Iron Man 3

May the Fourth may be unofficially known as Star Wars Day but May the 3rd is starting to become Avenger Day for me. On that date in 2008, I saw "Iron Man" for the first time in theaters. May 3, 2012 is when I first saw "The Avengers" in theaters. It is fitting that I saw "Iron Man 3" on that same date in 2013. The bad news is that the film did not entertain me as much as the previous films. Maybe it was director Jon Favreau's touch that was special or maybe the story twist in this third film was a little unsatisfying. Having said that, the show was still funny.

The humor in this movie was its best quality. Did anyone notice JARVIS' stocking on the mantle in Tony's mansion? Stan Lee's cameos are always a treat and Mark Ruffalo's cameo came out of nowhere for me. I am so stupid because I didn't even recognize him while watching the scene for the first few seconds. It was a great post-credit scene. One of my favorite lines in "Iron Man 3" is what Tony says to Harley as he drives out of the Tennessee town. I also like how Iron Man has called "winners" for the ping-pong game. Finally, that Dora watch was a nice touch. The opening scene in Bern was well done. I loved that we get to see Tony & Yinsen meet and Happy's mullet is awesome! The use of "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" was really good because it put us all right back into the 90's. I like how Tony becomes stranded in Tennessee because it puts him on his own amongst the average Americans. He must fight and prepare without his resources. His disguises also makes him more relatable to us the audience. There was a moment later in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for Carol Danvers to put herself in a more relatable position for the sake of the audience but we didn't get it. That made "Iron Man 3" a little more meaningful for me. For the montage when Tony buys supplies to break into the Mandarin's base, it felt like I was watching a backwards version of "Home Alone" because our protagonist is not building traps out of household items to keep bad guys from breaking into his house. Instead, he is building devices out of comsumer products to break in. The "Barrel of Monkeys" sequence was well created from a special effects standpoint. Speaking of that, this film was nominated for Best Visual Effects at the Oscars but "Gravity" was the clear winner even before the ceremony started. Unlike "Iron Man 2" where the climax made up for a somewhat slow film, the climax of "Iron Man 3" was somewhat lacking after an entertaining show. The climax is always more important. I personally had trouble keeping up with the plot throughout the show the first time watching it. The other films were a lot easier to understand the first time you saw them. I feel that director Shane Black should have milked Pepper falling off the tower just a little more. The Mandrain dies in somewhat of a cheesy way but then again, I guess it was personal for Pepper. I am confused by the very ending also. Why would Tony put off that surgery until now? I love the chemistry between Robert Downey Jr. and Ty Simpkins. When I saw that Guy Pearce was in this show, I knew just what kind of role he would have and I was right for the most part but I did not expect the Trevor plot twist. This plot twist was sneaky, well executed and it gets funnier with each viewing but that doesn't make it a choice without consequences. The casting of Ben Kingsley was very smart and I really like his acting in the first half of the show as well as in the second half. You don't usually see him like this I must say. I also liked seeing Rebecca Hall from "Frost/Nixon" and "The Prestige". One of my favorite one-time characters in this film by the way was Gary the TV van man. My favourite joke was Iron Patriot's reveal of his e-mail address and password.

Shane Black wrote "Lethal Weapon" but that is the only part of his resume that impresses me. I feel that as a director, he wasn't as good a storyteller as Favreau or Joss Whedon. In the Pixar franchise, both "Cars" and "Cars 2" had to deal with the consequences of being released right after "The Incredibles" and "Toy Story 3" respectively. In the case of the MCU, "Iron Man 3" was the first installment of "Phase Two" and was released after "The Avengers". That caused some overshaddow for "Iron Man 3" (ironically though, there are a few similarities between this show and "The Incredibles" that I realized after spending some time online). "Iron Man 3" was enjoyable and funny but not as entertaining as other movies in the MCU. As for Phase Two in the franchise, I was hoping that other movies like "Thor 2" and "The Winter Soldier" in this phase would fare better but they didn't. At least they were just as good as "Iron Man 3".

3.5 Stars