Movie Review: Iron Man 3

It's the first weekend of May, which means Marvel has a major film coming out. 2013's entry is Iron Man 3, which does Marvel proud and manages to be one of their best films to-date.

After a relatively disappointing second entry, the Iron Man franchise manages to get completely back on track with the third installment. This film is your prototypical Marvel film loaded with brilliant action sequences, humor and visual effects galore. It's goal is to entertain the audience for two hours and it succeeds big time. This film follows a similar blueprint as the previous films with some surprises to keep things fresh. First off, this is easily the funniest superhero film ever made. Co-writer/director Shane Black has a background in comedy (the last film he did prior to this was Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which was amongst the first films Robert Downey Jr. did when he came back into acting after becoming sober in 2004) and flexes his comedy muscles on the biggest stage he's ever had with great success. The humor works incredibly well and while it's over-the-top at times, the jokes never stop being enjoyable (aka there is no sad attempts at humor like the Tony Stark/Colonel Rhodes house fight scene in Iron Man 2.) There is also a different approach to the villains in this film which I liked a lot. The first two films were essentially just Iron Man fighting people in similar suits as him, but this time around we get two non-suited villains in The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) and Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), which was refreshing. Both make great foes for Iron Man and although a lot of comic book fans disagree, I really liked the direction they took The Mandarin in. The characterization of The Mandarin was an unexpected twist that hasn't been done in any other comic book film and Kingsley absolutely nails the role with a lot of energy and his typical grand demeanor . Though some things are different,  the beating heart of the film is still Robert Downey Jr. His portrayal of Tony Stark is excellent as always. Stark is an arrogant, sarcastic, wealthy jackass who Downey gives an inherit likability and makes him one of the most memorable heroes in superhero movie history. Downey was born to play this role and his pitch-perfect performance as Stark is at the root of his triumphant comeback over the past five years. Iron Man 3 is a thrilling, surprisingly hilarious, action-packed ride that kicks the summer of 2013 off with one of the most fun blockbusters in years.

4.5/5 Stars