Summer of Movies, 2013, cont.
(finally) saw Iron Man 3 tonight. As noted before, I personally think the first Iron Man is by far the best of the so-called ‘comic book’ movies, but this one wasn’t bad. In this go-round, our hero begins his march down the road of anxiety and self-doubt, just as Guy Pearce shows up in his next star turn as another super-evil bad guy (not too far removed from his role in Prometheus, if you think about it).
The usual amount of wise-cracking is had – truly only Robert Downey Jr. could play this role the way its’ been mapped out in the Iron Man and Avenger movies – and Gweneth P. is given more to do this time around than in the past, so that’s good. Special effects are their usual high quality, too, especially in the attack on Tony Stark (resulting obviously from Tony Stark’s media challenge) by The Mandarin. Also always fun to see Miguel Ferrer in a movie, even if he’s sadly underused here. And Ben Kingsley is also great.
Now, the nits and spoilers – be forewarned:
1) if the USA was being threatened by ‘Osama x 10’ which is implied by The Mandarin’s character – I find it hard to believe that NO ONE ELSE but Iron Man has to save the day? Where the heck is SHIELD and the rest of the Avengers – Bermuda? At minimum you’d think the guy with the word ‘America’ (first name: Captain) would be involved? Hmmmmph.
2) The ‘fall apart’ Mk 42 suit flying from Tennessee to Fla. in the space of a few minutes when called remotely from The Mandarin’s hideout – a wee bit unbelievable, to put it lightly. And the ‘falling into a flying suit’ trick that Tony Stark does repeatedly in the midst of crazy mayhem gets a bit overused.
3) Iron Man seems all but outmatched in several fights with Guy Pearce’s Extensis people – yet in the last movie he was able to knock Thor around more than a bit? Come on. I *have* to believe Thor is tougher than any of these Extensis ‘burning mutant’ people? Please.
4) What is actually *powering* all those suits? In the first movie they go over and above out of their way to show how the arc reactor in TS’ chest is powering his suit. Yet apparently this applies to no one else (because no one else has one in their chest) and in this movie’s last fight there are Iron Men flying all over the place – Hmmmm?
5) Tony Stark gets the shard(s) finally removed at the end of the movie – Really? If it was that easy, why not do it three movies ago? And that’s a major break from the comic in so doing….?
All in all, an entertaining ride. Not quite the bruiser villain that Mickey Rourke could have been in the second one – Guy Pearce is more of a James Bond-style ‘master’ villain by contrast. The kid is good, even if his character is a bit cliched, but they have fun with it.
Onwards – likely Pacific Rim or Elysium next. Oblivion isn’t in the theaters around here anymore so that’s waiting for video – doh!
Tags: '10s, comics, fantasy, freaks, fun!, malevolence, movies