick ass surround effects on Blu Ray, but this outing is more for the hard core Iron Man fans and is unlikely to win new fans with this outing.

Not bad, but not great, and part of the reason may be Shane Black tries too hard to introduce a new facade, adding two Oscar Winners into a rather convoluted plot and dilute RDJ's larger than life style.

2.5/5, but probably it will be a great demo BR disc.