Iron Man 3

I must say that Iron Man 3 made up for the abysmal film known as Iron Man 2. IM2 was basically the first film only with Stane and the Iron Monger being replaced with Sam Rockwell’s character and Whiplash. The third installment in the Iron Man series is a completely different movie and I am very grateful.

The film takes place a few months after the Avengers film with tony Stark suffering PTSD from being almost sucked into a wormhole AND almost dying. He can’t sleep, he can’t focus, and he’s given control of his company to Pepper Potts, his girl Friday. Adding to the mix is the mysterious Mandarin who basically calls Stark out. After a mysterious series of fire bombings, one of which almost kills Tony’s former bodyguard, Happy Hogan, the billionaire playboy accepts the Mandarin’s challenge and loses his armory, home, and what the world thinks is his life to this international terrorist.

Iron Man winds up in Tennessee with a broken suit of armor and meets up with a new pal; a toe-haired youth named Harley. Harley is basically a hillbilly version of Stark. I like him and I hope that he’ll either wind up in Iron Man 4 OR even better, the Iron Man comics canon. Harley is annoying but his chemistry works well with Robert Downey Jr. He’s also kinda like Yoda as his tactics work to bring Tony out of his funk and reenergizes him to take it to the Mandarin.

Along the way, Iron Man is joined with the Iron Patriot- a more family friendly version of War Machine. I don’t mind having Iron Patriot in the film, but I’d rather a villain be under that armor like Norman Osborn was during the Dark Reign storyline as opposed to Rhodey. At least at first, Then once the Patriot’s true colors show, then you have Rhodey taking the mantle over. It just makes better sense.

Perhaps the best thing about this film that I have heard from many a fan that already saw the movie (and I agree to) is the whole extremis storyline, which involves a secret military project that turns soldiers into living bombs. Honestly, I’ve never read the Extremis storyline- I am in the process of collecting it. My only experience with Extremis is from the Iron Man Armored Adventures TV series. But in that, Extremis was a computer virus that gave Tony Stark the ability to link up with any computer and do a lot of funky hacking stuff. Computer hacking is a long way off from walking talking firebombs.

I really enjoyed this film. It was neat to see locations from my home state of North Carolina in the movie. Some scenes were films just miles away from my work. (Too bad they didn’t come to my place of employ and make me a star, but I digress.) The twists and turns of the film were dynamic. The chemistry of the actors was perfect- even if the yawnable Gwyneth Paltrow was in the movie. All in all, the film finished with a crescendo that like the first Iron Man picture left me excited for more and wanting to devour some Marvel Comics starring ole Shell Head.

This is a great comic book movie that wouldn’t work as a plain old action film. Yes, most of the stunts are laughably impossible. But hey, this is a super hero movie- so suspend that disbelief.

Worth Consuming.

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.