Iron Man 3: The Re(al) - view

The Mandarin: Ladies, children, sheep... Some people call me a terrorist. I consider myself a teacher. Lesson number one: Heroes, there is no such thing.

There has been a lot of disappointments for me this year, movie-wise that is; the usual suspects - Gangster Squad, G.I. Joe: Retaliation and the ridiculously disappointing, A Good Day to Die Hard. If not for Robert Downey. Jr,'s charismatic awesomeness, Iron Man 3 would have also made the cut with these huge waste of time; but it didn't (and that's a good thing for a film that has now grossed nearly $800 million at the box office!)

But what happened? The Iron Man franchise was set to make an awesome comeback (after the disaster that was called Iron Man 2) and the insanely awesome event titled - The Avengers; the posters and trailers were released, we saw the Mandarin, bickered about the identity of Iron Patriot, the Extremis virus and Pepper putting on the suit! What happened? ... I'll tell you, the plot happened. 

IM3 (Iron Man 3) started out beautifully, it was intriguing, we had a formidable foe (or we thought we did) in the Mandarin, an array of really cool suits - Mach XLII (42) and one particularly bad guy that doesn't just want to die! Stark's house is blown up, he (Stark) is presumed dead, Pepper is kidnapped ... even Happy (Jon Favreau) is hospitalised; you start to get the sense that the climax of the movie is going to be epic. Like that moment in The Avengers, where the flying-ship was attacked, the team was scattered, Agent Coulson dead and morale was low. Then, Manhattan, and epic battle begins! This is what we've become used to with comic movies, that moment where the hero stands up and gives it his all, like the first Iron Man movie; but no they just had to put in a stupid twist. 

Surprise! Mandarin's a fake, the real baddie is Aldrich Killian (portrayed by Guy Pearce) and he's not even a genuine bad guy, he's just looking for Stark's help to perfect his virus = LAME! If we wanted to see bad guys with good intentions, we'd stick to Spider Man; but this is the Tony Stark who took on Loki and a super alien army, misguided intentions don't make cool baddies here. This singular move turned the movie around (not for better), and every other thing here seemed thin. Guy Pearce's Killich is no Obadiah Stain (portrayed by Jeff Bridges in Iron Man 1). My problem with this film is that the villain is NOT worthy of the hero. Period!

Although, there was an over reliance on the new suit, Mach XLII, the special effects were really good and that scene where the people fell out of Air Force One - one word .... #respect.

Marvel, you did not do justice to Stark's arch-nemesis here; come up with a better story that features an actual Mandarin, and not a joke. As bad as it was, RDJ was still awesome, $50 million well spent!

Opened: May 03, 2013 Runtime: 2 hr. 10 min. Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci Fi Rated: 12A

Mandarin's Guard: [after Tony Stark incapacitates almost all Mandarin guards, the last one quickly surrenders] Don't shoot! Seriously, I don't even like working here. They are so weird!