'Iron Man 3' --A Review

Iron Man 3 kicks off the highly anticipated Phase 2 of the Marvel Universe with a blast!  We find our hero, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) haunted by the events of The Avengers, unable to sleep, constantly tinkering and building scores of new Iron Man suits.  His relationship with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) is strained and his friend Colonel Rhodes (Don Cheadle) has upgraded and rebranded the War Machine to become the Iron Patriot.

When a new, sinister terrorist threat named The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) emerges and Stark's old bodyguard Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) gets caught up in one of his attacks, Stark naturally challenges The Mandarin to come at him and face him like a man.  When The Mandarin takes him up on his invitation and attacks and destroys  his house, Stark finds himself operating without all the high tech comforts of home, without a net in the wilds of Tennessee of all places, where he picks up a kid sidekick by the name of Harley (which could have been unbearable but turns out to be awesome, largely because Tony Stark doesn't condescend to the kid which I found to be completely in keeping with his character) as he tries to hunt down the secrets of the Mandarin and hoping to stop the next attack and wondering if a sinister face from his past, a fellow scientist by the name of Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) might know more about The Mandarin than he appears to.

I was excited when I heard that Shane Black was directing this movie and having seen it, I'd say it was inspired choice overall.   Black isn't interested in keep the characters locked in stasis- he wants to push the characters and get them out of their comfort zone a little bit, which is why Stark spends a lot of the movie operating without a suit.   Once Tony Stark is forced to operate outside the high tech comforts of his super mansion in Malibu it takes Iron Man to some very interesting places.  Is Tony Stark Iron Man?  Does the suit make him Iron Man?  Do his injuries make him Iron Man?  What makes Iron Man, Iron Man?

The movie is full of Shane Black touches--  it's Christmas, there's a climactic, amazing action set piece at the end of the film that, apart from the flying Iron Man suits and super powered villains could have easily taken place at the end of a Lethal Weapon movie.   His trademark snappy dialogue practically sings coming out of the mouth of Robert Downey Jr.   And more than anything, I think Black leaves the character in a very interesting place at the end of this movie.   Downey hasn't signed to come back the second Avengers movie yet- he's no longer under contract to Marvel so his future with the Iron Man  franchise is an open question right now.  (My gut instinct says he will probably come back for a second go round with The Avengers--  more Iron Man movies is iffier.  Which means Marvel will have to find out if they can James Bond the Iron Man franchise with a new actor- which could be very interesting indeed.)

Overall:  Smart writing and awesome acting combine to make this the best Iron Man movie yet.  What I think is an especially brilliant touch is that this movie leaves the viewer with all kinds of interesting possibilities-  the characters have evolved, the game has changed and the doors have been opened.  You're left with the sensation that the possibilities are endless and interesting not only for the future of the Iron Man franchise but for the rest of Marvel's Phase 2 as well.   Bring on Thor: The Dark World!  My Verdict: **** out ****