Iron Man 3 - Film Review

*CAUTION: This review contains spoilers for Iron Man 3. If you haven't seen it and wish to do so, proceed with caution.*

If there is one superhero that has benefitted from the superhero film becoming big business, Iron Man is definitley the big mover.

The complicated character of weapons billionaire Tony Stark-turned-mechanic and planet saving lump of metal Iron Man has crept up to steal the Marvel show. Until the first Iron Man came out, Spiderman, Hulk and Captain America took the limelight of the Marvel back catalogue but the first Iron Man movie has made him one of the big superheroes, with Robert Downey Junior providing a spectacular showing in the titular role.

This success led to a 2nd installment even before superhero free-for-all Avengers Assemble came out this time last year.

Avengers was not the perfect movie but it was a very skilfully crafted creation with a great combination of superheroes. Perhaps because of this, or the big box office draw created by the previous ones, Avengers became the 3rd highest grossing film in history and the highest not to involve James Cameron.

Naturally, such a draw means another pile-on of films as Marvel begins "Phase Two", which also involves upcoming Thor and Captain America sequels in the next 12 months ahead of an Avengers 2, which will arrive in 2015.

Step one of this road sees the return of (arguably) the biggest Avenger. To follow it up, you need a massive film that can take the Avengers plot and - somehow - go further.

Somehow, they manage it.

Promotional material has been juggling around for months, with the shots of Iron Man's home being levelled by henchmen of the seemingly-formidable Madarin (Ben Kingsley) providing what you may think is a glimpse into the film. However, as it pans out, there's a few red herrings lurking.

As the promo indicates, we do get an early glimpse that all is not well in the mind of Stark. After flying into another dimension with a nuke and crash landing straight into New York City on the way out, Stark is suffering with huge insomnia and panic attacks. To evade this, he buries himself in further modifying and creating his Iron Men. His 42nd make is proving problematic but usable enough. However the creation is causing alienation between Stark and his girlfriend Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow)

This follows on from the opening gambit, which takes place in Switzerland on New Year's Eve 1999. This produces the set-up of the main ploy in the film - the Extremis virus. Stark thinks nothing of the threat at the time, simply bedding the virus creator Dr. Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall) and blanking crippled scientist Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce).

The union of Hansen & Killian soon creates its own surge, which takes off the moment Extremis-addled super-soldiers blow up the Stark compound.

Before the explosions, Stark is seen coming close to what eventually reveals itself as a central plot point. The Extremis virus, a major plotpoint in the comics, helps disabled people regrow limbs - a similar point to the lizard's machinery in the recent Spiderman reboot. However these people have a tendency to overheat and combust with huge heat signatures. We see one of these when one explodes outside the Hollywood Chinese Theatre.

This is followed by the Mandarin claiming credit for destroying a bastardised piece of Chinese-American culture. The Mandarin is seen as behind a range of explosions across America, where all registered huge heat signatures.

One has slipped through the net, and as a result Stark was planning to swing by a small town in Tennessee to check it out. As a result he winds up there, but on crash-arrival his suit runs out of power in the snow, leaving him stranded on the other side of America.

This is where the film takes a plot turn. Beforehand there had been echoes of a political thriller and the war on terror, which has been a long-running thread for entertainment since it started.

However here it moves into the classic "guy-who-has-everything-loses-it-all" territory. Not that this move is a bad thing - if anything it's a refreshing change of pace that allows more about the man behind the mask.

A lot of it hangs on the acting of Downey Jr, which is as accompished as ever. In the first three films to have Iron Man appearing in this guise, he has perfected a blend of arrogance, darkness and quippery and this one is another delightful airing.

Saying that, it does go almost too far when he translates this into departing a boy whose house he crashed in a wave of smartarse-ry.

Nevertheless, there's still a degree of trust in spite of the panic attacks. The Iron Man system is rebooted but soon trouble is emerging again, as Colonel Rhodes' re-painted War Machine (now the Iron Patriot, but still played by Don Cheadle) is taken in a trap in Pakistan when the broadcast hack came from Miami.

Having cracked the code and armed with nothing more than various modified stuff from a DIY store, Stark storms the broadcast compound where the Mandarin reaches the end of his role as villain. Not in the way you may expect, but it is a pretty amusing way with some interesting recollection on the roles of other tyrants.

From ths point, Killian takes over as the main bad guy. He's a nasty man, and his plans accelerate when he blows up Air Force One mid-flight and abducts both Potts and the American President.

This leads to the showstopping climax scene, which is a immensely well-crafted fight between the supersoldiers and all 42 Iron Men, which have remote access. This huge squabble then leads into a double-whammy of a cliffhanger end, which I won't spoil, but I will say it will lead to an interesting development when Tony Stark returns.

All sorts are going on. There's elements of spy film, political thrillers, political and business commentary, conspiracy fiction, some of the darker man-behind-the-mask vibes from The Dark Knight Rises and a few others, but it doesn't feel far removed from Iron Man 1 and 2.

If anything it feels like it's taken these and ran further. Each acting performance is impressive and act out a well-paced script. Everything blends together seamlessly in a very well-crafted piece of film.

If this is an omen for the rest of Marvel's Phase 2, we could be in line for some cinematic gold.

4.5/5