Iron Man Collection

Robert Downey Jr.

Gwyneth Paltrow

Don Cheadle

Guy Pearce

Rebecca Hall

Jon Favreau

Ben Kingsley

James Badge Dale

Stephanie Szostak

Paul Bettany

William Sadler

Dale Dickey

Ty Simpkins

Miguel Ferrer

Wang Xueqi

Shaun Toub

Matthew Sterling Nye

Pat Kiernan

Josh Elliott

Megan Henderson

Thomas Roberts

Bill Maher

Joan Rivers

George Kotsiopoulos

Bronte D'Esposito

Noah Visconti

Ashley Hamilton

Brooke Jaye Taylor

Kim Holderness

Glenn Foster

Anthony Reynolds

Kendrick Cross

Tom Clark

Brian Schaeffer

John Eddins

Spencer Garrett

Rockey Dickey Jr.

Drew Michael Hershner

Sarah Burkhardt

Jan Broberg

Andrew Lauer

Nate Bynum

Andrew Lander

Tom Virtue

Roy McCrerey

Serdar Kalsin

Demetrois Hodges

Bobby Tisdale

Yvonne Zima

Stan Lee

Adam Pally

James Rackley

Cullen Moss

Jake De Witt

Rebecca Mader

Kevin Arnold

Juan C. Bofill

David Anthony Buglione

Adam Lytle

Paul O'Connor

Phil Ortiz

Gwendalyn Barker

Steve Wilder

Luciana Faulhaber

Kary Musa

Mike Massa

Mark Kubr

Si-Fu Eric Oram

Naomi Parshin

Aurelia Riley

Johanna Yunda

Wesley Thompson

Jenna Ortega

Toochukwu T.C. Anyachonkeya

Chad Kurtz

Cal Johnson

Corey Hawkins

Linden Ashby

Sarah Farooqui

Sala Baker

Kial Butler

Nick Brandon

Dan Brown

Fernando Chien

Ilram Choi

Brycen Counts

Kiante Elam

Dane Farwell

Mark Fichera

Colin Follenweider

Aja Frary

Mark Ginther

Adrian Gonzalez

Dennis Keiffer

Samuel Le

Tara Macken

William Morts

Jade Quon

J. C. Robaina

Markos Rounthwaite

Lars P. Winther

Dave Jordan

Mark G. Soper

Mitchell Bell

JoAnn Perritano

Dan DeLeeuw

Mike Prestwood Smith

Brian Relyea

Charlie Wen

Ryan Meinerding

Brian Smrz

Alan Hook

Jason Bistarkey

Brian Stultz

Mark P. Stoeckinger

Michael Keller

Jay Pelissier

Desma Murphy

Louise Frogley

Stephen Broussard

Shane Black

John Byrne

Victoria Alonso

Sarah Halley Finn

Charles Newirth

Bing Wu

Bill Brzeski

Brian Tyler

Alan Fine

Drew Pearce

Louis D'Esposito

John Toll

Kevin Feige

Danielle Berman

Wenge Xiao

Kevin L. Jackson

Jennifer Badger

Alicia Vela-Bailey

Peter S. Elliot

Jeffrey Ford

Nathaniel Caauwe

Zack Duhame

Daniel Fotheringham

Guy Williams

Luke Kalteux

Jack Kirby

Warren Ellis

Don Heck

David Michelinie

Joss Whedon

Kev Hopgood

Jeremy Latcham

Larry Lieber

Adi Granov

Bob Layton

Len Kaminski

Lisa Marra

Lou Pecora

Dan Mintz

Shauna Duggins

Zoë Bell

Christopher Townsend

Erik Nash

Aaron Walker

Kim Ronstadt

Bob Merrick

Ben Stolte

Alex Mechanik

Mimi N. McGreal

Lexi Lefkowitz

Nicholas J. Gray

Joseph Dizon

Megan Willis

Jaime Rosegren

William Newirth

Todd M. Hofacker

Julie Ann Grasso

Kaitlin Ward

Richard D Wallace

Jason Sugars

Jimmy Rich

Kari King

Alexis Strobin

Rachael Peterson

John Merchant

Kim Breece

Loni Sykes

Mara Kerum

Evan McMillan

Joe Byrum

Aaron Steven

Ryan J. Pezdirc

Courtney McKeon

Action

Adventure

Science Fiction

Iron Man 3

Marvel Studios

United States of America

There can be many reasons why the original director of a franchise may decide not to return for a sequel, though they all usually have in common that they're very Hollywood-politically-correct. So exactly why Jon Favreau decided not to helm the third instalment of what is, for all intents and purposes, 'his baby' Iron Man, I can't be sure. But I can tell you one thing: something definitely changed.

Everything about IM3 feels different from its predecessors. The atmosphere is darker, which is not to say it's really just a lot less humorous (which is – let's be honest – precisely what we love about Iron Man). The new characters are terribly underdeveloped and overall it's just a great deal less interesting. The storyline was completely vague to me; I'm still not really sure what the whole point of it was. And probably the biggest flaw of all – the first two films had really cool, interesting villains. This one's just really quite weird and not charismatic at all. Possibly at the core of the problem is the fact that it wasn't just one bad guy, it was many. The leading roles are shared by Guy Pearce and Sir Ben Kingsley, and – big shock – it was the latter who disappointed me the most. Not only was his role quite small, I thought it was also incredibly lame. I'd love to explain to you why, but that would be a major spoiler. I noticed some people in the audience laughing at the plot twist of Kingsley's character, but I thought it was just completely stupid and weak, and a total waste of such a great actor. Pearce is not bad, but never really manages to elevate his villain to a higher level, largely because he had zero character development to work with. Same thing with Rebecca Hall. Or the rest of Pearce's cronies for that matter... Too many to count. Sigh.

Well, at least we still have Robert Downey Jr. He's as reliable as ever when it comes to carrying a film, but even he can't help it that his character is almost boring in this one. Where's the humour!? Where's the cynicism we all know and love?! Where's Tony bloody Stark! This is not the familiar overconfident, pompous macho we adore. All of a sudden, and for NO apparent reason whatsoever, this guy is insecure and suffering from anxiety attacks! What the F! Not to mention the fact that his superhero alter ego is almost completely absent for half of the film, because he's off somewhere in the middle of Tennessee finding himself or whatever... I mean, geez... I know the director left, but didn't any of the screenwriters return either? The fact that Pepper Potts had only about two minutes of relevant screen time also certainly didn't help. And when she was there, she was humourless and annoying. Big sigh.

The more I think about it, the more I'm having a hard time trying to think of good things to say about this film. At least the visual effects were solid, and the sound effects were awesome.

This was actually the first time I've seen a film in 3D. I've always avoided it because I was sure that it would be a complete distraction from the story. Turns out I was right in my assumption. I found it hard to focus on what was really going on, and this might have definitely been an influence in trying to follow the plot, so there's a big chance I missed a few things. Nevertheless, I can't help being very disappointed with Iron Man 3, especially since I love the first two so much.

This is definitely a filmmakers' case of "could've, would've, should've". They obviously tried very hard, but never quite manage to get there.

No story, no interesting characters, no filler. Nothing. Too bad.
_(June 2013)_