English (U/A) ***
Director: Shane Black
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow,
Ben Kingsley, Guy Pearce
When Hollywood seizes upon a franchise idea, it clamps down tight like a skinflint lawyer shaking down clients. Obviously, the root of this equation is money. Large quantities of money. Enough to keep an impoverished African country in curry for a year.
In the seventies, Hollywood had its great shakedown in disaster films, starting with such colourful titles as The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure. Eventually, audiences tired and moved on. So did Hollywood, which returned to conventional story-telling. But in the last decade or so, California-tanned film executives, eager for their next big hit, seized upon the super-hero franchise. In doing so, they seemingly found a winning formula that continues to give with each sequel — Because what greater American story can be told in a post 9/11 world than the cartooned epics of All-American heroes vanquishing enemies both foreign and domestic?
In Iron Man 3, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) is back. His sprawling Malibu oceanside mansion is no longer the bachelor’s pad it once was. Long-time flame, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), has moved in, but not everything is peaceful under the gilded roof of their multi-million dollar home. Stark continues to be obsessed with Iron Man and when Potts is visited by a love interest from the past, Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), her misgivings about Tony’s commitment to their relationship reaches fiery new heights.
Of graver concern are a series of mysterious terror bombings across the US which have left the authorities and the nation baffled. The bombs are heralded by the rise of The Mandarin, an enigmatic Arab terror mastermind who makes Bin Laden look like Bambi. The Mandarin (brilliantly played by Ben Kingsley), has a personal bone to pick with the White House and President Sal Kennedy — a whiny, hapless man who prefers to believe that he does not have the vast intelligence apparatus of the CIA, the NSA and the FBI at his fingertips. Aiding the Mandarin’s cause is Killian, once a toothy, bespectacled nerd, who harbours his own grudge against Stark simply because he was snubbed at a party thirteen years ago. To think all this latent anger could have been avoided by simply giving this jerk what he obviously needed the most — a hug. But that is not the stuff of good story-telling.
Iron Man 3 is ultimately a film about escape. It offers audiences a glimpse of a lifestyle perhaps only enjoyed in a make-believe universe which contains inter-dimensional aliens, men capable of building rocket suits in their basements, people with supernatural powers, and the central idea that the world can really be broken down into two sides, black and white, good and evil. Americana versus everything else, corruption, wickedness and the hatred of freedom.
Like any great franchise, Iron Man 3 is an improvement — stylistically — over its predecessors. You could take your kids to watch this one, and as sheer mindless entertainment, it deserves every accolade. Just don’t expect to come away with a moralistic message or added insight after watching this two-hour romp.