Iron Man 3

Iron Man 3

Director: Shane Black

Starring: Robert Downey, Jr.(Tony Stark / Iron Man), Gwyneth Paltrow("Pepper" Potts), Don Cheadle(James "Rhodey" Rhodes / Iron Patriot), Guy Pearce(Aldrich Killian), Rebecca Hall(Maya Hansen), Jon Favreau(Happy Hogan), Ben Kingsley(the Mandarin)

Rating: PG-13 (for intense sequences of action violence and brief sensuality)

Running Time: 130 minutes

Overall Opinion. (4 stars)

Iron Man. You hear those two words together, even without thinking of the superhero, you think of someone tough. Hard to beat. So it comes as an instant shocker that the first thing you see during Tony’s (Downey) opening monologue is a row of Iron Man suits being completely destroyed. Than its ‘strap in your belts folks’ for a two hour ride. Like its predecessors, Iron Man 3 upholds to walking the fine line between hard action and witty humor. While intense, the audience can still count on Downey’s Tony to be sarcastic, sometimes juvenile, but always comedic timing. But for the third installment, Black takes audiences on a deeper look at the man. For every superhero franchise, there eventually comes a point at which the hero asks himself/herself, “is the superhero just the suit, or is the man inside it the real hero?” This is one of the major themes to the plot. What makes Tony Stark go? The battery in his chest, the suits, his relationship with Pepper(Paltrow), or something else. Tony should be leaving the high life: great house, great girl, great established career as hero and business man, and the last time audiences saw him, he helped stop an alien invasion. Yet he is depressed and tired, and still finding need to fix things in his Iron Man lab. During his personal crisis, the Mandarin(Kingsley) makes a threat against the US government, and former rival Aldrich Killian(Pearce’s creepiest role yet, an antagonist with a huge ego and bitter memories of Tony), is creating a compound(Extremis) to making human beings one-man army fire imploding super soldiers. The story, if one can guess, never lets up, switching from the emotional traumas of Tony as he struggles with his personal security and sanity as well as proving Pepper is important in his life, to Iron Man battling an Extremis soldier in a crashing plane. But Black and the cast carry it so that its not a ‘tiring’ intensity, but one that makes you excited during the moments, than winded when they are through. Even the final fight scene, where explosions and crashes are erupting in seemily utter chaos on a factory building, the well choreographed layout of the fight keeps its manageable for the audience to watch. Downey and Paltrow continue to deliver as the main ‘duo’ of the film, representing a real-life couple trying to understand (or just stand) each other despite the threats of global terrorist. Kingsley talent is not wasted as the Mandarin, bringing his own unique flare to the role. Cheadle’s role as Rhodes is decreased quite a bit in its importance in this movie, but he and Downey maintain their ‘lethal weapon’ good-cop-crazy-cop buddy moments. AS such, while by far the mose intense of the three solo mission Iron Mans, number three still maintains its heart on putting more attention of the man within the suit than just the suit itself. The only negative I hold against this movie was due to my attachment to comic books (cannot go into without spoiling, so see ‘Christian Undertones’ for further explanation). Iron Man 3 is a ride, both emotionally and physically through the characters, the fight sequences, and even the little twists that come about. But again, despite all things things, Iron Man 3 is a story of heart, with Tony being a man trying to redeem himself of past and present failures, something that any man, made of iron or not, can relate to.

Good Message/Bad Message:

- “Everybody has their demons” (aka, wrongs you committed in the past may catch up with you someday)

- Real living is figuring the things that are distractions, and the things that are actually important.

Content:

Violence – the main thing that gets the rating. Lots of people blowup (shadow outlines left on walls) or ‘spontaneously combust’. Some people burned, shot, or laser fried.

Sex – Suggested a couple times, though nothing shown during the event. Paltrow in a black gym top

Language – typical swearing, nothing major

Drugs – Alcohol is consumed, leading to actions that result in future consequences

Family Rating: Serious PG-13. Though still Iron Man at his best, and redemptive, this takes the story on a more intense path. Not a first timer one. Watch the first two and go from there.

Christian undertones: (SPOILERS in this paragraph) – I definitely meant it for this one

Okay, first and foremost I got to clarify about the comic book geek in me. Having seen numerous superhero movies, I have learned to be flexible in regards to plot. You cant fit a 1000 comic plots into one two hour movie (even three), so some liberties are needed to be taken. But I am a stickler when it comes to the characters. Keep them as they are in the comics, don’t change them or their relations to other characters (one of the reasons I stopped enjoying the original X-man, cause they went all over the place with the characters in those movies. So for Iron Man 3, here are the clarifications:

In the movie, Kingley’s the mandarin turns out to be a fake, a puppet for the REAL Mandarin, Pearce’s Killian. The movie has Kingsley as a a talented yet pathetic actor, and Killian the brains and brawn of the operation. Further Rebecca hall’s character is treated as an assistant where in the comic she is the main head behind Extremis.The comic, Killian,her money grabbing boss, is killed right at the beginning of the “Extremis” story arc. He is the first victim of Extremis first success subject, Eric (represented as Killians bald bodyguard in the movie). Eric is the main antagonist of the comic. One Further point, the Extremis chemical is less successful in the book. Eric and Tony(who takes the chemical to beat Eric – in tony’s case through, he does not spew fire, rather, the technology in his body establishes a better connection to the suit, making him more agile, faster, and stronger) are its only successes in the comics, while the movie seems to show that its quite easy to get an army of these guys. The true Mandarin of the comics is a man who practices dark magic. He is one of Iron Man’s worst enemies since he deals in magic, an area Tony has not expertise in. Its tech vs sorcery. That being said, I was kind of annoyed that the top villain in in Iron Man comics is made to be a fake, where as Killian, a nobody in the comics, is given the brains, brawn, and Extremis formula to be the top baddie. If they picked someone else to be the ‘fake bad guy’ it would have bothered me less.

Okay, that being off my chest, I repeat that this comic book movie is a tale of heart. Tony to be honest, was not a good man before he established his Iron Man persona. He built weapons, without thought of the consequenses, used girls, and treated himself as the better species to other people. This personality were his ‘demon.’ Demons that for this story created two sad beings: Killian, pulling a The Incredibles storyline in being wronged by the hero years ago, growing in bitterness and hatred as years go, and his assistant Maya Hansen, Tony’s one night stand who Tony helps make the formula of Extremis (again not thinking of the consequence of such actions). When people read the Bible, one of the common catchphrases that keeps popping up is “your sin will find you out.” This keeps believers humble while agitating non-believers. Tony’s line “everybody has their demons” implies the same concept. Tony is flawed, he knows this. He has done many wrong things. Yes he has tried to fix them, but he still feels incomplete. Now after the invasion, he realizes there are tings that even his supergenius does not know of. So he hides in his suits. When he is in his suit, he is Iron Man, unbeatable. Unfortunately this weighs heavily on his relationship with Pepper. While Pepper likes him being a hero, and does not necessary hate him being Iron Man, she does not like what the suit is doing to Tony. In her eyes, its strength is keeping him weak. Than come Killian and Maya, who basically are embodiments of Tony’s flaws (Killian-pride and self-rightousness, Maya-his former naiveté toward woman). Soon everything Tony built crumbles. It takes the faith of a child (literally) to remind tony that while he has had faults, he has always been gifted, even before Iron Man. He has been blessed in his talent, and blessed in his relationships (Rhodes-best friend, Happy Gabby-friend and helper, Pepper-lover and in her own way rescuer). We are each like Iron Man, we create suits/masks/etc of the things in our life that we feel make us worthwhile. At time we live normal lives, but than others, we rush into the suits to make ourselves feel better. Like Pepper, Christ sees the flaws of such thinking, and often has to go to drastic measures to show us that we are already special inside because of Him and because what he gave us: eternal life and hope. We can often ignore this, or like Tony believe we can got a handle on things and can do things alone when its obvious we cant. In the end, tony realizes that Iron man was never the suit, but the man. A man who needed fixing and woman to help guide him long the way, but still a man. We are each made in Christ, our own personal Iron Man of Christ. We just need to realize the power He put in us.

Scripture References: Ephesians 6:9-19, Romans 8:10, Galatians 5:20-24

Final Say:

Best of the Iron Mans. See in 3d on the big screen.