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NedFlix: Iron Man 3 Review

Iron Man 3 takes place shortly after the events of The Avengers, and Tony Stark is now suffering from frequent anxiety attacks due to his experiences in New York. Spending his free time tinkering with his suits of armor rather than focus on his relationships with Pepper Potts and others, Stark is not doing entirely well. After a series of attacks from a terrorist known as The Mandarin, Stark decides to take matters into his own hands and challenges the terrorist, to which The Mandarin quickly accepts and attacks Tony Stark at his home in Malibu. Having narrowly escaped death and his suit half-functioning, Stark must uncover the secrets behind The Mandarin’s organization and stop him. 

The first thing IM3 attempts to do is give Tony Stark’s character more emotional depth via his newfound anxieties. Sure, Stark has shown some emotion in his previous solo adventures, but nothing too deep. In the first installment, he shows remorse at the death of Yensin, and in the second film he starts to show more emotion towards Pepper as a lover, and not just act as a  playboy/business partner towards her. The third film has Tony focus on himself and his own emotional issues and his challenge to confront them, contrasted from the first two where he is essentially learning to be empathic towards others. Overall, this film has the most character development in the series for Stark, Avengers included. Iron Man 3 shows its audience that Stark is more than just a brain that invented a fancy suit, since his suit is out of commission for the entire second act of the film, we see Stark take on challenges in what almost seems to be a Bond-like delivery. Shane Black promised us something akin to a political thriller when he was signed on to this film, and by the looks of it, he delivered just that. 

Don Cheadle’s James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes also gets a bit more of a spotlight in this film in comparison to Iron Man 2. As Tony is out of commission and presumed dead by authorities, Rhodes takes center stage tracking down The Mandarin as the Iron Patriot. During the third act of the film Rhodes shows off some of his military training and get physical right along Stark. Although there is little to no character development on his part, it is nice to see that they are including him in the action as more than just the sidekick we saw him as in Iron Man 2.

To avoid spoilersI will not mention anything concerning The Mandarin or the Extremis project here, but am open to talk about it elsewhere. 

Overall, Iron Man 3 is a solid film that is definitely a fun watch, and does justice to its not-entirely-satisfying predecessor. Sure, it has its problems as any film does. The introduction of too many characters has never really been a good idea, and this film does suffer from that. There is also the overuse of CGI that has overrun all summer blockbusters in the past few years that seems to be holding this film back (then again, how can you get the moviegoers to keep coming in after something like The Avengers?). But if you want a film that you can have a good time watching, Robert Downey Jr. has always been able to deliver. 

NedFlix Score: 3/5