Iron Man 3 Movie Review

Wow, what can I say about the third solo outing of Robert Downey Jr. as the Armored Avenger? Well to put it simply: it was awesome! The first thing you immediately notice about this entry is how different it is, Iron Man 3 is a completely different animal than it's predecessors, not necessarily darker, but more serious, you could say it's more grounded in the real world as much as a science fiction comic book based movie can be. This departure is brought about by director Shane Black, who not only help write the screenplay for this film but other action movie classics like Lethal Weapon, Last Action Hero, and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which I believe was a great move on Marvel Studios part, cause I felt they played Iron Man 2 a little too safe by having the same director make a very similar film to the first.

While IM2 felt more like IM 1.5/Avengers 0.5, IM3 is it's own character building and completely Tony-centric story, but does not ignore Tony's first team-up with fellow super-heroes, in fact what happened in New York heavily influences what is happening to Tony in this movie. IM3 is a loose adaptation of the Extremis storyline written by Warren Ellis in which Black adds Tony's post-Avengers mental trauma, along with buddy-cop action/comedy with Don Cheadle's James Rhodes/Iron Patriot in to an adventure to reaffirm Stark is a hero with out his armor, that the ol' Shellhead hi-tech suit isn't Iron Man, he is Iron Man. A real standout is Ty Simpkins, the most rememorable scenes outside the great action scenes are all of Tony's interactions with this young actor's character, it's a real treat to see a child that can not only deal with Tony's bluntly jerkiness but also pull off throwing it back at him.  

I almost want to say I'm having a hard time writing down my thoughts on this movie, cause after I see a movie I usually have a pretty good idea of what I want to say about what I liked and didn't like, and things I really wanted to get across in the review, but with Iron Man 3 I was blown away by a film I didn't expect to play out the way I formed in my head from information and trailers. Being titled the third installment aside, IM3 does feel like the final third of a trilogy even though you couldn't have this movie without Avengers, because like any good super hero's career he'd finally come to the point where he was broken down and rebuilt himself with the realization he doesn't need to be that hero but now chooses to be that hero. So from me Iron Man 3 gets 9 1/2 out of 10 Arc Reactors, if you haven't seen it yet, go see it, you will not be disappointed, make sure to stay after the credits. 

I couldn't of been the only one who was overly super excited to see the Silver Centurion actually be worn by Tony in the movie. : )