"We create our own demons."

-Tony Stark













Ever since the events of The Avengers, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) hasn't been alright. He can't sleep and is suffering from panic attacks. To make things worse, a new terrorist, The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley), is gaining power and killing innocents everywhere he goes. When Tony threatens the Mandarin, the terrorist becomes determined to destroy Tony's world and bring the past back to haunt him.









What Works:





Iron Man 3's biggest strength is focusing less on the physical Iron Man suits, but on Tony himself. We get to see a lot of what Tony does without the suits and the improvisation is a lot of fun. During the attack on Tony's house, the suit isn't working properly and Tony has to find away to fight back without all of his weapons. Later, we get to see Tony launch a one-man raid using only items picked up at a hardware store. This movie shows us that Tony Stark is much more than just a guy in a suit.





The humor in this movie is amazing. Robert Downey Jr. kills it as Tony Stark (as per usual) and his quips are great. We also get some hilarious moments involving various henchmen. We get one guy who is weirdly good with distances and another who quits when threatened by Tony because he hates working there. Iron Man 3 is definitely in the conversation for greatest minor henchmen in cinematic history.





Speaking of henchmen, I love James Badge Dale's performance as Eric Savin. He has a great IDGAF attitude that makes him extremely memorable. His facial expressions and line deliveries makes me wish he was the main villain instead of Guy Pearce.





The action is top notch in the film and the scenes at Tony's house and in small town Tennessee look amazing and are both a ton of fun. I also love the finale with Tony calling in an army of Iron Man suits. It's a unique and entertaining sequence that keeps you on the edge of your seat.





Finally, I'm glad they decided to explore the effects the events of The Avengers has had on Tony. It's interesting to see him deal with anxiety from the whole wormhole experience. Too often, superheroes seem emotionally invulnerable to their experiences, so it's nice to see the filmmakers go in this direction.









What Sucks:





I'm not a hater of the Mandarin twist like I know many are. I'm not a comic book guy, so I know nothing about this character and I thought the twist was entertaining enough. The problem is that Guy Pearce's character, Aldrich Killian, is far less interesting than Ben Kingsley's Mandarin. Had they made Killian a stronger character, I would have been 100% fine with this twist.





Minor note: having Tony destroy all of suits doesn't make a ton of sense in hindsight. If this had been the final part of the Tony Stark story, it would be fine, but we know we aren't even close to the end. Not a big deal, but something I noticed.









Verdict:





Iron Man 3 is a really fun film and underrated in the full scope of the MCU. The action sequences are awesome, the humor is solid, the story has interesting elements, and watching Tony be forced to function without his suits is awesome. The twist surrounding the villain could have been handled better, but this movie has still got it going on.





9/10: Great



