Certainly not one of the summer’s “greats” but still appealing to the entertained eye, Iron Man 3 flew into the opening box office weekend with almost $200,000,000.00 in sales. Not a fabulous start but not mediocre either. Director Shane Black certainly knows that provided enough flashy gizmos with action-packed scenes and a nice flip of Tony Stark’s hair, the audience will pay again and again to support the cultism these superhero movies have spurned.
However, unlike the director of the first two films, Jon Favreau, Black used his opportunity to focus new character development on that of the ever-so-sleek and cocky Tony Stark. Abandoning the confidence that Iron Man is classically defined as, we are given a harsh look at the impact that having a superhero stardom life can have. Are these players perhaps normal after all? Their emotions certainly suggest so. With Tony being introduced to the reality of anxiety attacks and his inability to decipher who should be saved first (himself or his beloved Pepper), there is a major play between the reflexes of the heart and mind. Even as a co-writer along with Drew Pearce (who not so shabbily obtained the credits for the third Sherlock Holmes film), Black sneakily parallels these struggles with the ever-so-popular British television series, Downton Abbey. As an obvious foreshadowing of the politics of relationships within the corporate superhero world, it is these few surprises that provide menial gratification and ultimately slow the overall development of the story.
Of course, the plot took some intriguing twists at the end that even had me impressed but quickly digressed with an extremely old school Hawaii 5-0, comic book cheese that resulted in an eye-roll when the villain concludes with a “I will be back or this is not over” mentality. I give this movie two out of five stars because it wasn’t a complete bust but at the same time, its potential was not even close to being met. But this is a significant downside to switching directors, mid-series. We just can’t all be Harry Potters.
