Iron Man 3 - (May 3rd, 2013): PG-13
Opening Weekend Box Office: #1 with $174,144,585
Domestic Box Office Gross to-date: $174,144,585
Gross Revenue: $678,944,585
Production Budget: $200 million
Director: Shane
Black
For all of its commercial success, overall reaction
to Iron Man 2 was somewhat lukewarm,
so expectations for the next chapter in Tony Stark’s story arc were immensely
high; granted, it was going to be difficult to appease fans with a solo adventure
after an immense crossover like The
Avengers, but if anyone could do it, it would be Robert Downey, Jr., the
beloved leader of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The first trailer for Iron Man 3 was remarkably well-received, with everyone noting that
the passing of the torch from previous director Jon Favreau to Shane Black had
resulted in a darker tone that was drawing associations to The Dark Knight Rises. And
aside from revealing the shocking destruction of Stark’s Malibu home, comic
book fans the world over lost their minds with promotions detailing at the
implications of The Mandarin as the central villain (brought to like by a
screen veteran of Ben Kingsley’s caliber) and the impressive array of weaponized
armors that our hero had added to his arsenal. Disney’s digital strategy slyly focused on
gradually revealing a new armor showcase every week, but between the Disneyland
Innoventions exhibit, familiar promotional partnerships, some of the coolest
posters I have ever seen, and cast additions like Guy Pearce and Rebecca Hall,
the May 3rd release weekend was primed to shatter records. Just as the original Iron Man helped launch Phase One of Marvel’s shared universe, it
was going to be up to Iron Man 3 to
set the bar high for Phase Two and pave the way for not only new chapters for
Captain America and Thor, but also a new array of lesser known comic book
entities.
Following the climactic battle of The Avengers, Iron Man 3 opens with a restless and anxiety-stricken Tony Stark
(Robert Downey, Jr.) obsessively building battle suits and unintentionally
distancing himself from his girlfriend, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). Meanwhile, a dangerous Anti-Western terrorist
known as The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) has been orchestrating bombings around the
world, and despite the help of allies like best friend Col. James Rhodes / Iron
Patriot (Don Cheadle) and his artificial intelligence JARVIS (Paul Bettany),
Stark struggles to locate the elusive villain.
Things take a dire turn when close friend Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) is
injured in one of the bombings and Stark issues a televised threat to his new
adversary, a brash threat that prompts The Mandarin to attack with helicopter
gunships and destroy Stark’s home.
Narrowly escaping in severely malfunctioning armor, the presumed-dead Stark
retreats to rural Tennessee, the first known location of a Mandarin attack,
keeping a low profile with the help of a clever 10-year-old, Harley (Ty
Simpkins); looking deeper into the terrorist plot, Stark discovers a political conspiracy
linking The Mandarin to fellow scientists and former acquaintances Aldrich Killian
(Guy Pearce) and Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall), one that involves a dangerous new
technology known as Extremis. Severely
outnumbered and without his usual resources, Stark must use all of his ingenuity
to even the playing field against his new enemies, all the while regaining his
composure and saving those closest to him alongside countless innocent lives.
As anyone could have predicted from the trailers, Iron Man 3 offers some truly brilliant and
adrenaline-filled action sequences, which combine with surprisingly high levels
of humor and engaging supportive performances to make this final chapter of the
trilogy intensely entertaining. Robert
Downey, Jr. has been so effective and iconic in his portrayal of Tony Stark
over the past few years that complementing his performance this time around
would represent nothing more than stating the obvious, so more attention needs
to be paid to Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle; even though he wasn’t given much
to do in battle armor, Cheadle was still able to come across as a badass, while
Paltrow completely abandoned the whiner tendencies that plagued her earlier
portrayals to transform Pepper from damsel-in-distress to independent
heroine. Speaking of the action
sequences, the aforementioned House Attack and Air Force One Rescue need to be
experienced on an IMAX screen, and even though I wish the final battle had
featured more unique displays from the individual armors, even the pickiest of
moviegoers will experience chills when the “Iron Legion” starts taking on
enemies with “extreme prejudice.” And
while there have definitely been laughs in the previous Iron Man films, this third installment goes out of its way to be
noticeably funnier; Stark’s interaction with his young ally may have Disney’s
fingerprints all over it, but the dynamic sets up some of the best jokes in the
trilogy. Sadly, once the halo created by
all the flashiness of Iron Man 3
begins to wear off, some significant weaknesses in writing come to light and
severely diminish this superhero spectacle’s ranking amongst the other entries
of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
For as much as I enjoyed Iron Man 3, I noticed an understandable attitude shift from Jon
Favreau to Shane Black (hokier with no AC/DC…bummer), but I cannot shake three
specific plot elements that have been debated fervently over the Internet this
past weekend...for me, the first one was almost a necessary evil, and the
second was disappointing yet effective, but the third was largely unnecessary
and near-unforgivable. First, with so
many different characters inhabiting a complicated narrative, it is not that
shocking that one manages to fall through the cracks, but given the talent of
Rebecca Hall, I do wish that more attention had been paid attention to Maya
Hansen and that she hadn’t been subjected to such a lame “redemption.” The second element revolves around The
Mandarin, who in the comics is the arch-nemesis and one of the most feared enemies
of Iron Man, but in the movies is subjected to a humorous twist that pissed-off
a LOT of purists. I would have loved to
have seen a closer adherence to comic book lore, but The Mandarin is a tricky
entity to translate believably to live-action, so I thought that this
interpretation was handled well, plus I enjoyed the heavier focus on the
downright awesome Extremis soldiers. Finally,
there is the ending; without spoiling anything, there is one element of the
narrative revealed in the final minutes that completely negates not only the
core conflict of Iron Man 2, but also
invalidates one of the deeper moments of The
Avengers…it made no sense and was completely unnecessary, so why attempt
something so tricky in the final scene?
So even though I should have blindly loved Iron Man 3, I cannot ignore the subpar story elements that did far
more damage to Marvel’s established mythos than simply taking creative
liberties with source material.
After decimating the box office last summer, The Avengers became the highest opening
of all time and the benchmark by which all other members of the Marvel
Cinematic Universe would be measured, and if there was one entity that would be
able to challenge the superhero team, it would be fan-favorite Iron Man. Opening early in international markets to
$198.4 million, thereby outperforming the record previously held by The Avengers, Iron Man 3 was projected to have a $177 million domestic debut;
actual numbers may have fallen just short, but it was still enough for the
second-highest opening weekend ever.
Compared to the hefty $200 million production budget, Iron Man 3 has already grossed over $678
million in domestic and international receipts in a remarkably short amount of
time…looks like my prediction for top financial performance of the summer is
holding strong. In terms of the future,
Robert Downey, Jr.’s contract with Marvel expired at the release of this last
installment of the trilogy, and even though it looks like he will more than
likely return for The Avengers 2 and Iron Man 4, we may have to prepare for a
future where Tony Stark is recast. Sure,
this May release could have been better, but for now, fans of comic book films
can enjoy Iron Man 3, then sit back and
watch Marvel’s Phase Two unfold with Thor:
The Dark World in November and Captain
America: The Winter Soldier in April…who knows, maybe our favorite
billionaire playboy genius philanthropist will have another kick-ass cameo.
Overall
Recommendation: High
