★★★★☆
Now I am reviewing the beginning of Marvel's Phase two:Iron man 3 starring Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow,Rebecca Hall,Ben Kingsely,Guy Pearce,James Badge Dale,Stan Lee,Don Cheadle,Mark Ruffalo, Stephanie Szostak,Jon Favreau,Ty Simpkins,William Sadler,Paul Bettany and Shaun Toub,Directed by Shane Black,Score composed and conducted by Brian Tyler,Based on Extremis by Warren Ellis and Adi Granov,Screenplay by Drew Pearce and Shane Black,Based on Iron man by Stan Lee,Jerry Siegel,Jack Kirby and Don Heck
The film begins with these simple words:"We make our own demons,"Now whose saying this? Billionaire playboy Tony Stark. Now the beginning does prelude to the tone of the whole film as we see Stark before he was 'Iron man' in 1999 Switzerland. Now as we see Stark is the same old drunk rich spoilt billionaire we all saw in the 2008 original that started it all and one slightly freaks me out is:You know that this has been filmed after the 2008 one yet in 2008 original Killain and Hansen as seen in these scenes did not get a single mention in the dialogue of the 2008 orginal. It's weird and a strange thing to think but in a way I'm right:It does not feel like before the 2008 one. Now we see Rebecca Hall as Maya Hansen. Now her performance. I haven't seen Hall in anything else before and her performance is mediocre,not as good as Paltrow's acting but she tries her hardest at an American accent and fitting into character but she doesn't exactly fit...Now when you first see Killian you are surprised:He's this Parker/Banner-esque type figure looking like a buck toothed rabbit with uncut hair but in these scenes his performance is a good show,he overacts in every movement and so but his acting does improve as we continue. Now firstly I have not read the original Extremis comic by Warren Ellis and co so I do not know any spoilers or the origin of these characters and I can't compare them either to their comic-book counterparts which is a good thing because this is only an adaptation of Extremis so it can't be exactly like the comic book. Hansen is at the early stages at making Extremis. So this Extremis:So you can hack into your body and be a super soldier rewrite every code in your body. Firstly this in the middle of being convoluted and being realistic. The idea is a little bit crazy but the way it is executed is in a realistic way. Now Favreau. He does great comic timing acts like a bumbling assistant and makes you believe that this guy was not the director of Cowboys and Aliens. Now his performance is one of the better performances even if he is a small,underused character. Now as we see Extremis is not near the edges of completion and we switch...
To Present day and we see Stark 'tinkering'he calls it. Now this coolest thing probably about this scene is the way the armour jumps onto him immediately with his only his gestures. The CGI is mediocre in this sequence a little Gi.Joe like but still not as good as it should be. Downey is in character swinging his hands about as if he doesn't care. It's a fun performance guaranteed for a few laughs as his suit completely goes into the wrong direction. Bettany as JARVIS is as good as Downey even if you can't see him. Charismatic,slightly rebellious in a way but still is good for the voice of a computer. Now we get introduced to Ben Kingsely's Mandarin. I have seen Kingsley in Prince of Persia and that's all even know I know him from stage acting and so on. Now in this form of the Mandarin he's the perfect villainous companion giving a dark voice to the audience keeping his threat throughout his TV appearances. As we see Mandarin is blowing up bases threatening the President of the USA and so. Now this is a little thing I would just like to say:Why were they're no ties even in later scenes to the capture of Stark and the creation of Iron man?This was the organisation The Ten rings that brought Tony in and made him who he was and wouldn't they at least be fearful of the US in some way. Now the Iron Patriot. Don Cheadle knowing him for the last film and cheesy Hotel for Dogs has done a great performance. It feels more like a buddy cop feature when Rhodes and Tony are joining together as Don fits into character without a problem. Now Patriot:Originally this was Norman Osborn/Green Goblin's armour in the comics and I think he would of suited but Columbia have the rights to Spiderman. Patriot is cool,Cheadle keeping the spirit of Rhodes Patriotic nature. As Rhodes and Tony talk in the bar Stark gets an anxiety attack. It's a surprise because Stark over the last two movies has none of these problems and he has to jump into the suit. He has this dangerously,rapidly growing obsession with the armors and he can't control it...
We switch to Happy Hogan and Pepper visiting Aldrich. Lost the buck teeth,got a haircut and a facial job and he turns into the charming prodgey of Tony Stark. Pearce perfectly captures this and gives it his all into the performance as Hogan a little bit too cautious is talking to Stark while recording the situation. Pearce is full of self sustaining charm and giving it everything although it does get a little bit annoying as we go along. Pepper returns home and gets the weirdest but most humorous present I have ever seen on the big screen:A giant bunny. As Pepper and 'Tony' get all romantic then it comes like a shockwave: Stark is still a cautious playboy not even being with his lover. As we see the reason to all this:New York. I can understand his attacks and his cautioness even though it's not exactly relatable:He's been in an alien portal near death in a frightful rush and how would you feel?You almost died in an alien portal not parting with your loved ones and the ones you care about. As Hogan suspects of Eric Savin played by TV star James Badge Dale we see that the suspicions of Hogan were right:We see Extremis react and a rocketing explosion Hogan near death. Then we see another television broadcast of the Mandarin saying that he planned the attack. Then Stark becomes even more reckless:He has the guts,the courage to reveal his home address and then Hansen appears:Hall's acting hasn't considerably got better or improved. The Mandarin attack on Malibu point comes:An exciting sequence as we see Pepper have her own suit. Pepper does so much more in this film feeling nothing like an awkward love interest neither a doom of Stark. As Pepper saves Hansen and Stark is brought down with the house Stark is homeless stuck in Tenesse. The suit everything. He's lost everything,Pepper and Hansen.
Stark sets his armour in a garage and we meet his 'Robin'Ty Simpkins a kid. Ty has an enthusiastic approach to his character and he is really enjoyable character,sparking off chemistry with Downey. As we see his mother we see another Extremis experiment that is Ellen Brandt. She is a smack down girl trying to shoot off Stark's head with any gun she can and she dies in the most explosive way. As we see Savin threaten Ty we see the humour grow and grow. As Mandarin kills a chief executive Stark looks at the file of Ty's character Harley's brother Chad's death. As we see the President send Rhodes to find the Mandarin Stark and him have a chat and a not overly serious one. Stark is like "What's your log in?" "I change it every time because you hack it all the time," "This isn't the 1980's we don't say hack."Then the password "Password?" "War machine rocks X."The humour Black and Pearce bring to the film is smart and witty as it continues with a hack into A.I.M's services and a meeting with his biggest fan. The fan has his hair shaped in Tony's style a tattoo of a doll he made of Tony and then the serious stuff. Extremis does feel like an immediate threat with the insides of the experiments burning and how you see the humans burn is quite disturbing. Then we switch to Hansen and Pepper as Aldrich captures Pepper and Hansen betrays the couple. As Rhodes is taken captive by an Extremis soldier and Tony captured we get a flash of surprises. Firstly the film so far is very enjoyable,recommendable but let's see how we get on. Pearce is sublimely evil and devilish as we see that Killian has took Pepper captive and injected her with Extremis. As we see Aldrich kill Hansen. Now I did expect Hansen to live on throughout the film as she is quite important to Tony and would of brought more to Killian's plan but he just doesn't care. Now what if this would of happened risky but a little bit more daring: What if Stark killed Hansen with Killian at the same time and we see Stark broken and he's out of character.
As we see Stark survive and escape we meet the biggest twist of the film. Now this twist is a Shane Black twist. Dark humour but also funny,witty humour. Kingsley's performance as this character perfectly fits and he just acts like the drunken guy he should be but I was slightly dissapointed as Mandarin was hyped as a threatening terrorist As Savin becomes Iron Patriot and captures we get the barrel of monkeys live action sequence and it's fun and Black injects the Lethal Weapon buddy cop thing with the duo and then we get are final action sequence. As we see Killian use his Extremis abilities and the Extremis experiments we get the biggest awesomest part of the whole film:An army of Iron men and Hulkbuster. It's amazing and the battle is engaging and not filled with explosions. As Killian and Stark clash and we see Killian drive Stark to the edge we now see Pepper beat Killian up in style. Pepper does so much more which I like and I feel throughout the film. We see Killian die and we see a change of Heart:His toys and tinkering days are done and we see that Iron man is still his ego but not his life and then stay tuned for an easter egg at the end...
Stay tuned for an Easter egg with Bruce Banner and Stark talking and it's near the end of the credits so it is a long wait. So Iron man 3 is a good worth it enjoyable film but it's not perfect and even though the it's an improvement on the last two the film relies too much on humour for example the 'twist' and the second half is. So Iron man 3 gets 4.5 stars because of it's charm and wit of the first,the roaring,bombastic action but it's inconsistency,trickery and my slight dissapointment in the twist with a number of other flaws and unoriginal twists with a dissapoiting ending before the Easter Egg this is only a half away of getting a full 5 stars being one of the better third films I've seen in a trilogy so far but Iron man 3 is still worth seeing for a fun night out.
Iron man 3 is in cinemas now everywhere