Iron Man 3

[WARNING]: SPOILERS AHEAD!

Iron Man 3 is a reminder of what happens when power gets to evil hands.  Power here is the new technology extremis which can regenerate lost limbs in human beings, but can also go horribly wrong when it can make people explode. It is unclear what the evil Mandarin hopes to do with this power, but he definitely means to kill the President of the United States, who is unfortunately never very well protected in movies. The President suffers a few humiliating moments when he is made to hang in an Iron Man suit several feet above a shipyard while Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Rhodes (Don Cheadle) and an army of Iron Man suits attempt to rescue him  and Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow) from exploding extremis beneficiaries. The focus of the movie is the gadgetry, and the miracles of modern science which is a good thing, because the few attempts at sentimentality were a hopeless failure.  The movie’s best feature was, of course, Ben Kingsley, the substitute Mandarin, who deteriorates from a grand panjandrum to a two-bit lecherous actor in the space of a few minutes. The young boy Harley, I think is thrown in as an attempt at sentimentality which I already remarked was a hopeless failure.  The movie is a visual treat in 3D and quite gripping in parts especially when the suit tries to rescue passengers who are sucked out of Airforce One (one really has to be willing to suspend disbelief!).  There is nothing Stark cannot escape from.  He can lay hands on tools, equipment, and cars 24/7 and, like Rumpelstiltskin of yore, spin junk into homing fragments of metal armor. In any case, his super-hero status is derived not from his inventions, but from a deep sense of personal responsibility in the fight against evil. He is human after all, with human anxieties.  Thankfully, the movie does not dwell on that aspect.  Thoroughly entertaining! 

Release Date: May 3, 2013 (USA) 
Director: Shane Black 
Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce 
Running time: 130 minutes 
Producer: Kevin Feige 
Production companies: Marvel Studios, Paramount Pictures

Rating: 3 out of 5

Iron Man 2

I saw Iron Man 2 this weekend.  I give it a 3 star rating out of 5.  Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) was cute, as usual, but the rest of the movie was hopeless.  Villain Ivan whatsit (Mickey Rourke)--a big disappointment.  Why do the bad guys have to look so ugly?  Granted he was in hiding but this guy is building something complicated that is sure to destroy the world and he must have shopped for the ingredients.  He cannot find a comb? How did he get the gold to put between his teeth anyway?  He didn't have gold teeth--his regular teeth had a sort of gold border to them.  I looked carefully.

What was wrong with the movie was that the pièce de résistance was introduced too early --the main gadget, the electrical whips that Tony Stark had to battle against made its appearance in the second scene.  The movie could have started with minor inventions that fail, and then

voilà

bring this up after a lot of tinkering MacGyver style.  But no, we saw them on the Monaco race track and then it was ho-hum when they were brought back at the end of the movie.

The Iron Man 2's take off (for flight) was a curious exercise.  He would keep his arms straight and stiff by the side with the palms horizontal and do an utterly fairy dance before the boosters whatever launched him into space.  What was that about? And Natasha (Scarlett Johansson), can the name be more spy-like, is quite comical with her choreographed fight scenes.  After punching out each guy she would pause to give a Charlie's Angels kind of pose.

This movie is a lesson in you cannot have too much of a good thing. Hundreds and thousands of these Iron Men invade the screen towards the end only to die in the Unisphere Globe in Flushing, Queens NY. Built for a World Fair, the globe remains a symbol of creativity.

Why are superheroes such lonely, misunderstood people?  Tony Stark was no exception.  He felt his dad denied him his love and thank goodness Stark Sr. always had his video camera focused on him--we could prove junior wrong right away and in this movie without having to drag on this theme to the sequel.  Anyway, at least this movie had its brilliant flashes of humor which is why I gave it 3 out of 5.

Who the heck was this Nick (Samuel Jackson)  guy? Turns out, there was a scene at the end of the credits of the first movie where they introduced him?  I wish someone had told me that.  I was smarter this time.  I sat till the end of the movie and sure enough there was this little extra scene which was clear as mud. But that is for Iron Man 3.