Hot off the release of the mega hit, The Avengers, everyone was ready for the next movie to focus on the main protagonist of the MCU. Tony Stark had already gone through a whirlwind of events and changes as a character, having now faced an existential threat to all of humanity alongside his fellow heroes. What sort of story would Iron Man 3 tell that would tie into the bigger world that had been established since the epic crossover?

Pros

Robert Downey Jr. carries the film with his charisma and charm
Deeper and darker tones than previous entries, with Tony dealing with PTSD and personal attacks on family and friends, driving important character and plot points
Action scenes that show why Tony Stark is a hero, with and without the Iron Man suit

Cons

Ultimately disappointing plot that falls apart in the last act
Pacing is slow in the first half
Bait and switch of The Mandarin is stupid
Visually messy climax
Not much Iron Man
Characters come and go, but are not very memorable or interesting

Plot & Thoughts

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is struggling to come to grips with his experience in New York from the first Avengers movie. Seeing a massive armada in space and fighting off the invasion set off by Loki (Tom Hiddleston) has given him something akin to PTSD, and he is obsessing about how to protect the Earth from the disaster he is sure is impending. He’s making dozens of Iron Man suits when he can’t sleep. He’s having panic attacks. He’s struggling to keep his relationship with Pepper Pots (Gwyneth Paltrow) afloat. What makes matters worse is that his former bodyguard, Happy (Tom Favreau), is nearly killed in what appears to be a terrorist attack after he tails a suspicious character who is employed by a man from Tony’s past named Killian (Guy Pearce). A terrorist leader called The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) has claimed responsibility, which sets Tony off on a hunt to find those responsible and protect other people he cares about from additional attacks.

This is the weakest of the Iron Man movies. Unfortunately, it uses one of my favorite Iron Man story arcs from the comics: the Extremis storyline. While some aspects of the story were translated to the screen, it still feels like a far cry from the source material and the implications that remained at the end of the storyline for Tony Stark. The decisions that Stark made in the comics and how he ultimately faced the Extremis threat were impactful to his character and had some significant weight to them, in that you could argue that he was making some morally questionable choices in certain circumstances. Those types of moments are not utilized in Iron Man 3, and are either ignored or repurposed to be far less interesting or meaningful. Had the changes been made to still give us some moments that really pushed Tony’s character into some morally complex situations like the comics did, I’d be more open to the changes, but simply from an adaptation standpoint, it’s a disappointment.

Speaking of failed adaptations, The Mandarin. For those who don’t know, The Mandarin is THE villain for Iron Man, as in he is the arch-nemesis. Like Joker to Batman, Green Goblin to Spider-Man, Lex Luthor to Superman, Red Skull to Captain America, The Mandarin is supposed to be a primary threat to Iron Man in the comics—he even has his own Avengers. The Mandarin is a genius, an expert martial artist, a cunning tactician, and he has ten magical rings that he uses to obtain superhuman powers. If you’re not a comic fan but you like the MCU, the “ten rings” detail may ring a bell in your head (heh), as the concept and character were brought over into the Shang-Chi movie that came out after Iron Man’s departure from the MCU. So, they were willing to use him and the rings in a lesser-known hero’s movie, but not in Iron Man 3, which feels like a waste.

The plot of Iron Man 3 is mostly based on the Extremis storyline, which has nothing to do with The Mandarin. Being a casual Iron Man fan, I was curious how a movie could combine the two, since The Mandarin is supposed to be a larger-than-life villain with plenty of storylines tied to him and his evil plots. However, I learned the spoiler surrounding the character before I saw the movie, and it immediately turned me off from seeing Iron Man 3 when it was new. This was the point where I started to get disinterested in the MCU to the point that I wasn’t sure if it was worth going to the theaters. SPOILER for a movie that is a decade old, but The Mandarin is actually just a clueless actor and joke of a character named Trevor Slattery. He was hired by the big villain of the movie, Killian, to pretend to be a terrorist leader responsible for the attacks that are happening as a result of the Extremis-infected people self-destructing. Why? To create a narrative that was bad for Iron Man but good for Killian, I guess; it’s not clear.

Adaptation failures aside, Iron Man 3’s plot is a bit of a mess. When Killian’s plan is revealed, it doesn’t feel like anything was earned or that it had been built to that point. The ultimate plan is to kill the U.S. President on television with the Iron Patriot/War Machine suit (do not get me started on that adaptation failure), so then the Vice President will take over and be a puppet of Killian’s to do whatever he wishes because Killian can use the Extremis to help the VP’s daughter. This would supposedly get Killian a lot of power and influence as well as revenge on Tony Stark for snubbing him at a party years ago, and make Stark take the blame for the President’s death, I guess. I’m probably forgetting some details, but I just can’t think of where The Mandarin is supposed to come into play or why the plot took so many detours to get there. It feels like there were several plot ideas that the writers had that kept conflicting with each other, and rather than just throwing one out that didn’t work, they kept them all and just forced them together into this movie. As a result, we have a plot that meanders for quite a while with some decent Tony Stark moments peppered in and about the big events.

Iron Man 3 is not all bad, however, as it has one major positive. Robert Downey Jr. is the reason to see this movie. His charisma and talent at playing Tony Stark carry the experience as the film struggles to stay interesting. The idea of him dealing with the PTSD from the alien invasion in The Avengers is a great character arc to explore with someone who is always so sure of himself and often the smartest person in the room. This trauma and how he’s dealing with it, how it affects his relationship with Pepper, and how it affects his judgment are all good ideas that are somewhat explored in Iron Man 3. And even though the slow second act of the movie features a Tony Stark without access to his Iron Man suit, there are still some good character moments that showcase his abilities as a genius and an engineer, which are satisfying to see. It all eventually culminates in a finale that is overrun with messy CGI action that is far less impressive than the climaxes of previous Iron Man films, but there are a few fleeting moments of fun along the way, at least.

TL;DR

Iron Man 3 was the first MCU film since The Avengers that I would skip after I heard some disappointing spoilers about the plot. This then demotivated me from sticking with the franchise until I finally found the time and desire to see it for myself, more than a decade after it came out. I can say that all the negativity I heard about this film was pretty accurate. The plot is convoluted. The pacing is rather slow and tedious. The action is fun at times and hard to follow at other moments. The main reason to see Iron Man 3 is for Robert Downey Jr., who still nails the role and gives the character more depth with some good scenes that deal with Tony Stark’s trauma following the events of The Avengers.

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