Movie Review: Iron Man 3

IRON MAN 3
Action [PG]
Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Guy Pearce, Ben Kingsley
131min 

3 out of 5 stars

By Charmaine Ng, Reviews Editor

STERLING cast let down by a rusty plot – Iron Man is back, but not without some dents and scratches on the metallic superhero.

Continuing where The Avengers and the previous Iron Man movies left off, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) battles his personal struggle with the question: does the man make the suit or the suit make the man?

Intense action sequences, futuristic technology, and humorous banter – the essential elements of an Iron Man movie are still there, but Marvel fans may be let down by director Shane Black’s liberal take on The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley).

Academy Award-winning actor Kingsley’s maniacal take of the hard-hearted villain will leave viewers gripped with the same fear he drives into the hearts of a threatened America.

But with the emphasis placed on Stark and the combination of separate story arcs involving The Mandarin and Extremis from the Iron Man comics, the potential of The Mandarin as Iron Man’s biggest archenemy yet is left largely untapped.

Just when Hollywood’s on a roll with the villains (as seen in Skyfall and the Dark Knight trilogy), the uninspired one-liners and cliched backstory in Marvel’s latest installment broke the streak.

Instead, the filmmakers tried to compensate for the one-dimensional villain with comedy and more iron suits. Although they barely filled the cracks, Black and his team definitely know what makes an entertaining action-comedy film. 

With the emergence of a child who aids and inspires Stark, the movie avoids stepping into sappy territory and retains its wit through the dynamism between Downey and young actor Ty Simpkins.

The movie has its fair share of plot twists to sustain a viewer’s attention, but Iron Man 3 is hardly the finest of the series.