by Erin Hatch, Editor-At-Large

All is not well in the life of Tony Stark. Fresh off his world-saving feats in Marvel’s The Avengers, everyone’s favorite eccentric billionaire inventor is plagued by PTSD, obsessed with building iteration after iteration of his famous Iron Man armor, while having trouble in his home life with his significant other and business partner Pepper Potts. When a terrorist known as the Mandarin starts attacking civilian targets in the United States, Tony calls him out and triggers a personal vendetta that can take away everything he loves and threatens the security of the entire world.

As part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Iron Man 3 has the tough job of being the first movie to follow up last year’s billion dollar hit Marvel’s The Avengers, and it has some trouble living up to the same level of epic action displayed in its predecessor. Still, as an Iron Man film, it was pretty easy to do better than Iron Man 2, even if it doesn’t have quite the same energy as Jon Favreau’s initial entry to the Iron Man film franchise in 2008.

Iron Man 3 does a lot of things right. The film includes many of the same great actors as previous entries in the series, such as Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man, Marvel’s The Avengers, Sherlock Holmes), Gwyneth Paltrow (Se7en, Country Strong), Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda, Traffic), and Jon Favreau (Identity Thief, Jon Carter) while adding Guy Pierce (Memento, L.A. Confidential, did I already mention Memento?), Rebecca Hall (The Prestige, The Town), and Ben Kingsley (Ender’s Game, Gandhi). In addition to the great cast, the film contains some of the best action sequences in the Iron Man franchise yet, and the story contains a number of twists and turns that redefine who the villains are and what the real conflicts are about.

As good as the acting and action are, and as interesting as the story can be, there is a sense of defeat that doesn’t really fit the Marvel blockbuster genre. Iron Man 3 is about Tony Stark’s journey away from his status as a superhero, a complementary path to the development his character faced in the first film, but at the same time a little anti-climactic. Tony reaches the end of the journey he started when he was trapped in a cave with shrapnel inches from his heart, but despite reaching the end, the journey doesn’t feel complete, as if Tony’s journey was missing some steps along the way. I guess my problem with the later parts of the film are that it tries to provide a conclusion to a franchise that hasn’t reached its full potential yet. Perhaps it is the fact that Iron Man 3 teases several dozen different varieties of Iron Man suit but only gives each suit maybe ten seconds of screen time on average before they are forgotten or destroyed. Maybe it is the fact that Tony Stark spends a giant portion of the movie out of the suit. It could even be that Iron Man doesn’t even feel like a proper trilogy on account of the second movie being so disappointing. Whatever it is, I ended the film craving more Iron Man and feeling very disappointed that I had just watched the end. A title block after the end credits states that Tony Stark will return, but in what form?

The fact that this film is about the burden of being a superhero- about wanting to escape from the armor and get away from that life- makes the whole experience just a little bit less fun. Tony Stark’s triumphant “I am Iron Man” at the end of the first Iron Man was symbolic of the attitude of the film. Even in Iron Man 2 Tony had an attitude of being a complete bad-ass. Now that he has lost that feeling of being a superhero, things are just less fun, no matter how many twists and turns the story takes, or how many action sequences the special effects crews throw in. Iron Man 3 is a downer, man. But as a story it is strong, and it has fun blockbuster action sequences, and all your favorite actors return (unless you really liked Terrence Howard or Mickey Rourke) so overall it is a good time, even if it does seem to end all too soon.

Bonus Features

–Marvel One-Shot: Agent Carter

-Featurettes: ‘Iron Man 3 Unmasked,’ ‘Deconstructing the Scene: Attack on Air Force One,’ ‘Exclusive Behind the Scenes Look – Thor: The Dark World’

-Deleted and Extended Scenes

-Gag Reel

-Audio Commentary

-Info

The Marvel One-Shot short is amazing. ‘Agent Carter‘ is very, very tenuously related to Iron Man, being a follow up to Captain America. Well worth watching for fans of that movie or the Marvel Cinematic Universe in general. The featurettes offer some interesting insight into the production of the film at different scales. ‘Unmasked’ covers the entire production sequence from pre-production party to official premiere, featuring short looks at each step in the process while ‘Deconstructing a Scene’ takes a very detailed look at the process of filming a single special-effects-heavy action sequence and transforming it from initial photography to the final version. The ‘Behind the Scenes’ for Thor: The Dark World isn’t particularly ‘behind the scenes.’ It is essentially an extended trailer for the film with some interview footage with the director and central cast. The Deleted and Extended Scenes are a lot of fun, though they don’t feature a whole lot of new story material, mostly extended scenes or funny takes that didn’t end up in the film. The Gag Reel provides a few laughs, but is mostly general silliness. The Audio Commentary, with director/screenwriter Shane Black and screenwriter Drew Pearce is fairly standard as far as Audio Commentaries go, but the two commentators seem smart and funny and are generally pleasant to listen to, so if you’re ever in the mood for an audio commentary, give this one a try. Finally, Info. Since when is the ‘The interviews and commentary blah blah blah’ title screen a bonus features? Usually it’s just an annoyance. I guess they didn’t have anywhere better to put it. Still, not particularly a bonus.

Overall

While Iron Man 3 leaves a little bit to be desired in terms of finishing the trilogy, it’s a fine film in its own right, with an interesting twist, sharp action sequences and another great performance by Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark. If you want more Iron Man, Iron Man 3  provides it, and it is a pretty fun time.

ComicsOnline.com gives Iron Man 3 on Blu-Ray four out of five insanely brief Iron Man suit cameos.