Iron Man 3

By Boogie Knight

Iron Man 3 (free clip art)

Thankfully, I didn’t get towed for parking in a spot not designated for folks going to the theater. Thus, I am able to bring to you a review of the latest, and presumed final, installment of the Iron Man flicks. Of course, some may wonder, “Boogie, why would I care what some anonymous dude on the internet thinks about a movie I’ll probably like anyway?” A good question, let me know when you think of a good reason.

First couple Iron Man movies were fine, the characters were engaging, but the action felt like an afterthought. While this is not an inherently bad thing, The Avengers upped the action, and Iron Man 3 scaling back to something like that sadly out of place final battle in the first movie would be disappointing. Luckily, it does appear that we have a solid sequel which ends the arc of Iron Man on a high note, and might be jabbing The Dark Knight Rises by showing the right way to end a superhero trilogy.

There are two points of fan grumbling I’d like to address. The first are complaints about the amounts of sarcasm in the movie, which I can only throw up my hands and wonder if these folks even saw the first two movies. True, a few quips might have been a bit forced in some scenes where a lot was going on, but this has been par for the course in the Iron Man movies. I’m also pretty sure this is part of what made Marvel’s heroes popular: The colorful and sassy personalities in stark contrast to DC where the heroes were squares that felt more like one’s parents in embarrassing costumes.

The second complaint pertained to changing things up from the comic books. Fans may have some reason for grievance, but the change up did fit with some ideas presented by the villain, and I think the change was for the best since it lets the ending wrap up more neatly. Staying true to the comics likely would have meant either lengthening an already epic length movie or weakening good parts of the movie to allow for the canon. I also think it was clever to play with the expectations of people who know the lore inside and out.

Focusing on the movie itself, Iron Man 3 takes a logical progression with the characters and their world in response to events of The Avengers, and I suppose to a lesser extent events in earlier Iron Man movies. I am a tad miffed that this movie seems to go out of its way to keep War Machine from being awesome. Admittedly, the tale is about Tony, but it wouldn’t hurt for one action scene to be stolen by another character. On the other hand, many of the supporting characters have a moment to shine in a non-action capacity. As for the action itself, the scenes are pretty well thought out. The money guys probably wanted to get more scenes which would look good in 3D and overall I think this is a net plus.

All in all Iron Man 3, was certainly a strong finish and we might be able to reasonably expect future sequels of other Marvel heroes to do well.

Crossover Comic Avengers?