Iron Man, the heaviest of the heavy metal Marvel superheroes, undergoes a transformation in the latest installment of the popular franchise. He’s less self-assured, anxiety ridden, but at least he still looks good in a suit—the giant iron suit that turns him from mortal to immortal hero.
In this installment the sins of Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr) past come back to haunt him. In a flashback to 1999 we meet a biochemist (Rebecca Hall) turned Stark one-night-stand and a meek scientist (Guy Pearce) who both feel the sting of the billionaire arms designer’s arrogance. Cut to years later. Stark is troubled by the recent battle in New York (see “The Avengers” movie) and is having trouble sleeping.
Meanwhile an Osama bin Laden wannabe named The Mandarin (Sir Ben Kingsley) is terrorizing the planet, promising a violent finale on Christmas Day. With just days to go the situation becomes personal for Stark when his girlfriend, Pepper (Gwenyth Paltrow), and longtime bodyguard Happy (Jon Favreau) are endangered by the madman.
This is a darker, talkier “Iron Man” than we’ve seen before. The thing that was so appealing in the first movie—RDJs quick wit and way with a line—had, over the course of a disappointing second movie, become tired and predictable, so writer-director Shane Black modified Stark’s behavior, stripping away some of (but not all) of Stark’s arrogance in favor of a dark character study that sees him on the verge of a breakdown.
“Iron Man 3” is still a huge action movie but between the big blow ‘em up scenes there’s more sturm and drang than usual for a big summer blockbuster. Downey handles Stark’s ups and downs well enough, although you get the feeling that the limitations of the form—tentpole summer flick—prevent him from pushing the envelope performance wise into as dark a place as he might have liked. Really exploring Stark’s turmoil might not sell as many tickets as Marvel needs to break even, but it would have been interesting to see Downey stretch his wings a bit more.
Stark is a troubled guy. Always has been in the comics, but he’s a troubled guy with a cool suit and that’s why we pay to see the “Iron Man” movies. So it’s a little hard to understand why he’s not in the suit more of the time. Imagine a Hulk movie where Bruce Banner doesn’t get angry and you get the idea. “Iron Man 1 & 2” took every opportunity to put Stark in the iron suit, while this movie takes every opportunity to take him out of the suit.
The hodge podge of hot button topics—terrorism, computer hacking, disabled war vets, ecological issues and even a “Downton Abbey” gag—push the story forward, but the core of the thing that makes these movies fun seems to have been pushed to the background.
Of course there are iron suits in the film, lots of them, they just don’t seem to fit as well as they once did.
SYNOPSIS: It’s May 3 and there’s a new Iron Man movie. That means it’s summer movie season and soon theatres will be filled with angry aliens, hungry zombies and giant sea monsters. I guessing there will also be some wild movie characters as well. It’s popcorn movie season and this week the Reel Guys have a look at what movies make them hot as the temperature rises.
Richard: Mark, summer movies leave me feeling conflicted. I’m always in the mood for with substance, so I’ll definitely line up to see Before Midnight, the third part of the Ethan Hawke-Julie Delpy relationship trilogy, but man, I there’s something about the hot weather that makes me want to watch things explode. To satisfy that basic need, Star Trek Into Darkness is high on my list. How about you?
Mark: Richard, there are two kinds of people: Star Trek people and Star Wars people. Unfortunately, I am neither. I am looking forward to the Superman reboot, Man Of Steel. Nothing says “popcorn movie” better than the granddaddy of all superheroes. I’m also looking forward to Wolverine. He’s the most complex and nuanced of all the X-Men characters and I enjoyed the first one even more than the rest of the X-Men series. By the way, I’m not a Before Midnight guy either. During the first two, I kept hoping both characters would fall into the Seine.
RC: How about zombies? I’m a big fan of The Walking Dead so I’m looking forward to World War Z filling the gap between seasons of the show. If brain-eating undeads aren’t your thing, however, how about some brain dead teen thieves? The Bling Ring is Sophia Coppola’s movie about real-life rich kids who used the internet to track the whereabouts of celebrities and then rob their homes. It’ll be the opposite of a gritty true crime story—one of the victims, Paris Hilton, even has a cameo—but fans of LA and Louboutins should find something to like here.
MB: Two good choices, Richard! I don’t even like zombie movies and I can’t wait for World War Z! Brad Pitt and millions of rotting ugly faces- the contrast alone will be high drama. And I like everything Sofia Coppola does And if we’re talking indie films, what about The Wonderful Now, a coming-of-age rom com that was a Sundance favorite this year? Or on a different note, Lovelace, the biopic of the Deep Throat star which asks the burning question: how badly does Amanda Seyfried want to change her image?
RC: After The Big Wedding Seyfried needs to shake things up a bit. I think the wildest movie of the summer might turn out to be Pacific Rim. Sea monsters versus robots? I’m in.
MB: I’m looking forward to a movie where there won’t be a single human to get in the way. Or there’s always the next Vin Diesel picture.
For someone who became famous playing Gandhi, one of the 20th century’s great pacifists, Ben Kingsley has certainly played his share of villains.
His latest character, The Mandarin in Iron Man 3, is one of the great comic book baddies. He’s Iron Man’s oldest foe, a scientific genius and an unbeatable martial artist, who draws his power from 10 finger rings he created using alien technology.
How bad is this guy? This bad: “Some people call me a terrorist. I consider myself a teacher,” he says. “Lesson number one: Heroes — there is no such thing.”
The filmmakers say Mandarin is partially based on Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now and another character Kingsley made famous.
In Sexy Beast, Kingsley played Don Logan, a vile English gangster who intimidates an old colleague into coming out of retirement for one last job. How bad is this guy? This bad: He starts a brawl on an airplane because he was asked to stub out a cigarette.
“I do know that Shane Black, our writer-director, loved Sexy Beast,” said Kingsley, “and was very influenced in his choice of me playing The Mandarin.”
Logan isn’t the only villain Kingsley has brought to life on the big screen, however.
In BloodRayne, the Oscar winner plays king of the vampires Kagan, a vicious character who must quell a rebellion led by his daughter. When asked why he would appear in a movie that ranked in Rotten Tomatoes’ list of the 100 worst reviewed films of the 2000s, he said, “I have always wanted to play a vampire, with the teeth and the long black cape. Let’s say that my motives were somewhat immature for doing it.”
As The Hood in Thunderbirds, Kingsley uses his mental powers — telekinesis and hypnosis — to take over the International Rescue headquarters. He took the role in the big screen treatment of the 1960s British children’s marionette show at the urging of his kids. “My son has a Thunderbirds alarm clock. That’s how big a fan he is of the TV series.”
He’s also played villains in War Inc, Prince of Persia and Oliver Twist and says, “as an actor, I have to push the word ‘villain’ right to the back of my mind and bring forward their distorted sense of righteousness and destiny. Because I think classic villains like The Mandarin have to have a profound sense of right.”
Iron Man, the heaviest of the heavy metal Marvel superheroes, undergoes a transformation in the latest installment of the popular franchise. He’s less self-assured, anxiety ridden, but at least he still looks good in a suit—the giant iron suit that turns him from mortal to immortal hero.
