I saw Iron Man 3 at the Genesis Deluxe Cinemas at The Palms in Lekki. To say I had to force myself to buy the ticket would not be far from the truth because as a general rule I do not see 3D films at the cinema. Why? Because I have never experienced the “oh-so-great” cinematic 3D experience in all the other 3D films I have watched. I pencil this lack of the 3D effect to my prescription glasses over which I don the 3D glasses, resulting in no real difference with or without the 3D glasses. However, for the sake of my date and the desire to see Iron Man 3 I put aside all fears of “wasted” money and went to see the film.
Iron Man 3 in so many ways was waaaaaaaaaaay better than Iron Man 2 which to me was a huge
disappointment! Gone was the watery plot as well as the weak villains! Enter a
believable post-The Avengers story which dwelt more on Tony Stark the man, than
Iron Man the super hero/Avenger, and two hugely believable villains in the
Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) and Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce). With Pepper Potts
(Gwyneth Paltrow) in mortal danger, Tony Stark had to step out from behind the
iron suit to rescue her leaving Col. James Rhodes/Iron Patriot (Don Cheadle) to
save POTUS and the nation (read as world).
I am sure the fan boys were very
happy with Iron Man 3. War Machine,
now Iron Patriot had loads of screen time and we saw almost every Iron Man suit
in the books. We also saw the Mandarin, Iron Man’s primary nemesis in the 1990's
cartoon TV series wreak havoc on the world. Even though I could see that happening a mile off, the final scenes where Tony pretty
much hops from suit to suit were quite good. Fellow film aficionado Kal, remarked that it was also a
tad ridiculous; perhaps this was why those of us watching were not as wowed as
we should have been – there was no applause as is associated with the Lagos cinema
crowd!
The story line like I pointed out
earlier was believable and also very familiar. Maybe this was because in this installment Tony Stark had a few similarities with another comic genius, billionaire,
playboy, and philanthropist – Bruce Wayne. The scriptwriters, Drew Pearce and
Shane Black (who is also the director) must have taken it upon themselves to
try and show us that Mr. Stark is almost as bad-ass as Mr. Wayne. Iron Man 3 tries to show us the “great
detective” side of Tony Stark where he pieces the puzzle of AIM, Mandarin and
Aldrich Killian together in much the same way the original great detective Bruce
Wayne would! In addition, Mr. Stark’s snobbery of Mr. Killian in the opening
scenes is very reminiscent of Mr. Wayne’s snobbery of Mr. E. Nygma in 1995’s Batman Forever. Likewise, both Mr.
Killian and Mr. Nygma, later blessed with superhuman powers, return to exact
vengeance on Mr. Stark and Mr. Wayne respectively! And oh yes, their love
interests – Ms. Potts and Dr. Meridian – are also both held captive. Also noticeable was
the fact that in these two films the sidekick goes on to rescue the
president/city while our superheroes rescue the damsels in distress. However,
the similarity that takes the cake is where we find that the Mandarin is not
the “actual or main” villain, just like Bane was not the “actual or main”
villain in 2012's The Dark Knight Rises!!!
Ok, undoubtedly no idea is
original, but let us tag Mr. Pearce and Mr. Shane as Batman fan boys.
As always, Guy Pearce’s acting
was sublime. He was quite the scary villain with a point to prove (I think). Ben Kinglsey was a hoot and it no
longer mattered that he is not Asian. It was good to see Ms. Paltrow on
the big screen again. Robert Downey, Jr. was his effective Tony Stark, but with the
swag toned down, as it should be since his character is experiencing some
form of PTSD. It was great seeing Iron
Man and Iron Man 2 director Jon
Favreau again on the other side of the lens reprising his role as Happy Hogan, Tony Stark’s PA/bodyguard and head of security.
Iron Man 3 is OK fun but the humour and
wit is lacking and we get the sense that this was a rush job. The scriptwriters wanted us to see a more human Tony Stark with a few laughs thrown in. His destruction of the remaining suits signalling his retirement from tinkering is also not convincing for we know Iron Man will return. Indeed, Tony Stark gets no realer than the first Iron Man film. Thus, I still
regard Iron Man as the best by far of
the three. With respect to the Marvel Universe films it also nosedives out of the
sky just like Iron Man did in The
Avengers for Iron Man 3 does not
and cannot keep up with the blast that The
Avengers is.
PS: Iron Man 3 has passed the one billion dollar mark at the global Box Office, earning $1,073,861,977 as at May 21, 2013.
PSS: Jon Favreau was an Assistant
Director for Batman Forever! Ah!
Enlightenment!
Full disclosure: I am an
unapologetic Batman fan! And oh yeah, for the first time, I “felt” the 3D effect. J
Image credits: Marvel Studios, Marvel
screencap
Nice review T.J. A lot of fans are definitely going to be disappointed with the ending of this film too and what this means for the Marvel film franchise. Who knows what could happen with them all now.
ReplyDeleteThank you Dan! Well, I think Marvel and Disney will definitely bring Iron Man back, there's too much money to be made! Avengers 2, 3, Iron Man 4? I hear Agent Coulson may be resurrected!! It's comic world where no one stay dead forever. Thanks for reading ad commenting. :)
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