Review: Iron Man 3 (2013)

Review by Disgruntled Monkey

Director: Shane Black
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Guy Pearce and Gwyneth Paltrow
Writers: Drew Pearce and Shane Black

After the third Iron Man movie i'm beginning to wonder. If you take away Robert Downey Jr, what do you really have left? I'm sad to be thinking this way, but I just don't think there is a whole heck of a lot.

Maybe I should take a few steps back and say that I find the movies fun. Downey's chemistry with Paltrow and Cheadle is great, and I can easily watch a movie an while away the hours. But other that Downey's performance is there anything here that is worth talking about?

The villains always seem a little week in my opinion, and the threat always seems to revolve around them stealing some technology off Stark. Movie number 3 probably gives us a better villain but not enough time to truly let him become the big bad of all big bads. You would think that with Marvel wanting to create this as a long franchise they would take more time and multiple movies to build up someone truly credible.

One of the more interesting facets of Iron Man 3 films was the flaws of Mr Stark. However in three while we get his PTS from the New York battle from Avengers, very little of it seems that central to the movie. Things also seem way to neatly wrapped up by the end. It a great example of how slight this movie feels. It runs over two hours and yet never seems to want to give us anything really meaty to chew on. Hell friends of Tony's nearly die in this movie and it seems to be skipped over lightning fast.

However if you go into the movie looking to be entertained then it will at least cover you. Some good looking set pieces, great funny moments of Tony Starkness and good eye candy. It's a shame that I feel the need to go so negative with the movie as it's not that bad, just I feel they dropped the ball on a number of things.

Category	Rating	Reason
Entertainment	1 extremis out of 1	Desptie it's flaws it's pretty entertaining.
Script	0 extremis out of 1	How can a movie feel rushed when it's over two hours?
Acting	1 extremis out of 1	Robert Downey Jr! Next.
Directing	0 extremis out of 1	I honestly don't think Shane Black brought anything to the movie.
Technical	1 extremis out of 1	Visual effects are excellent.
Overall	3 extermis out of 5	Better than average movie that's as hollow as an empty M&M.