First of all, Happy Star Wars Day. May the Fourth be with you all! Next, it's 35 reviews. Wow! Zooming right along. Thanks to all for sticking with it this far. More fun to be had in the future, you'll see! So, Iron Man 3. Wow! It was not what I was expecting. When I first saw Iron Man, I was not expecting much. I was never a big fan of the comic and I wasn't Robert Downey's biggest fan, either. Oh, he was always a good actor, but I just couldn't see him in a superhero role. Then I saw the movie, and aside from the fairly stupid ending, it blew me away. It was amazing. So when I went to Iron Man 2, expectations were high, and they were dashed against the wall. The sad thing was that there were about six or seven good stories in there. If they would have stuck to two, it would have been another great film, but Sequal-itis got a hold of Hollywood. That is,the tendency to have everything the first had and more. Witness the growing number of villains and storylines in both Batman iterations. So when I sat down for Iron Man 3, especially for shelling out the ridiculous cost for 3D, I had a great deal of trepidation. Would it suck? Would this be a harbinger for the summer movie season, a crop of suckier and suckier films as the months moved onward?
Well, I am happy to report that, no, Iron Man 3 is a hoot! It is big, yes, but it is also a whole lot of fun. My first clue was that The Washington Post hated the film. Their lead critics, Stephen Hunter, and now Ann Hornaday can always be counted on to either hate, or at least be condescendingly dismissive, of any film that may have some universal appeal, 9 times out of 10. As usual, the Post is wrong again. Iron Man 3 has a new director and writer, Shane Black; the man responsible for one of my favorite franchises, Lethal Weapon. While Jon Favreau was a fine director, Shane is an old hand at this type of film. It was fast and tight and intense. But also, the story went back to the basics. Most of Marvel's superheroes are intriguing because Marvel wanted to write heroes with real issues that people could relate to, real problems that were relatable to the readers. Spiderman was a gawky teenager, Iron Man an alcoholic, the Green Goblin, Green Arrow had problems with drugs, the X-Men dealt with race issues, The Hulk with our darker sides, The Punisher with crime in the 70s, the Fantastic Four with Family, the Avengers with the generation gap, spousal abuse; the list goes on and on. This movie gets back to that, focusing on Tony and his problems. The end is a tad over the top, but it is a lot of fun. A word on the 3D, while it is not necessary, it is well used. You see something you will never see dealing with skydiving that I think will thrill you. In this case, it is worth the extra cost. It is fun, funny, and just the type of film to start the summer. Go to it. You'll thank me for it (if you haven't seen it already).
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