Overall impression of Iron Man 3
Well, I took the opportunity to see IM3 last night! At 9:00 pm! At my local theater, if you wanted to see a movie that opens Friday, the earliest you could catch it was Thur. night/(technically) 12:01 am Fri morning. But in recent months if a movie opens Fri, they have first showings of it the night before as early as 9 pm, so I got a jump on it!
I don't know if that's becoming the trend, or if only select chains can get away with it, but it felt nice to catch an earliest premier, and still have lots of time to hang out with friends after words, not dreading the next morning.
After some cool trailers (Thor, Star Trek, Wolverine), and otherwise, the anticipation was met. These days I don't set expectations in the stratosphere, I figure I should let the chips fall where they may, and see what Gold is left in the pan, after sifting through the sand.
Did I like it? Yes! Was it entertaining? Certainly, but not after it took some time to get some traction. Like 2/5, to half way through it.
Do I think others will enjoy it, oh Yeah, most likely! But if you're like me, you may watch it wondering about a third of the way into it, where the breezy spirit of the first two is hiding, and if the villain is going to prove to be formidable, or more importantly memorable at all. Hang in there, once it finds it's stride it's a lot of fun.
To preface, here's my take on the predecessors. I went to the premiere of the first Iron Man, hoping for an entertaining action flick based one of the super heroes I cared about most outside of the usual heavies, such as Batman, Spider Man, etc. But I knew they could screw it up, like they kinda do with other second-tier sup movies such as Daredevil, and such.
We know how that played out! Fear's were allayed and Iron Man was fun, captivating, wide-eyed wonder!
Iron Man 2, like most sequels doesn't quite have the freshness or magic of the first one. But it comes rather close, and is perhaps underrated by many. Although flawed (not enough threat from the main villain, least till the end), it has great fun with the dynamics between character's old and new. And handles the burden of giving known characters greater depth, and lynch pinning the on the horizon, impending Avengers movie with relative ease. I just love the wry, self aware humor this movie delivers. And the humbling/self-deprecating Tony inflicts/endures!
*Warning Potential Spoiler Alert! Not that the beginning wasn't enjoyable to see characters we've grown to know and love having moving towards another adventure, and it definitely trumps Iron Man 2 in action dept. early enough. But the comedic zing, and spryness present in the first 2 movies feels vacated for awhile.
But my biggest complaint in the first half was that the proposed villain Mandarin (played by the great Sir Ben Kingsley, no less), early on, felt both generic and rather dull. And as the threat level, and the number of assailants going after Tony, grew, I was feeling like Mandarin's minions were only a slight variation on the countless generic vampire/zombies we've been seeing in movies like the "Fright Night" remake, Land of the Lost of the Dead, etc.
And what is with the Mandarin's voice?!?! Not an expert on his origins, by any stretch, but I'm pretty sure he's not supposed to sound like a cross between Dabney Coleman, Walter Cronkite, and a drunk Native American! Hang in there faithful watchers, all in good time.
The enjoyable moments will be quite obvious, and by credits roll (stay through the credits, well duh), I suspect you'll have gotten your money's worth! And quite possibly your mind's blown!
I want to reveal as little as possible, but I have to say, I about lost it, when after certain characters became more familiarized, I compared a certain villain , to a certain rocker(who will remain nameless), only to hear Tony Stark deprecatingly make the same observation. My friend's laughed because, I told them twice, before Stark said the same thing.
BTW, if 3D doesn't look fuzzy to you, or make you sick, by all means, see it in 3D! It has some of this mediums greatest uses! In particular, one involving airline passengers!
I personally still love the first Iron Man best (besides, Jeff Bridges is the coolest ever).
But this one shapes up (IMHO) to be at least as good and possibly better than IM2, which I also enjoy. And it succeeds in doing what any 3rd chapter should do, and that's be EPIC!! And depending on which camp you fall in, you may find you like it best of all!
Now there's only one thing left to do. Go see it again, on a bigger screen this time!