Iron Man 3 (2013)

Directed by Shane Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, The Nice Guys)

Written by Shane Black (Lethal Weapon) and Drew Pearce (Hotel Artemis)

Oh, Iron Man 3. I want to love you, I really do. The movie is a showcase of everything that I love about Shane Black’s weirdo sensibilities as a writer and director. And it’s also a showcase of everything I hate about the same. I feel like last year’s The Predator has kinda taken some of the shine off of Shane Black, but this movie gives it a run for its money in terms of problematic execution of arguably excellent ideas. If you’ve read my Iron Man 2 review you are about to experience some profound deja vu, because so much of what I said about it applies equally to its successor. There are a million great ideas in this movie, but I feel like every one of them comes with a lethal caveat. The story finds a Tony Stark fresh off of his near sacrifice in The Avengers‘ Battle for New York. Shaken by his near-death experience, Tony buries himself in old habits and vices, but his past comes back to haunt him at the worst possible time. An old acquaintance, Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) is back and wants vengeance for Stark’s betrayal a decade ago. He is aided in this fight by a new kind of media-savvy terrorist, the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley). Stark must overcome his personal demons in time to save the world from both.

Let’s start with the good things about Iron Man 3, because there absolutely are some real positives. First, it’s one of the only Marvel movies that actually acknowledges the events of a previous movie. It feels like a real sequel in a way that so few of these movies do. The events of The Avengers have real consequence and weight here, with Tony’s sense of self shattered to his very core. He can’t sleep, he can’t calm down, and he can’t save the world in that state. It’s a rare feeling of impact in a series of movies that too often reverses the development of a character for plot convenience. Using the many suits he builds as a kind of external symbol for his angst is a really deft touch of screenwriting as well. It feeds into the tendency this series has to overemphasize the coolness of the tech, but with more purpose than usual. They are a literal manifestation of his inner fears and worries, and the movie works very well considered in that light, including the need to be a hero without the suits at all and also what ends up happening to all of them. Also, all of the side characters get more and better stuff to do in this movie. Even Happy, who spends most of the film sidelined, actually has some impact on the plot this time. Pepper gets a dramatically expanded role including the actual villain takedown in the finale, and Rhodey has his best outing yet, with opportunities to be the actually cool soldier we’ve always been told he is and also a good friend.

On the other hand, this movie has so much garbage stuffed in it that just shouldn’t be there. Shane Black has a real problem with jamming precocious, down-on-their luck kids into every movie he ever makes, and while it works for him sometimes, it really doesn’t here. The kid comes out of nowhere, and almost every revelation we get through him would have been better from someone with whom Stark already had a relationship. The whole detour to the town is mostly a waste of time, and could have been better handled in a number of other ways. The movie is also (and I know this will seem like sacrilege to some) too jokey at times. At this point, everyone knows the tendency for Marvel films to undercut serious plot developments with jokes right behind, but this movie takes that tendency to the extreme. In a few cases this really undermines the importance that a scene might have had, and doesn’t allow the emotion of the scene to really hit before it’s deflated. And while I’ve already said that I like the suits symbolically, the mooks problem isn’t fixed by just switching them over to the good guy side. The action has no impact. We don’t care when we see a cool suit get destroyed, making a lot of the finale a case of much ado about nothing. We don’t really need twenty minutes of watching robots with no personality blow up. We already got that in the last one of these.

And then there’s the Mandarin. Subject of a million hate-pieces by childish YouTube fanboys, this character is arguably the most despised in all of the MCU. I don’t really have much to add to the argument, other than that I think the vitriol is definitely a little out of proportion. On its face, and devoid of any comic book backstory, I think the subversion of action movie tropes is really excellent. Dropping a reveal like that into the middle of a really exciting action scene is brilliant. It plays on racial stereotypes that most in the target audience are likely to have, and in many ways hearkens back to the first Iron Man, in that it’s the white businessman who is the real evil, with the scary-looking Middle Eastern guy a puppet or tool of his manipulation. On the other hand, I think it would have worked a lot better if they hadn’t used the name Mandarin attached to it. But that’s mostly a practical consideration, not a comment on the nature of the rug-pull in the movie. I don’t think it’s necessarily impossible to do a Mandarin movie in the modern world, but I think it’s a lot harder than anyone at Marvel cares to work. The character is so layered in problematic tropes that you’re treading on really shaky ground no matter what you do. As it is, I think their decision holds up. It certainly doesn’t ruin the movie for me, and I think anyone asserting that it does might be slightly disingenuous. I don’t think it’s fair to be mad that the Mandarin isn’t in this movie. Marvel has no obligation to put any individual character in any particular film. The only legitimate complaint I can think of is people who don’t ever want their action to be subverted by humor. That’s a fair position I suppose, but one that I don’t think will be too common. Far more likely, in my opinion, that someone either felt that they deserved a “real” Mandarin movie (which they didn’t) or were angry that the brown person in this movie wasn’t a terrorist, which is really problematic.

Ultimately, though, I think the Mandarin issue is kind of a storm in a teacup. Really, its complete removal probably wouldn’t change my score at all. The movie has more than enough highlights and pitfalls to justify a score for unevenness and awkward execution. Once again, it’s an Iron Man movie that I want to like because of everything it gets right from a conceptual level, but that I can’t give a recommendation to because of how uneven the execution is. While I would give it the slight edge over Iron Man 2, the difference is pretty small from my perspective. I think it mostly comes down to a matter of taste at that point. I like Shane Black’s action-comedy stylings, so this one gets a bit of a bump that pushes it above its predecessor. Most of the jokes land for me, and that’s enough. But honestly, it’s a coin flip. If you adore this stuff, you can give it another look, but you’ll probably spend a good portion of the movie frustrated. Stick to the Avengers movies for your Iron Man action.

Overall:

Stray Thoughts:

• I must admit, even I like the cool science lab Tony gives the kid at the end. My grumpiness about child sidekicks can only extend so far.
• Turning Tony into a film noir voiceover character is a good idea. He already shares a lot of DNA with the wisecracking private eyes of those movies, and making that connection explicit is fun.
• I like Tony doing CSI stuff. It’s a fun, slightly different use of his tech.
• Ben Kingsley’s acting looks like the director just screamed “GO BIGGER” at him after every take.
• Shane Black loves setting movies at Christmas. He has a problem.
• Post-credits scene: Not very important, but very funny. Makes a joke at the expense of the super-serious voiceover, and that’s always fun.
• Stan Lee cameo: Another really good one, they’re hitting their stride with these. Stan Lee as harmlessly dirty old man is adorable.