Iron Man 3 – 2013…
First of all, let me say that all of the following falls
under the heading of IMHO (In My Humble Opinion), further, I do not claim to be
an expert on anything as far as movie reviews are concerned other than what I
like and what I don’t. I will further state
that I know that I am in the minority when I state…
Iron Man 3 was a disappointment.
While I have to say that I have not been a fan of the Iron
Man franchise from the beginning, sitting in the theater yesterday with my
wife, this latest installment didn’t do anything to make me want to see another
Iron Man film. I had high hopes and high
expectations for this film after watching the previews. I was really hoping that I would find
something in the film that would bring back the feelings I had as a young man
reading the comics. It wasn’t
there. So where did Iron Man go wrong?
I am not even sure where to start. The film opens by introducing a character
named Aldrich Killian, a scientist that has invented something that is supposed
to cure debilitating injuries. We then
learn that Tony Stark is suffering from anxiety attacks shortly after the
events of the Avengers movie and thanks to a lack of sleep, builds a small army
of Iron Man suits.
Now we switch to the Mandarin, a well-known nemesis of Iron
Man in the comics who is threatening to kill the President. The Mandarin’s minions attack and destroy
Starks house and Tony starts a quest to find and stop Mandarin. During this quest, Tony has to face the world
and improvise getting along without the benefit of his alter-ego. Upon finding the Mandarin, we learn that he
is an actor that has been hired by Killian to throw Stark and the authorities
off his trail.
The substance that Killian has invented does work, but has
the unfortunate side effect of turning some that use it into human bombs. Iron Man assisted by War Machine (ineptly
renamed Iron Patriot, one of many OMG moments), Pepper, and JARVIS, the last in
the form of a small army of Iron Man armor.
The President is saved, Killian is defeated, and Tony reunites with
Pepper. All of the suits are destroyed and
Iron Man is out of business (perhaps mercifully so). Tony returns to his wrecked mansion,
retrieves his robotic assistant and rides off into the sunset.
Following the closing credits is the best part of the entire
film as far as I am concerned. It would
appear that Tony was spilling his guts about this story to Dr. Bruce Banner,
who has fallen asleep during the telling, which sums up my reaction to this
film. Zzzzzzz…
So what is the problem?
Starting with the story, well maybe not the story as much as the
script. I just didn’t get a sense of
direction in the development of the story.
It seemed to me like a collection of disjointed and loosely related
scenes spliced together to try to make a story.
Along with that, Stark's dialog was, as it has been throughout the
franchise, an unending string of flippant wisecracks that do nothing to advance
the story. Now I don’t mind some humor
in a film, but really, give the main character something that has substance.
For me, this story was full of holes that one could fly a shuttle through.
Another problem I had was with the development of Stark’s
main adversary, Killian. I will forgive
that they took the Mandarin and turned him into a paper tiger, even though he
was one of Iron Man’s most deadly enemies in the comics. But Killian was a character with no depth and
too little back story to fully understand what his problem was.
I am wondering what the appeal of this film is. I can only think that audiences are being
dazzled by the CGI and SFX which are well done, but that is all that I found
well done.
Today, I took the opportunity to poll some of the students I
teach. Many of them did indeed see Iron
Man 3 and the reviews from them were mixed.
Amongst the junior high kids, it was a huge hit, however my high schoolers
and true Sci-Fi aficionados and comic fans, they pretty well mirrored my feelings.
This is a high grossing film that is getting rave reviews,
but I cannot see it. By my estimation,
this film does not live up to all of the hype.
I am planning to buy this film on BluRay, but only after it hits the $5
bin at Wal-Mart.
Edward of Planet Earth News…
On the way home from school today, I listened to an
outstanding interview with Edward of Planet Earth author, and friend Nick
Eftimiades. It is a 20 minute spot on
The Science Fiction Show podcast. Listen
to Nick talk about Edward and how it came to be, then go to Amazon.com and
download the book. Click here to read my
review of this outstanding book endorsed by Bill Nye and Buzz Aldrin click
HERE.
Well, there it is…
Q’aplaH!
No comments:
Post a Comment