The Man In the Iron Suit : A Review of Iron Man 3

Sigh, I am a mutant with the power of opinion and its spider sense is tingling.

I wish I could put on a magical suit of armor to protect me from disappointment. I'd be "Denial Man", impervious to let downs. Everything I experienced would be "epic".

While I was a little disappointed, I still left the theater mostly satisfied by my Iron Man 3 experience. It was great for what it was, a movie about Tony Stark defeating his inner demons both external and internal. This film picks up with Tony Stark dealing with the shock of his experiences at the end of The Avengers. Its actually quite a nice continuation of the grander Marvel movie plot. We see how P.T.S.D. has taken it's toll on Tony Stark, who is so lost in his Iron Man weapon as a way to distract himself from his trauma. As the film unfolds, we see how the suit doesn't make the man as Stark successfully survives without his stockpile of technology. Tony Stark IS Iron Man, not the suit of armor.

So with Robert Downey Jr's excellent performance and the films deep introspective into the character of

Tony Stark, why was I disappointed? In the same fashion that I was disappointed with Oblivion. My expectations, led by a winter of action filled trailers, led me astray. I expected a lot more Iron Man battle action. Frankly it's not essential to see this in 3D as the majority of the film is dramatic dialog scenes. While there is some great action near the end, there's not enough of it to warrant the film being in 3d in my opinion.

Also there's the disappointment of new suit. The new armor is a running plot device to just fail on Tony, to the extent that Stark prefers to not wear it for most of the film. I think there's a plot hole in that throughout the movie we're left to believe that Tony is suitless due to only assessable suit being out of order. Then by the end of the film, we find out that Stark had an army of suits conveniently available for the ending showdown. That scene in itself was awesome in 3D, but you can't help but ask "why didn't he summon these suits earlier in the movie?".

The recurring theme for me this summer seems to be "stop having expectations". I think if I had gone to this movie without any expectations, I would have walked away a lot more satisfied. Iron Man 3 was a good movie, just not the style of movie I had expected. I suppose that says a lot for how well Iron Man 3 is if it can deter from my expectations and yet still satisfy. If you're a comic book movie fan, I highly recommend checking it out.