Tony Stark and his good buddy, sitting. Brooding.
I greatly enjoyed Iron Man 3. Less bloated than the second film, with a lot of things that I enjoyed – good use of the villain the Mandarin, good use of Pepper (and Gwyneth Paltrow’s body is ripped – it looks like she takes five yoga classes a day, or something), even good use of the Tony Stark’s heroism.
Of course, I was predisposed to like it, because Shane Black’s fingerprints are all over it, and he’s responsible for Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which I’ve already celebrated. From the Christmas setting to the bookending Robert Downey, Jr. voiceover to the playing with timing and expectation, all the hallmarks of his work are present in Iron Man 3, and I’ll admit it – I lapped them up. The voiceover is ultimately forgettable, but the rest of it worked like gangbusters.
There’s also at least one bravura action sequence, the ‘barrel of monkeys’, which delighted me. One of the things that bugged me about Star Trek Into Darkness was the continued scenes of extras casually perishing in the background of the action. This constant death of innocents ran contrary to the purported goals of the characters – and the movie itself. Iron Man 3, however, has the opposite effect, especially in one terrific set-piece where Iron Man goes to the rescue, not of the Named Importants, but of the unnamed extras in the background. It was thrilling, but it was also gratifying.
Yes, it’s a summer action film. Yes, its plot (apparently taken from the comics) has its problems. Yes, Guy Pearce is much less believable as the nebbish in the prologue of the film than he is as the suave bastard he becomes. But the plot holes are smaller than they could be, Pearce is not alone in Hollywood at having difficulty hiding his natural charisma, and overall I just had a really fun time at the cinema. Which is pretty much the point of an iron Man movie.
Macguffin & McGuffin 