After the relative disappointment of Iron Man 2, I really wasn’t sure I wanted to pay good money to see Iron Man Three (what, numerals are out of vogue this year?). But I was glad I did. It was a real blast. Good story, well scripted, fast paced and with good stunt work (particularly with the ‘barrel o monkeys’ skydive from Air Force One). Gwyneth Paltrow is suitably hot (literally) and in the villain’s camp, Guy Pearce is memorable and Ben Kingsley is quite superb in a truly surprising and double-layered performance.
But it is Robert Downey Jnr that once again holds the whole film together as the complex super-hero Tony Stark: some of his dialogue is laugh out loud, and his scenes with his young sidekick in a backwater town are particularly memorable.
It’s not without fault though. One of my main criticisms of Iron Man 2 was that it descended into ‘Transformer-ville’ territory of indestructible machine fighting indestructible machine with the viewer really not particularly given the chance to give a damn. The finale of Three similarly puts a foot or two over that line, and whilst its well done and spectacular, it should have been a case of less is more.
However, as the curtain up for the summer blockbuster season, I suspect that this will probably be one of the better ones.
Fad Rating: FFFf.
