Robert Downey Jr. is so charming as a billionaire robot tinkerer
that we’ll forgive him of all his Tony Stark trespasses. That’s the
magnificence of Downey :
even his duds prove how likeable he is.
Stark is another matter entirely. Iron Man’s fleshy center is not
nearly as lovable here in Iron Man 3
as he was in the original Iron Man or
in that bloated wonderful mess The
Avengers. Before you hammer-type an Avengers
defense, I say “bloated wonderful mess” in the most lovingly way possible.
Stark is certainly less aloof here than he was in Iron Man 2 — the one where he lost his mojo and then
overcompensated for its absence by going on an epic bender — which makes Iron Man 3 a vast improvement.
Still, though, something is off here. Stark seems meaner, and Downey seems bored by it
all. I liked all the motor-mouthed patter, the acidy Starkisms delivered in
rapid-fire volleys full of snark and criticism. They just seemed to have no
purpose or perspective. It’s as if the writers of Iron Man 3 had nowhere to take the character in his final solo
outing. (Downey
is expected to appear as Stark in the next Avengers
movie, but likely no more after that.) Judging by the plot alone, the writers
decided to wander and see where it took them. Short answer: to an unceremonious
end to the Iron Man franchise.
In a fragile new world distressed by the events in The Avengers, Stark is having some
anxiety issues. His blood rushes, sweat pours from his face and his
electro-magnetic heart thumps in that gaping sore in his exposed chest cavity. Like another conflicted Tony —
Soprano — Stark is having a full-blown panic attack. But rather than dealing
with his troubles, the film seems content to just show flashbacks from The Avengers. These scenes are more DVD
plugs than plot points because in the end they serve no purpose to Stark’s
current dilemma, one involving a shadowy Bin Laden-type character called the
Mandarin.
With Stark on the fritz, and his new rocket-jettisoned Iron Man
armor still in the prototype phase, the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) upsets the
post-Avengers world (aka the post-9/11 world) with a series of terrorist
attacks that now only resemble the Boston bombings even though they were filmed
long before April 15. I find it curious that the makers of these movies will
use real-life terror to rattle us under the guise of entertainment, but then
refuse to say anything profound about it all. This kind of disconnection is
frighteningly stupid and downright exploitational. Early in the film, one of
the bombing targets is the Chinese Theater on Los Angeles ’ famous Hollywood Boulevard . The bomb that
explodes creates an 8,000-degree fireball that leaves incinerated shadows on
the walls. If you’re keeping score, the film has used 9/11, terrorist street
bombings and IEDs, and now imagery from Hiroshima
and Nagasaki
for its brand of fluffy comic fun. I will let you make your conclusions about this imagery; Iron Man 3 offers none.
In any case, Stark jets off in his last remaining Iron Man suit
to do some detective work on the Mandarin, his shadowy group of fire-bleeders
and on two scientist characters (Rebecca Hall and Guy Pearce) who turn up
exactly as the Mandarin starts ratcheting up the tension. A middle section in
the film features Stark without a working armor suit, which allows us the brilliant
shot of Stark and Iron Man sharing a sofa together. Another scene involves him
rescuing passengers from Air Force One after they’ve been sucked out a massive
hole in the side of the plane. This is easily the film’s best sequence, though
the editing at the end doesn’t really explain how Iron Man saved 14 people when
his suit clearly tells him his limit is 4. It’s like a shot was missing
somewhere between freefall and touchdown. This sequence is in full daylight. Enjoy it because the finale is all inky and dark, as if to hide the phoniness of the digital effects.
I haven’t yet mentioned Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), who has a
much larger role here as Stark’s live-in girlfriend and the CEO of his company.
There’s a terrific moment early in the movie when Stark, in the middle of a
massive explosion, remotely orders his Iron Man outfit onto Pepper instead of himself in
order to protect her from the flying shrapnel. Awe, nothing says "love" like sharing your blast-resistant cybersuit! Tony and Pepper are
easily one of my favorite movie couples. They are so genuinely right for each
other. And Downey
and Paltrow seem to understand what attracts them to each other, and they make
it all so playful and effervescent.
Don Cheadle also returns as War Machine, or the Iron Patriot, though he has so little to do it's frustrating to see him sidelined. In Iron Man 2 he was given that heroic wargasm at the end of the film, and it seemed like he would figure more prominently in future stories. Not that I wanted him too, mind you; I would rather have no War Machine at all. But here he only half-exists: they have to acknowledge the character because the earlier films did, yet they never give him anything important to do. And for that matter, where are the rest of the Avengers?! Surely, Thor is back on Viking Plant ordering mead and pounding his fists on intergalactic bar counters, but Captain America and Hulk are probably on Earth. I mean, did they get stuck in an elevator together. Are they stranded in a bathroom stall without toilet paper? The Marvel universe allows all these characters to destroy Loki's alien army, but then it looks mighty conspicuous when they don't all team up again for a villain like the Mandarin, who's blowing shit up all around the world.
Everything leads up to a rather big secret that I won’t spoil,
but let me tell you that I didn’t see it coming at all. (Hint: “Sir Lawrence Oblivier.”)The film knows you
won’t see it coming, which is why they punctuate the whole scene with a bathroom joke so
absurd you have to admire how daring the whole thing is. But as this jolt wears
off, Iron Man 3 settles into its last
mediocre stretch, with Iron Man batting baddies around as he jumps into and out
of his various armor suits. This scene with all the different suits is mildly
exciting, but it mostly feels like lip service to the comic fans who can call
out the suits by name. By the end of the movie, it didn’t have the presence of
a send-off.
The Dark Knight Returns
is far from a perfect movie, but even it knew how to handle Bruce Wayne and
Batman. And it reinforced its direction with an ending that properly served the
Batman legacy. Never at any point did this feel like finality for Iron Man.
I mostly liked Iron Man 3,
but it could have done much better. With Downey ,
Pearce, Kingsley and Paltrow, it certainly had actors up to the task. The
writing and story, though, never rise to the occasion. The film tells us:
“Failure is the fog from which we glimpse triumph.” And it’s right because
there, hazy in the fog of Iron Man 3’s
obtuseness, is the first Iron Man
showing us the greatness of Tony Stark.
