Here are past reviews.
Iron Man 3
Captain America Winter Soldier Review
Guardians of the Galaxy Review
Let's begin.
WARNING spoilers WARNING
Okay time to hang on to the seat in a lazy position this will be a bit long. The plot begins with Iron Man showing himself before he became Iron Man, he was drunk at a conference and slept with a girl while ignoring a nerdy guy. Back in the present, there is a terrorist named the Mandarin blowing up places to teach the United States a lesson. Meanwhile AIM is around. It doesn't take long for the audience to realize the bombs are people blowing up, but it will take the main characters a bit longer to discover that. Iron Man goes investigation mode and works to find the Mandarin as he makes the connections to AIM. Eventually through a bit of hacking that you will miss if you blink, Tony finds the Mandarin and it is just an actor, a front for the illegal experimentation of the Extremis drug. Eventually Tony is captured, allowed to live because villain has to be a villain, Tony escapes, they save a bunch of people trying to save the president, there is an epic final battle with Tony trying to save Pepper and her rescuing him, and the villain is defeated.
So is the plot any good? Well yes and no. It isn't a bad idea, but the plot itself is rushed and convoluted. Blinking could make you lost and only the really hardcore fans will watch this so all the details make sense. The main plot does make sense, drug makes people explode and you want the person backing you, in this case Vice President, to move up so you have more power, so you use a terrorist as a front for all of it, but the way the movie goes about explaining the plot which is rushed and makes the plot seem very convoluted. Again the skeleton of the plot isn't bad at all, but it is done so rushed and so poorly it actually hurts the movie in a lot of ways.
Tony is awesome in this movie. His character building is pretty awesome as he is dealing with the stress of nearly dying in the Avengers and having things out of his control and grasp of knowledge. His building of this point while also dealing with a terrorist who harmed one of the few people Tony cares about is really great. That being said...
Aldrich is a cruddy villain. He is basically Justin Hammer with backbone, however he isn't all that good. He has no reason to keep Tony alive yet he does so CONSTANTLY. Why? Because he owes Tony to the success of AIM. Aldrich isn't actually even after Tony and bringing Tony into the fray not only makes no sense but it causes Aldrich to die in the end. The only reason he does it is to gloat, afterwards his purpose is to continue testing his drugs and killing the president. There is this thing he has with Pepper but good grief you BARELY see this as he doesn't develop his like of Pepper. It is a kind of left field thing.
Pepper Potts is kind of mean to Tony at times, but isn't too bad through the movie though her being "action hero" at the end makes little sense though but she isn't bad through the majority of the movie.
James or Iron Patriot (War Machine) is pretty decent. He gets to show how good he is at fighting outside his armor and shows off some military combat in a same way Tony Stark shows that even outside his suit he is still a threat to deal with. Both Rhodey and Stark get to show off skills outside the suit in this movie which is great for the characterization but you get to see the armor less and less, though it seems like a fair trade.
Mandarin is a decent character. He is a red herring both for the audience and for Tony himself. He is an actor, a front to mislead authorities because AIM is illegally testing drugs and to kill the president. He is a good red herring too as I don't think anyone was expecting him.
The characters are good, but not great. The villain is crap, James and Pepper are either not used enough or have good and bad moments. Tony is excellent however so there is some good here in this category enough to net a point.
Well the red herring fooled many people which is awesome because Tony was just as surprised. This was stunning, and while losing luster the second time, it is STILL a good red herring. Besides that there is a pretty decent amount of action particularly at the end of the movie. There are many decent secret agent style sections with Tony Stark outside of his armor using gadgets he built with a "box of scraps" while he rescues people and destroys most people when he does get his armor. Pretty good stuff here. The only time it was hard to believe and buy into was Tony's panic attacks which weren't bad, just not great.
The effects are amazing. When Iron Man saves a bunch of people from falling from the sky, it actually looks like Iron Man is dropping them into the water and flying away. The settings are pretty decent and unique and the sound is pretty good quality. The videos of the Mandarin are edited incredibly well, and the melting metal looks pretty cool.
An Iron Man movie without the armor? Interesting take and the story is really creative. The designs of the Mandarin and Extremis minions are pretty decent as well. Aldrich wearing dragon tattoos makes no sense though, and while the Mandarin was really creative, it did jilt a lot of fans of the original comic Mandarin which is bad, making the Mandarin bitter sweet. Use of Roxxon was pretty cool though. There may have been too many ideas for this movie however as the movie does feel rushed and some of the ideas are good, and some fall flat, sometimes at the same time.
Iron Man 3 tries hard to be an awesome movie, and it would do better if the movie took a little longer for the plot to unfold. Really the rushed plot hurts other categories and makes the movie seem weaker, not a bad movie, but not great either. It is a really okay movie which will disappoint an audience expecting more. The lead character is awesome, but the other characters are lacking and the villain is horrid, the plot is so rushed and complex it comes off as really bad even though the skeleton of the plot is good, the creativity is too strong putting too many ideas into the movie, but the emotional pull and scene quality is excellent.
If you really love Tony Stark and don't care about anyone else, then you will love this movie. If you care about other characters well at least Ton is doing good. This movie is important to Tony Stark and Iron Man's story within the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe however so if you are a fan I recommend this movie. Outside of that I can't really recommend this movie that much. If you are interested in the movie, rent it. Buy if you for some reason really love the movie, or if you are a collector for Marvel dvds then yeah but everyone else rent.
- More characterization for Jarvis
- Mark 42 Armor
- Showing all of Iron Man's armors working without Tony inside them... this idea leads into Ultron. Seriously I noticed this before even seeing Iron Man 3 by seeing the previews.
- Iron Man is working things out in his head like aliens and Asgardians
- Introduces AIM
- Shows Tony as more protective towards people like Pepper and Happy
- Introduction of Extremis
- Shows Rhodey as Iron Patriot a body guard to the President which probably changes between Iron Man 3 and Avengers Age of Ultron
- Shows Jarvis is very capable of fighting without Tony's input... but could use a few tweaks like upgrading Jarvis' AI (hint hint)
- Introduces the idea of the Mandarin, despite it being a red herring, it leads into the Seven Rings and the actual Mandarin in a one shot later on proving there is a real Mandarin in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.