March Marvel Madness: IRON MAN 3

Greetings, True Believers! Welcome to March Marvel Madness! Every day this month, I'll be looking back on a theatrically-released movie based on the characters of Marvel Comics. It's all to commemorate the April 4th release of the next Marvel film adventure, Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Today, Phase 2 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe kicks off with a bang!

Robert Downey Jr. returns for his fourth go-around as Tony Stark. In this film, the brilliant inventor/superhero is having a hard time adjusting to life after the events that took place at the end of The Avengers. Suffering from insomnia and anxiety attacks, Tony recklessly challenges a terrorist called The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) who claims responsibility for an attack that put his friend, Happy (Jon Favreau), in a coma. After that challenge is answered by blowing up the house and all the Iron Man armors, Tony is stranded with a broken Iron Man suit. It's up to his own sense of self to get back to where he needs to be. And he better do it fast, because a crazed scientist (Guy Pearce) has created a dangerous weapon called Extremis, he maybe on The Mandarin's payroll, and he's after Pepper (Gwenyth Paltrow).

Seriously, how many third entries in superhero- or any genre- film series have sucked? Just look at what we have seen with this little venture: Blade: Trinity, X-Men: The Last Stand, Spider-Man 3. All dismal failures. Number 3s being just as good as their predecessors are an impossibility. Or so we thought. With some wildly inspired ideas, Iron Man 3 is a freaking miracle.

The Iron Man series succeeds by never letting go of its core, yet never content to stand still. New director Shane Black brings in an 80s buddy-cop action film sensibility to the series that keeps it new, fun, and smart. At the same time, it frees up the franchise to utilize comic book elements in exciting ways reminiscent of the first film. In addition, Iron Man 3 offers more exciting set pieces, including one of the greatest rescue scenes ever created.

Walking out after Iron Man 3 was a strange feeling. A good kind of strange, mind you. I'm used to coming out of a threequel either letdown or pissed off. I emerged from this movie wide-eyed, because Marvel made a breakthrough in cinema. It kept a franchise energized long enough to make a quality third installment. Can we have more like this, please? Thanks.

Iron Man 3
5 out of 5 Cap shields