Theatrical Review: IRON MAN 3

Superhero threequels are notoriously tricky to pull off. The third installment almost always makes enough bank to keep the franchise rolling …but when are they ever any GOOD? For every one good threequel (THE DARK KNIGHT RISES) there always seems to be four subpar ones just waiting to disappoint by cramming too many new faces (SPIDER-MAN 3), spin-off nonsense (BLADE: TRINITY), unnecessary comedy (SUPERMAN 3), outlandish day-glow set retcon (BATMAN FOREVER), or pointless character deaths (X-MEN: THE LAST STAND) into the mix.

To be honest, I fully expected IRON MAN 3 to be a subpar threequel.

Why? Well, for starters, IRON MAN 2. I like that flick but know full well it’s a bit of a hot mess. The characters no longer seemed to click (Tony was suicidal, Pepper actively hated him for most of the film, and Rhodey 2.0 up and steals an Iron Man suit mere moments after delivering a speech about how he just convinced the military out of storming in and STEALING THE IRON MAN SUITS!), the plot was jumbled (I’m still reeling from the fact that “Demon In A Bottle”, one of Iron Man’s most important storylines, was compressed into a seven minute action bit), and the villains never really got their sh*t together (Why exactly did Justin Hammer give full control of a motherf*cking robot army to a convicted sociopath like Ivan Vanko?). Oh and don’t even get me started on the fact IM2 is more a prequel to THE AVENGERS than a sequel to IRON MAN. I’m all for in jokes and references but IM2 went too far.

Another reason I fully expected IM3 to be subpar was because THE AVENGERS was so above par. Not only did that flick make like 1.5 BILLION dollars at the box office, it also successfully managed to combine four separate franchises into one new franchise while leaving room for future installments in the separate franchises. That’s unheard of! That’s crazy! That’s awesome! That’s something I totally wouldn’t want to be the follow-up to! Even if IM3 makes a billion dollars at the box office, it’ll be considered a financial disappointment. Think about for that a sec.

But the biggest reason I expected IM3 to be subpar was the marketing campaign. Every trailer, TV spot, and poster released thus far has been visually impressive but tonally worrisome. It’s all been disaster porn spliced with terrorist imagery (yes, I know the first IRON MAN mined similar territory but once was enough) and the INCEPTION “Brahhhhmmmm!” sound for good measure. If it wasn’t Tony’s Malibu mansion being razed or him bleeding out inside his suit, it was The Mandarin — a character whose big screen makeover has transformed him from a uncomfortable Fu Manchu clone into a uncomfortable Osama Bin Laden clone — teaching “lessons” to those who opposed him. My gut feeling was that the suits at Marvel Studios had deemed genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist Tony Stark too playful and given him a “grim and gritty” DARK KNIGHT makeover.

Thankfully, my gut feeling was wrong. The marketing was Marvel Studios playing “Bait And Switch”. It served only to get you into the theater so they could reveal as IRON MAN 3 a GREAT threequel. Color me surprised.

Click on the pic to check out my full review…