May 30, 2013

Iron Man 3 (2013) - Review


When: May 18th. Format: 3D Cinema. Genre: super-hero-movie. Trailer: here

The iron finally got emotions


Iron man 3 shows us that behind that suit there is a man, and that man is struggling to keep it together. After saving the world in Avengers, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) has never been able to fully recover, mentally... He's begun to suffer from anxiety attacs and can't sleep. When a terrifying guy calling himself the Mandarin threatens both the president, Tony Stark and the people closest to him, it all becomes personal. Soon we see the fantastic Iron Man all alone, on the run, without his superpowers. Finally the brilliant mastermind that is Tony Stark resurfaces. He has to start compleatily from scratch with only a little boy and a garage at his disposal.

This could either be fantastic or an enormous disappointment. Iron Man's third installment is the first post-Avengers film released by Marvel, and with the inevitable comparison to the immensely popular movie that Avengers turned out to be, that could either be a blessing or a curse. I love super-hero-movies so I already knew I had to see this one as well, but the second movie about the metal-covered billionaire made me question if there was anything exciting and new to the story. Last time I missed the originality and the heart that was put into the first one. Luckily this one brought both. In spades.


Marvel has clearly learned a thing or two from its recent success. Heart, emotion, great characters, a brilliant nemesis to fight, the feeling that literally anything could happen, great action without being too much... and the constant stream of funny moments and one-liners to brighten the mood. So very many movies don't tick those boxes! They forget one or the other. Marvel's done it in the past, but this time they did their work right. The stakes are high, the threats are real, the losses are great and the characters and emotions are heartfelt.

To me, this probably marks the best Iron Man-film to date... It reminds me of The Dark Knight Rises (as a lot of other reviewers have mentioned) but it's so clearly not the same concept. Equally as good, but in a different way. And a lot of that has got to do with the ever-present humor surrounding Tony Stark. It lightens the gloomy and tense mood of the plot and action and makes the movie highly enjoyable and re-watchable. I loved it a whole lot more than I thought I would. Not everything is perfect, but while watching it there was nothing that particularly bothered me...