With Avenger’s Assemble taking unheralded box office success in 2012, the super hero/comic book film genre found new life and, with recent news that Zach Schneider recently announcing that we will soon be seeing the first Superman vs Batman mash-up, it appears a new technique of superhero pebble-dashing will become more popular.
Simply put, if you throw enough superheroes and A-list actors into a film you’re going to have some sort of box office success.
With Iron Man 3, the Robert Downey Jr vehicle is back and this time it’s personal – well not really. The plot revolves around a mysterious terrorist called the Mandarin played superbly Ben Kingsley. Also in the mix is a mutated psycho played by Guy Pearce who has the ability to turn people into lava filled fireballs, if they don’t explode during the process.
As with the first two Iron Man instalments, Tony Starke is the arrogant quip making playboy who undervalues the amount of privilege in his life including his technology-led powers and his love interest played by Gwyneth Paltrow.
This character development is mirrored exactly in the first two films so it does give an element of predictability to proceedings here. That being said, there’s also a sense of The Dark Knight Rises in that both Batman and Iron Man are stripped of their wealth by their adversaries and must battle their way back without monetary power.
A lot of the Iron Man franchise centres of whether you like Robert Downey Jr as an actor. As per many of his films, he uses a rapid fire delivery to give his lines a sense of wit but that still doesn’t make him likeable. Some would say that Iron Man’s character is meant to come across as arrogant and dislikeable but spending what equates to nearly 9 hours in the prescience of a character you don’t like kind of detracts from the enjoyment.
Some jokes do land, however, and while Tony Starke’s interaction with his junior side kick comes across as a little harsh at times, it is also the source of the most amusing quips.
As with most trilogies, if you haven’t bought into the franchise by now then you’re unlikely to buy in now but for the die-hard fans this is a strong addition to the box set.
By Richard Li-Fisker
Richard Li-Fisker: Movie Reviews 