Review of Iron Man 3 (2013) by Davepenner — 03 May 2013

My heart is successfully broken. Waiting to see it at midnight at the El Capitan, I watched with anticipation as director Shane Black took the stage to introduce, joking about the silliness of the Fantastic Four films. I now see the irony. Did they spray excrement all over The Mandarin? Yes, but that pales in comparison to everything else wrong with this film. Huge plot holes, failed character motivation/development, and just downright bizarre and/or silly pointless choices are all factors. Worst yet, it also somehow manages to nullify the very theme of the previous movies. I'm not sure how the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe would ever recover from this slaughtering of tonal continuity.

One word comes to mind: Why??? It's as if Shane Black decided to insert Iron Man characters into an old 90's action thriller comedy script he happened to have lying around, throwing in silly, plastic dumbed-down "bad guys" from G.I. Joe and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. So many of the characters are pointless or have terribly weak, if any motivation for behaving like they do. Even the magical bravado of RDJ couldn't save it, and that's saying a lot. Of course there are funny and clever bits and some slick and cool action, but when a film has all that and loyal fans are still sitting there not caring or invested at all whatsoever, it's a problem. In any case, Black clearly doesn't get it, and apparently no one saw fit to help him out.

I suppose it's possible you could enjoy it if you are able to look past all these flaws and can watch it absolutely out of context from the comics, the other Iron Man movies, and entire Marvel/Avengers franchise. If not...it's painful. Needless to say, I walked away with nothing to think but "What the hell did I just watch?" "Was this FOX's interpretation of Iron Man?" "Whedon, WHERE WERE YOU??" Unfortunately, we now know nothing is truly safe, not even in the hands of Marvel Studios themselves. It really is a shame. Feige and the Marvel gang have a lot of explaining to do.