Iron Man 3

I've been a nerd for as long as I can remember.  Some of my earliest memories are of my brother and me discussing the ins and outs of Wolverine's mutant healing factor and what all Mr. Fantastic can stretch.  Is it just his arms and legs or...you get the point.  I've grown up a lot since then and, well...maybe I haven't.  Anyway, during these conversations, we spent a lot of time casting our dream comic book movies.  During the late 80s and early 90s, we were experiencing a drought of comic book films.  Besides the cinematic exploits of DC big hitters Batman and Superman, the silver screen was empty of tight spandex and masked vigilantes.  Thus, my brother and I had to use our imagination.  I think our best casting was Trent Reznor as Wolverine.  Can you imagine him singing Closer to God and slashing Magneto in the face?  I can.  It's awesome.

Now, times have changed and the drought is over.  Isn't it great?  There are superheroes on every screen; cartoons, video games, tv shows and, of course, in the multiplex. The stories and adventures I plotted with my big brother are now thrilling audiences across the world.  We no longer need our imaginations when Hollywood is pumping billions into big sets, pyrotechnics, and A list performers.  All of a sudden, here I am looking cool.  Superheroes are hip now, so I'm hip by proxy.  When I wore my Spiderman t-shirt in high school, it was just one more way to solidify my virginhood.  Now, old web-head gets girls to buy me a drink.  Seriously.

I can say I'm happy with the turn of events.  While the quality of recent superhero films runs the gamut, it's nice to see my old super friends up on the screen.  My five-year-old self would be very, very excited.  Little Marten and his brother would be very happy with Iron Man 3.  Lots of stuff blows up.  The people say funny lines.  And, there are lots and lots of Iron Man suits.  It's basically how my brother and I would have imagined it.  However, I'm not five anymore.  My ex-girlfriends may say I have the maturity of a five-year-old, but I am almost thirty and my taste in film has changed.  I am still wowed by an army of Iron Man suits battling nano-tech soldiers, but I take notice of things like narrative, dialogue, and editing.  That being said, twenty-nine-year old Marten and five-year-old Marten would mostly agree on Iron Man 3.

Marvel studios made a great decision when they hired Robert Downey Jr. to play the heavy drinking playboy Tony Stark.  Since the original film, Downey has made this part his own, firing off witty dialogue at a machine gun pace and going method for some very soulful moments.  The actor continues his winning streak with Iron Man 3; he is again the strongest part of the film.  Even when the plot goes off the rails at times, Downey is there to anchor the film with his intense and entertaining performance.

Downey is assisted by writer/director Shane Black.  The two worked previously on the amazing Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and it is rumored that the director helped Downey hone his character for the original Iron Man.  It's great to see Black working on a big action film again.  The guy was the king of the 80s and 90s action script.  Lethal Weapon and The Last Boy Scout?  Anybody?  Wow, action gold.  Black brings his gifts for punchy dialogue and great character to this comic book world.  Downey's lines are more hilarious than ever and every side character is unique and memorable.  Child actor Ty Simpkins is especially sweet as Harley, a young inventor who helps Stark on his journey.  Black also inserts some great buddy cop antics, a la Lethal Weapon.  Many of the scenes between Downey and Don Cheadle play out like a classic scene between Riggs and Murtaugh.  There's even a Mr. Joshua-esque evil henchman played with great grit and wit by James Badge Dale.  It's great to see that Black's still got it.

He also coaxes some great performances out of his actors.  Besides Downey, Guy Pearce and Ben Kingsley turn in their best performances in years.  These two actors are so often misused that it is nice to be reminded just how talented they really are.  Pearce is amazing as Aldrich Killian, a megalomaniac weapons manufacturer.  His charming smile easily turns to a grimace of hate.  He looks like he's having a great time.  Likewise, Kingsley shows us that he is still the master.  The guy's had a rough last decade.  He played the villain in Thunderbirds.  Yep, Thunderbirds.  Then, he played an evil wizard in Bloodrayne. The excremental Uwe Boll directed that masterpiece.  That film played like a bad acid trip.  I'm still trying to forget it.  In Iron Man 3, Kingsley brings great bravado, malice, and even humor to his performance as The Mandarin, a belligerent international terrorist. The guy's a genius and you have to give credit to Shane Black for writing and directing such a meaty part.

The narrative and general pacing of the script are not so meaty and not so genius.  True, Shane Black writes beautiful dialogue, but he is sorely lacking in the plot department.  The script jumps all over the place, so it feels as if there are five acts, not three.  This isn't Hamlet, it's Hollywood.  Three acts, dude.  The story is also unnecessarily complex.  It looks like Black went to the Damon Lindelof school of screenwriting, where "nuanced" is confused with "convoluted."  Like an episode of Lost, Iron Man 3 is filled with unneeded twists and turns.  These do not add to the mystery of the plot but do add to the mystery of the characters.  Tony Stark's emotional journey seems to be lost in the shuffle.  He changes somewhere between the first frame and the last frame, but I'm not sure how or why.

Still, most of the film does play like a great 80s action film.  Shane Black never got a chance to direct his own Lethal Weapon scripts, but he displays a solid talent for action filmmaking.  Like the dialogue, the fight choreography and editing are frenetic.  Even when Stark is out of the suit, he ducks and dives with impressive skill.  It looks as if he took dance lessons from Jason Bourne.  When Stark is in the suit, Black bests former director Jon Favreau in his depiction of the Iron Man suit and all its whirlygigs.  The metal shell has a mind of his own, and Black utilizes this for some shocking sequences.  The final scene is especially breathtaking.  Iron Man suits fly all over the place, blowing up enhanced soldiers and knocking over cranes.

You know, now that I say that, I think my brother and I dreamed up that scene twenty-five years ago.  Only, I'm pretty sure Trent Reznor was there.  Yeah, that would be awesome.