Iron Man 3 - Stark-struck

Filthy rich, hot girlfriend and seethingly arrogant - surely attributes to turn us green all over with envy? However, this is Tony Stark, aka Iron Man which perhaps makes him the contender for coolest guy on the planet. And now he's back!

Like DC's counterpart, Bruce Wayne, Marvel's Tony Stark is the self-crafted superhero who conveniently happens to be a multi-zillionaire! This comes in quite handy as like it's predecessors, this film has some serious tech going on. Having vanquished Jeff Bridges in the first film, Mickey Rourke in the second, and taking on the God Loki and his army in Avengers Assemble, Iron Man 3 sees Downey Jr. back as Stark. Suffering from anxiety following on from the events in New York in Avengers Assemble, Stark must quickly learn to deal with them when a dangerous new terrorist known as The Mandarin begins a campaign of terror on American soil. As if a psychotic terrorist wasn't enough, Tony also has to deal with the appearance of a mysterious business man known as Aldrich Killian who begins to show an unhealthy interest in his assistant-now girlfriend, Pepper!

I have to say that this is perhaps my favourite film out of the trilogy (treating Avengers as a separate entity). The action is bigger, more outrageous and with some genuine feats of brilliance. Robert Downey Jr. is brilliant as always, pitching his performance between the nerdy clown who just likes to tinker in his garage all day and the guy who has to step up and save the day. Gwyneth Paltrow gets a bit more to do this time as well which, as an Oscar winner, I'm sure she appreciates. She even gets a go in the suit - although she pays for it later, having to spend the last quarter of the movie in just a sports bra. Guy Pearce as ever is great. Like his character in last year's Lawless, his character is completely loathsome and he manages to pull it off! Extra praise has to go to the wondrous Sir Ben Kingsley, however. Having seen Sexy Beast, we all know he can seriously play psycho - and in this he does it to a frightening degree - and without giving anything away, takes the character of The Mandarin in a direction one would not expect.


Praise must also be given to the new captain of the ship. After director of the first two films Jon Favreau stepped down to role of executive producer (Favreau also appears in the films as Tony's bodyguard Happy),  Kiss Kiss Bang Bang director is the new guy at the helm. No stranger to pulling off a big action flick, the Lethal Weapon writer, in only his second directorial venture, gives us everything we want from your superhero flick - action, gadgets, the occasional scantily-clad body, lots of explosions, and brilliant set-pieces. I shall be certainly intrigued for Shane Black's next feature!

I have an Oscar, you know!

What we have by the end of Iron Man 3 is a pretty successful conclusion to the Iron Man arc. As to whether he will once again be saving the world with the Avengers again is still not certain, yet if it's not to be then I think we can be fairly satisfied with how Tony Stark's narrative is played out. Filled with the requisite action, lots of humour (which adds depth to a superhero film that others do not have), and stunning special effects, I think Iron Man, if he is to go out, has gone out with a bang. Yes, it's cheesy and often resembles a modern-day Flash Gordon with better CGI, Iron Man has been with us for five years now. Here's to five more! (By the bye, as with all Marvel flicks - watch to the end of the credits!)