Well, after seeing this flick, I was STILL surprised…
several times!
Iron Man III has so many twists and turns, it is a visual twisty,
turny, loopy roller coaster. Even when you can see them coming (which was more
often than not), it is still a thrill to watch it unfold, like being able to
see the tracks of Viper at Magic Mountain; you know what’s next, but your world
still keeps turning upside down.
Visually gorgeous (of course) and exciting; where there aren’t
twists and turns, there are chases and explosions enough to keep even the most adrenaline-junkie
happy, especially after the first loooong half hour or so of choppy and convoluted
back story. Thankfully, this section ends
rather abruptly, almost as if the Real Director showed up with his latte and said,
“Move it along kid, Daddy’s home.”
As ever, it is Robert Downey Jr.’s movie from start to
finish. Downey masterfully brings the character of Tony Stark to a whole new
level, taking the fun of the first Iron Man movie, adding in the angst of the
second, less fun Iron Man movie and mashing them up into an even better, deeper
and more complex and interesting character that drives the story home.
Infused with enough humor to make me think that Writer/Director
Shane Black is taking note of the best of the best of writer/directors (like Joss
Whedon or early Steven Spielberg and George Lucas), the writing is mostly crisp
and bright, and the movie generally moves along at a fairly brisk pace, spacing
the plot twists far enough apart to keep the whole movie from being too
predictable.
Casting notes: Guy Pearce is just creepy. Ben Kingsley was absolutely
brilliant, as ever. Dale Dickey was perfectly cast for her tiny role, but it
felt like she should have been one more scene… perhaps it was left on the
cutting room floor.
A couple of irritants: Happy was rather ill-used, too much
of a joke and then practically dropped out of the movie altogether. Rebecca Hall and William Sadler were totally, ridiculously
just boring, no presence as all. And Tony
Stark, what, is he made of steel or something?? There is no way any mortal man –
even a brilliant one - would be able to withstand even the tiniest FRACTION of
what this movie puts him through outside of that suit. It was more than a
little ridiculous, especially in the final climatic scene, even in a super hero
movie. And what was with the waaay too long, super talky dénouement, after
everything, they are suddenly all alone on the… Dang. I promised no spoilers!
Fun stuff: the kid and skydiving! Watch the credits for the,
well, monkey credit! Of course, stay
until the end of the credits for a funny extra scene (obviously directed and
written by our Joss Whedon).
The end of the film begs more questions… and I am super excited
about what Joss is going to do to continue that story in Avengers II!
My rating: 8.5 out of 10
Just Musing,Susan
