Iron Man 3 - Review

Unpopular opinion here, but Iron Man 3 is my favourite Iron Man movie. You mad yet? Okay, here is another one. Iron Man 3 is one of my favourite films in the Marvel Cinematic universe period. I just find this film so entertaining, engaging and it reminds me why I like coming back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Not only does is star Robert Downey Junior as Tony Stark who is great as always but it finds the perfect balance between comedy, action and drama. Some of the newer films in the MCU suffer from having the comedy taking over the drama aspect of the movie. Meaning that I almost can never take anything seriously because if something happens with any sort of stakes attached to it, it is immediately undercut with a joke. Why should I care if Thor's homeworld is destroyed? He seems to be more focused on making jokes to the audience rather than care about what is actually happening. Here it seems to be a perfect balance. Tony Stark as a character is sarcastic and a little cocky so the humour makes sense here, but he also is able to play the humility card when the time calls for it. There is one scene in particular where the forces of the Mandarin attack Tony's house. Not only did I think the CGI was excellent, but it warranted a deep emotional response. This is a scene where Tony might lose everything he built in terms of Iron Man and worst of all, Pepper Potts. There is no catchphrases or jokes here, Tony acts frightened and the stakes are extremely high which makes for an intense, gripping scene. So it gets the blend of comedy and drama perfect. On top of that, they introduce a father-son-like relationship between Tony and this boy he meets in Tennessee. Now, I get really skeptical when movies like this decide to bring in a child actor, but he was great! One of the best child performances I've seen in recent years. Lastly, this movie knew that Iron Man is only awesome because of the man in the suit. So, this movie strips Tony away from his suit so that the story could focus on his character trying to save the day without all of his toys. All he has is his wit and brains. That's what makes Tony Stark so fascinating. Some of the most entertaining moments of the trilogy are when Tony Stark is in the cave in the first movie where he has nothing but a bunch of random parts lying around and his brains to get him out of a sticky situation. I like that this film took his character back to form and didn't go for the Star Wars prequel route where the overabundance of lightsabers made them become boring. I'm glad the Iron Man suit did not suffer the same fate. In the end, this is my favourite Iron Man movie. I know many people don't like this movie, but I honestly don't see why. Maybe they didn't how the villain was so different from the comics or they wanted to see more of Tony Stark in the suit, but to me, this entry in the franchise had me on the edge of my seat more than any other Iron Man film.