Iron Man 3 is the first Marvel superhero film to come out this year, which is already a pretty big deal. But what may be even more significant is that it’s the first post-Avengers film to hit theaters – and that fact has fans buzzing even more!

Part of what makes this Iron Man movie different from the last 2 is that this one follows a theme that’s turning out to be a very common one with a number of other films coming out this year which is; darkness & massive destruction. The new Star Trek film is even called; Star Trek: Into Darkness.

The other aspect setting this third film apart from its predecessors is that Iron Man 3 was written and directed by Shane Black and not former director, Jon Favreau. Black, for those who aren’t familiar with him, is a writer who came into prominence in the late 80′s by writing the original screenplay for Lethal Weapon which essentially resuscitated the buddy cop genre. He went on to write the original script for Lethal Weapon 2 where he actually killed the Mel Gibson character! He ultimately walked away from the project when Warner Bros. refused to kill ‘Martin Riggs‘ because they wanted to make more sequels.

Two other scripts Shane got paid a lot of record breaking money for, were most notably Long Kiss Good Night and the Last Boy Scout (not to mention his much hyped and an extremely well paid re-write of The Last Action Hero)

Black disappeared from the public eye for quite some time and became known more for his lavish parties and offscreen antics than anything else, then made something of a comeback in 2005 with the film Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (his directorial debut) which of course starred Robert Downey Jr., who was trying to resuscitate his own career at that time as well. If nothing else, writing wise Black is known for his great action set pieces, lots of hard-boiled but heartfelt dialogue and… darkness.

I’m happy to say that Iron Man 3 is significantly better than the second Iron Man, but I don’t think they’ll ever be able to quite match the freshness of the first film, which essentially introduced the worlds’ first rock ‘n roll superhero, Tony Stark. We’ve now seen Tony Stark on screen a total of 5 times with 3 Iron Man solo films, The Avengers and then that post credit sequence on The Incredible Hulk.

Without giving way too much of the plot or more than what you’ve see in the trailer, let me say that this time around Iron Man faces off with Ben Kingsley as Mega terrorist ‘The Mandarin’ who literally destroys his world.

In the midst of dealing with all of the havoc that The Mandarin creates, Tony is plagued by anxiety attacks brought on by the trauma of the events he experienced in

New York during The Avengers. What makes this film work is that there is so much story, plot twists, reveals, and unexpected things that happen and luckily everything is NOT given away in the trailers.

I’m willing to bet that Iron Man 3 will go down as a classic, because of the things it does. I’ve begun to see the comic book movies of today much the same way actual comic books were back in the late eighties where at a certain point there’s just been so much territory that’s been explored, that you have no choice but to keep tweaking and exploring some of these concepts inside out and doing the unexpected to really keep an audience interested.

There’s lots of action, lots of tech, lots of Iron Mans, (yes, that’s plural), multiple people don the suit, and again as always most of the fun of films like this is everything that you don’t expect to happen, happening. The performances are solid throughout, Gwyneth Paltrow in particular, may surprise a lot of people with how wonderful and likable she is on screen.

The last thing I’ll say about Iron Man 3 which I really enjoyed is that a part of me that can’t help but wonder what it would have been like to see Terrence Howard playing the role Don Cheadle took over in Iron Man 2 and continues in this film as James ‘Rhodie’ Roads, who, in this film has a much larger role.

Ironically, Shane Black, who as I mentioned earlier is known for reinventing the whole buddy cop genre has created an awesome story here that goes far beyond that dynamic but still embraces it. The core of Iron Man 3, the heart if you will, is the love that Tony has for Pepper and his relationship with his best friend Rhodie. Coincidentally like Lethal Weapon, Long Kiss Good Night and The Last Boy Scout is a black-white relationship. But honestly, I feel like that onscreen chemistry you want to feel between these two characters just isn’t there between them for some reason.

Downey and Howard had a real onscreen chemistry in the first film and I believed their friendship. Cheadle is a great actor and Downey of course is fun, but I just don’t buy their friendship other than the fact that it’s in the script.

So, with all of that being said Comic book movies are here to stay and I think Iron Man 3 is a worthy addition and will go on to become one of the most successful films of 2013.

Synopsis:

Tony Stark uses his ingenuity to fight those who destroyed his private world and soon goes up against his most powerful enemy yet: the Mandarin.