Iron Man
Opens Friday at Dunbar and Scotiabank
Its telling that the poster for Iron Man 3 is the first of the franchise not to feature the iconic mask: the man wears the suit, and not the other way around.
Thats the message to be gleaned from the latest Tony Stark film, with writer-director Shane Black at the helm (with Jon Favreau taking an executive producer credit). Black made his mark with such big 80s action films as Lethal Weapon and Last Action Hero, but has largely been MIA since 2005s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, also starring Robert Downey Jr.
Black packs tons of firepower and a few retro action faces into the 130-minute run time but manages to keep Starks humanity front and centre. Unlike Iron Man 2, which was saddled with allusions to the upcoming Avengers movie, IM3 makes only a few references to aliens and wormholes, and never feels like a deliberate set-up for the sequel.
Of course, there is one souvenir from the Avengers time in New York: Starks anxiety attacks, which pop up every time he takes his mind off his work. Nothings been the same since New York, Stark finally confides to girlfriend Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). Im just a man in a can.
This is a welcome chink in Iron Mans smarmy veneer.
The jury is still out on how Marvel purists will welcome Disneys take on the Mandarin, a villain who is not all that he seems, and is a far departure from the Chinese national in the comic book series. Here the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) delivers a little bit of everything: cyber-crime, live executions, and large-scale bomb attacks, but is often played for laughs, even potty humour.
Stark offers his help in dealing with the Osama bin Laden lookalike but is told to leave it up to the U.S. government. It becomes personal when Starks old pal/bodyguard Happy (Favreau) is injured in one of the blasts. Its not advisable for a superhero to give out his home address on live TV, but thats what he does, inviting the Mandarin for a chit-chat.
Meanwhile, we are reminded that it all stems from a 1999 New Years Eve science conference in Bern, when all we really needed to worry about was a Y2K attack. There Stark brushed off the business plan of an overeager Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), leaving him waiting on the rooftop as he bedded a sexy botanist in his hotel suite. Rebecca Hall is Maya Hanson, a welcome presence as Starks one-night-stand. Hard to believe that keeping someone waiting (Killian) and a roll in the hay (Maya) is motivation enough for both characters to race to the dark side, but such is Tony Starks magnetic power.
Col. Rhodes (Don Cheadle, cheated out of any real screen time) is back, suited up as the Iron Patriot, recently renamed and painted red, white and blue. William Sadler (Die Hard 2!) plays the president; Miguel Ferrer (Robocop!) is the vice-president. However the villains here arent nations but corporations, reflecting the present-day collective discontent of the 99 per cent.
The science is a little murky in places, involving thermogenic currencies and a limb-replacement technology that features the side effect of turning its patients into human bombs. But the explosions are fantastic.
And the Iron Man suits get tweaked: the trailer makes no secret of the fact that Stark creates a mini army during his bouts of insomnia, and the film features a cool new way for him to suit up remotely, with some humourous results. I have mixed feelings about Pepper wearing the Iron Man suit. Nice to see her out of stilettos, but only a few minutes earlier Stark told someone else that the suit was only calibrated for him.
No matter: Ever since that guy with the big hammer fell out of the sky, subtlety has had its day. By now we know to keep our eye out for Marvel papa Stan Lee, and to wait for the trademark bonus scene after the credits roll. Filmmakers have done the remarkable with an over-stuffed genre: made us wanting more.
reviewed by Julie Crawford
