{"id":25814,"date":"2013-05-04T21:59:21","date_gmt":"2013-05-05T04:59:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=25814"},"modified":"2013-05-07T23:58:29","modified_gmt":"2013-05-08T06:58:29","slug":"iron-man-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=25814","title":{"rendered":"Iron Man 3"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Iron<\/a>
Iron Man 3 – Robert Downey Jr and the suit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Robert Downey Jr\u2019s tipping point as a box office draw, I think, was 2005\u2019s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang<\/em>. The potential was always there, admittedly: take Air America<\/em>, for instance, or his Oscar-nominated turn in Chaplin<\/em>. But it took the Shane Black written and directed black comedy of errors to confirm that Downey is at his most reliable and entertaining when playing to his strengths: cocky, charming, droll, deadpan and just that little bit out on the edge. Most of his films since have worked on a variant of this theme, which makes sense. Once you\u2019ve found the winning formula, it makes no sense to go out your way to ruin it…<\/p>\n

Downey and Black reunite for Iron Man 3<\/em>, the first of this summer\u2019s run of multiplex-fillers. We last saw Iron Man in last year\u2019s The Avengers<\/em>, narrowly escaping death from hurtling to earth after some complicated shenanigans. These things sit heavily on men and even supermen, as we discover. The Tony Stark that we meet at the beginning of Iron Man 3<\/em> is a multi-millionaire in search of his lost mojo. Most men in this position will simply sulk in the basement, or make a nuisance of themselves to their nearest and dearest. In this case, we instead have Downey\u2019s Stark tinkering with the latest iteration of his best known creation \u2013 Iron Man Mk 42, since you ask \u2013 and driving his girlfriend and CEO of Stark Industries, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) to distraction.<\/p>\n

\"Iron<\/a>
Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) and girlfriend\/CEO Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) – the suit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Iron Man 3 – the man (Gwyneth Paltrow and Robert Downey Jr)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meanwhile, the United States is grappling with the threat posed by the Mandarin, a very post-modern terrorist, with very pre-modern methods: rebranding Iron Man\u2019s old comrade in arms, War Machine (Don Cheadle), as the Iron Patriot (Don Cheadle), and hoping for the best. Red, White and Blue armour always does the trick. (I should say at this point that whilst it is perfectly possible to watch and enjoy Iron Man III without prior knowledge, a vague awareness of the franchise\u2019s back story helps a little.) Lingering all the while is the oleaginous Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), whose Advanced Ideas Mechanics wants to coax Stark Industries into collaborating on Extremis \u2013 an advanced, experimental regenerative treatment very useful for people recovering from critical injuries. Soldiers, for instance.<\/p>\n

\"Iron<\/a>
Iron Man 3 – Red, White and Blue armour always does the trick<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The success of the Iron Man franchise rests squarely on Downey\u2019s tin shoulders: for this reason, the rather fantastical underpinnings of Iron Man III<\/em> never trouble so long as Downey is left to his own devices. Support acting is largely anonymous, Ben Kingsley\u2019s delightfully self mocking turn as a failed English actor turned global terrorist aside. Special effects, as always, are spectacular without quite becoming overwhelming. Efficiency is the order of the day: not quite with Iron Man himself though, whose technical lapses force ol\u2019 Tin-Head out of his shell and into relying on his own ingenuity for a good chunk of the film.<\/p>\n

Iron Man 3 works well, I think, for two reasons. First, after the extra-terrestrial distractions of The Avengers<\/em> (assuming, for a moment, that it is reasonable to describe Norse Gods thus), the film returns Stark to a recognisable scenario that never particularly stretches credulity.<\/p>\n

(Right. So the notion of a guy in a tin suit who routinely saves humanity from itself three times a week, and gets to have dinner with Gwyneth Paltrow doesn\u2019t stretch credulity? Fair point.)<\/p>\n

Beyond this, Black\u2019s script is sharp and genuinely funny. The occasional sleights-of-hand strive valiantly to distract from narrative gaps, the film as a whole has a compactness and cohesiveness that\u00a0 The Avengers<\/em>, in particular, lacked. And it is helpful to think about the two films alongside one another: The Avengers<\/em>, to my mind, dragged on a bit because there were two many radioactively-charged cooks to spoil the broth. With Iron Man 3<\/em>, we have Downey\/Stark all to ourselves. There isn\u2019t any better way to have it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert Downey Jr\u2019s tipping point as a box office draw, I think, was 2005\u2019s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. The potential was always there, admittedly: take Air America, for instance, or his Oscar-nominated turn in Chaplin. But it took the Shane Black written and directed black comedy of errors to confirm that Downey is at his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25814\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}