Iron Man 3 (2013)

Summary

Forced out of his comfort zone, a shell-shocked Tony Stark has to use his wits to battle nemesis Mandarin and an old rival who controls a deadly virus.

Director

Shane Black

Downey Factor

High.

Character

Tony Stark, the wealthy womanizing badass with a metal robot suit.

Looks

Typical Stark.

Performance

Coasting a little, but more raw and less smug than past Tony Stark outings.

Line

"A cheap trick and a cheesy one-liner" could be the name of my autobiography.

Love & Sex

He's still committed to Pepper Potts (Gwyneth), a fling with Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall) appears in a flashback.

Dies, Gay or Villain

Not so much.

Cast

Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Ben Kingsley, Guy Pearce, Jon Favreau, Rebecca Hall, Ashley Hamilton

Connection

Shane Black's Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

Jon Favreau in Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Chef, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Avengers: Endgame.

Gwyneth Paltrow in Iron Man, Iron Man 2, The Avengers, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

Don Cheadle in Iron Man 2, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

Mark Ruffalo in Zodiac, The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

Paul Bettany in Iron Man, Iron Man 2, The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

Stan Lee in Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War.

Ty Simpkins in Avengers: Endgame.

RDJ Says

It's probably the best script I've read in 5 years, which is so funny, things have come so full-circle that a genre superhero movie can actually be the most artistic bit of writing I read ... The third Iron Man is an opportunity to me to go back to the kind of storytelling that made the first one so good ... We're not really going to China. I assume that when the plates crew goes over to film plates in China while I'm by my swimming pool, it will go well. We made a deal. We are setting many aspects of the film in China but we won't all be going there to shoot ... I was doing a wire jump, and Shane Black, who I adore, came on and said, "We're going to try to get this before lunch." I'd been sitting around all morning, and I got up and I put on my boots and walked out, and put on the wire and said, "Jump to there?" We were in North Carolina and there were these stairs that I had to get up to get up to the floor where the bedrooms were and I busted my ankle. For some reason or other I took off the boot, whatever I did, I got to the top of the stairs and I tripped, and kind of and banged it on something and hit the ground. Right then, Susan came around the corner, she goes, "All right. Are you finally going to accept the fact that you're injured and that you're not a kid? Just look at you on the floor there. Look at you!" And she kind of kept walking through the kitchen and I was just lying there on my side, and it is just throbbing and I just started laughing. I was like, Jesus Christ. Why is it always that you realize things when you're lying there, resplendent on a wood floor, writhing in pain?

Lit Reference

The Extremis series of Marvel's Iron Man comics.

Time & Place

Modern day California, Tennessee and Miami.

Gossip

Robert Downey Jr injured his ankle during filming causing a slight delay, but the studio gave him a tricked out golf cart to get around the set more easily.

Availability

Released in theaters 3 May 2013. Available on DVD and Blu-Ray everywhere.

Foreign Titles

Brazil: Homem de Ferro 3 (Man of Iron 3)
Estonia: Raudmees 3 (Iron Man 3)
Hungary: A Vasember 3 (Iron Man 3)
Lithuania: Gelezinis Zmogus 3 (Iron Man 3)
Romania: Iron Man: Omul de otel 3 (Iron Man 3)
Vietnam: Nguoi Sat 3 (Iron Man 3)

Rotten Tomatoes

78% Fresh | 247 reviews

Critical View

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Robert Downey Jr. plays the existential angst the way he plays all of Tony's feelings in Iron Man 3, with a glib, whip—crack off—handedness that would have been at home in a 1940s screwball comedy.

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Downey doesn't condescend to the superhero genre. Instead, he tries to raise the proceedings to his own arch, intelligent level. You sense his characters possess experience in life, not just comic-book derring-do. Like the actor playing him, Tony Stark has the slightly singed air of a man who has seen too much.

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Iron Man 3 is mostly liberated from the market-tested three-act structure that hobbles too many comic-book films. This one feels like a deep-dish middle installment that strands Stark without any protection.

Does It Hold Up

That depends on how much you're really into comics and the whole MCU. Honestly, the less you care about comic book Iron Man, the more you will enjoy this movie.

2 Reasons to See It

1. This is the closest thing you're ever going to get to a Kiss Kiss Bang Bang sequel.
2. Peer pressure. You could end up the only person alive who hasn't seen it.

Overall

The darkest Iron Man movie, it benefits from Shane Black's humor and a stripped-down Tony Stark, but still feels like a big blockbuster.

If You Like It

You might also like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005), Iron Man (2008)

Photos

Video