Marvel is off and running with Phase Two of their cinematic universe following the overwhelming success of The Avengers and they aren’t looking to reinvent the wheel. Whereas Phase One began with Iron Man, Phase Two safely begins with Iron Man 3 and the charismatic sarcasm and wit of Robert Downey Jr., whose involvement as Tony Stark would appear to be the one constant when it comes to the more successful installments in this franchise of interwoven films.
As a result, Iron Man 3 will likely be a huge box office success and hailed as one of the great comic book adaptations of all-time until it’s replaced a year later by something even “better”. From my perspective, it’s decent, but like all the Avengers-related films before it, it feels like an episode in a very expensive network television series where one is just as memorable as the next, if at all.
After aliens and gods from other galaxies in The Avengers it would seem anxiety is the first of the issues Stark has been saddled with as it takes little time to get reacquainted with his larger-than-life persona. His relationship with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) is struggling as he avoids confronting his issues by holing up in his basement working on new technology. He will only be allowed to deflect for so long, however, as a new threat is on the horizon and it would appear Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Hulk and even Nick Fury have all gone on vacation leaving Stark on his own to save the day.
A mad man going by the name of the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) is terrorizing the western world, but his random series of bombings have left the authorities confused as there is no bomb signature to track. We get hints at a genetic enhancement experiment known as Extremis through the introduction of Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall) and Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), all of which adds to the narrative, suggesting where things may be heading.
And while Don Cheadle has been led on a wild goose chase as the military’s answer to Iron Man — dubbed the Iron Patriot — Stark wages a personal war against the Mandarin after a friend (Jon Favreau) is hospitalized and his Malibu mansion obliterated.
Believed dead, Stark is forced to go about his business on his own in something of a superhero “C.S.I.” kind of way. Yet, whether on his own wearing a poncho stolen from a wooden Indian or as Iron Man, Iron Man 3 can’t go five minutes without yet another 15 minute action sequence before reaching its finale in a shipping yard of all generic places.
While watching Iron Man 3 I never felt I was seeing anything new. Every beat felt familiar and little came as a surprise. This isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy myself, it was a satisfying couple of hours with typical Downey flair. In addition, Kingsley is great in ways you won’t expect, Paltrow gets in on the action, both James Badge Dale and Stephanie Szostak make great henchmen/women and even Ty Simpkins as a small town kid doesn’t come off as contrived as such a character normally would with the help of his back-and-forth banter with Downey. However, this is the kind of entertainment I would expect from a primetime, network television show, not a $200 million feature film, despite the bits of darkness director Shane Black tried to fit in when he could.
Iron Man 3 is a perfect example of the kind of film a studio hopes for nowadays. It’s easy to digest and should satisfy all quadrants. It’s violent without being so, such as one gruesome head-crushing scene which is only heard not seen. The word “shit”, I believe, is uttered once and an army of Iron Men fly around blowing things up. The risk in making this film is zero as long as you stay within audience constraints and can ensure people walk away saying, at the very least, “Well, that plane crash scene was worth the price of admission alone.”
This is popcorn cinema at its most digestible and least offensive, but there is nothing to grab hold of and chew on. The film begins with voice over from Stark, telling us the story in retrospect. In his world it’s a story comparable to one you or I might tell at a dinner party. If we weren’t at all familiar with Stark a story such as this might take us by surprise, but the way it’s handled, and based on what we already know and have seen, this is just another “day in the life”.
The Iron Man trilogy was at its best midway through the first film when Stark first saved those Afghan villagers, and it has never quite managed to capture that level of reality and real-world consequence since. After two hours and ten minutes, Iron Man 3 came to a close and it never felt overly long as much as I could feel the ending coming and felt, That’s it?
Nothing happens to the point I felt anything would be left unresolved. At least at the end of The Dark Knight Rises there was something of a question of how things would carry on. Here I walked away with that final note at the end of the credits saying, “Tony Stark will be back.” I’m sure he will even though rumors suggest the contrary. At the very least for The Avengers 2 before Cheadle is given the reins and Iron Man 4 likely becomes Iron Patriot instead.
I’ll continue to watch and have some modicum of fun with the Avengers films, looking forward to two or so a year as brief moments of escapism, but it would seem true cinematic greatness alludes them, which is okay. Everything needs its place in this world and this is a massive franchise that has certainly found its groove, becoming something we can count on for two hours of sanitized fun, but not much else.
