Iron Man 3

Iron Man was a decent enough film, Iron Man 2 was a terrible mess of a film, it's seems that a new direction was being taken with Iron Man 3, they wanted a suitably convincing and threatening villain, and they also wanted a thrill ride adventure with some character development thrown in for good measure, and that's basically what all any comic book film aims to achieve in this day and age. Did Iron Man 3 succeed? Yes. But did that mean I actually liked it? Uh well... If I had anything reasonable to say, it was basically just another Iron Man film, it wasn't above and beyond any expectations I had for it and it wasn't boring so there's that. I didn't love it, but as I now work at a restaurant in a cinema, it's my aim to drum up people's excitements for our features, and my main go to point is, it's way better than the second one which seems more than praise enough as a fair few people thought the second one was actually alright.

So Robert Downey Jr is, as ever, embodying the role of billionaire, genius, philanthropist and superhero. It seems that the events of the big Avengers film are affecting Tony Stark for the worse, he can't seem to sleep or stop building new iron suits to play with. Plus we have nice scene of him working out how to make his suit shoot in parts onto his body. Now this is something which immediately demands a suspension of disbelief as, well how does that work really? Science, clearly. But they use the mechanism to good effect through the film so I'll let it off, I've been roaming the interwebs and it would seem this is something from the comics so it works I suppose... Anyways, he's dealing with his emotions in a very Tony Stark way, which is basically being a bit of a dickhead and refusing to discuss his issues with anyone, instead choosing to immerse himself in his own devices. Fortunately there's a global terrorist, uhm terrorising the world, therefore it's up to Tony to get in there and ruffle some feathers. Why? Because he's Tony Stark and... Well he's in a bit of a bad mood.

To be honest, the plot is pretty standard. It does it's utmost to isolate Stark from the action and throw him in a situation where he doesn't have his toys or his suit to help him out, just his own balls and genius and a plucky Hollywood kid. Oddly enough Hollywood kid and Stark's interactions are among my favourite parts of the film, largely because I appreciate human interaction in which there is a familiarity between characters in which they aren't afraid to be cruel to one another, as it's all in jest. Plus the Hollywood kid has sass so I'll let them off. Apart from that the big action sequences are... big and explosive, there are shocks and thrills and spills and but for all the cleverness behind the technology they are also extremely predictable. Another non-flashy part of the film I found brilliant was the use of the amazing Ben Kingsley, a performance that has to be seen to be believed, but he definitely stole every scene he was in and thus, my favourite parts of the film was when nothing was getting blown to shit. And make no mistake, there are more than enough explosions in this film to keep pyromaniacs extremely satisfied, in fact it takes up at least two thirds of the film; which makes sense as it's a big Hollywood blockbuster film, go figure.

What irritated me, rather than shocked me, was the criminally underused Rebecca Hall, the more I see of her the more I respect her as an actress (she was simply dazzling in Tom Stoppard's BBC adaptation of Parade's End) but she just seemed a stock femme fatale/scientist in this film. Sure Gwyneth Paltrow has plenty to do in this film but given the choice I'd much rather see Hall act her off the screen... Alas this is not my moment to rage about the way females are treated in big budget films. And hey, if femme fatale/scientist is a stock character in Hollywood films then I shouldn't complain... Right?

I will commend the film for one thing, and that's progressing Tony Stark's story. Most films of this ilk are quite happy to plod through two hours and for the characters to worm their way pretty much back to where they started in order to refresh for the next instalment. Iron Man 3 nudges the over-arcing story of Tony Stark forward ever so slightly, just enough that we feel he might actually be a better person for it... Of course this will leave him refreshed for Avengers 2 or Iron Man 4 but I was quite happy to see things moving.

Perhaps I had something more to say but it's been a week since I started this damn thing and I literally can't think of anything else worth saying. If it's not obvious, my perfectly succinct opinion is, it's just another Iron Man film, completely forgettable, moderately enjoyable and literally nothing to get excited about. But by all means go right ahead and go for it.