After the record breaking film that was The Avengers, there was definitely a lot of pressure on Iron Man 3. It would be the first film in the next wave of Marvel films that would come out before Avengers 2. Not to mention that the 2nd Iron Man film’s reception hadn’t been quite as good as the 1st.

The plot for the Iron Man 3 film was loosely based off of the Extremis storyline from the comics. The movie is drastically different from the comics with the only similarities being the Extremis serum and some of the character names. Dr. Aldrich Killian gets a decently large role in this film and we can’t forget about the Mandarin. One thing about the plot is that it does drag on for a while. The intro featured Tony Stark in the past, but was pretty boring and a whole third of the film had almost no point (Snow scenes where he meets a kid) If the film had cut out a good 30-40 minutes, it probably would have helped the pacing a lot. The interaction between the characters is definitely the weakest in the trilogy and you’re going to find yourself waiting for an action scene to pop up. Not to mention that there isn’t really a character that you can find yourself rooting for. Tony Stark is fun to watch during certain scenes, but others make you dislike him.

Pepper Potts and Rhodey get to appear in the film with very different roles. Rhodey looks pretty awful the whole time and his scenes definitely keep up the whole “War Machine always loses” trend. The way he lost made him look like a complete amateur and while they attempt to cover it up by giving him great aim with a gun, it just wasn’t enough. Pepper Potts is mostly just there for most of the film, but her role gets better during the climax. Definitely the best that she’s looked in the trilogy. Happy Hogan gets a bit of a role, but he’s pretty outmatched the entire time and he was only okay. He definitely could have handled things a bit better, but he was a lot better than in the first two films.

Tony Stark is portrayed as an inexperienced hero in this film. He’s technically a genius, but he doesn’t show it that much as he underestimates his opponents. He threatens the Mandarin on live TV and even tells the guy where he lives. It was Definitely a good thing to do and I’m glad that Stark made the right move, but the rest of his plan was pretty awful. Not only did he fail to evacuate his home, but he took the time to test out a suit that didn’t have any combat capabilities at the time. His home also didn’t have any security around it, so it was a walk in the park for enemies to come in and wreck the place.

The plot hits its low point when Iron Man goes to a snowy area and meets up with a kid. You don’t need to remember his name because the actual character doesn’t have much of a purpose in the film. Tony Stark keeps having stress attacks and it makes for a very bad subplot. Tony is not the kind of character who would let the near death experience (In the end of the Avengers movie) traumatize him like that. I really don’t think it would happen and he later gets over it for pretty much no reason. Stark also upgrades his tech so that it will respond to him whenever he needs it. Now he doesn’t have to even carry the armor with him as long as he can move to activate them from afar. It’s a decent improvement, but the film doesn’t exploit it this fact that much. He uses it plenty of times, but we never get to see it used that well for combat situations.

Alright, let’s finally start talking about some of the film’s positives! The villains in this film are a huge step up from the first two. The Iron Monger and Whiplash weren’t much of a threat and could barely hold their own. The Extremis meta humans provided Iron Man with a much better fight and they could do some fatal damage. The thing is, they were possibly too powerful. Iron Man couldn’t keep up with them at all and spent most of the film getting knocked around. If he had kept his traditional armor (From the first two films and Avengers) I think that the battle would have gone very differently. As it was, his new armors seemed to be far weaker and are not durable at all. One good shot would end just about any of his armors. Iron Man has to defeat most of them with good ole fashioned ingenuity, but most of his wins are a bit far fetched in the film. Either way, it’s better to have a villain that’s too powerful than one that’s extremely weak. The extremis villains made for epic fights and I wouldn’t mind seeing some of them in Avengers 2.

I haven’t mentioned the Mandarin much, but there isn’t much to say about him. At first he’s one of the most generic villains of all time and he’s basically a carbon copy of Bane. After his “epic” plot twist, you’ll either see him in a new light or just facepalm at the movie. I can’t say that I minded the twist, but if they had done it to a character that I actually had liked, I would have doomed the movie at that very moment. Killian gets the biggest role as far as villains go and he was alright. He was definitely a powerful opponent, but I can’t say much for his personality.

The climax is the best part of the film and it’s what saved Iron Man 3 from getting a mediocre score. Stark and his army of Iron Men team up to take on the Extremis super humans. The armors put up a brave fight and we get to see a lot of cameos that will make fans smile. Unfortunately they’re all pretty weak defense wise and one good attack will shatter them. They make up for this in sheer numbers and Iron Man has to go through many of them in his big battle against Killian. The climax is definitely pretty fun and it beats the climaxes of most of Marvel’s other big films. There are countless explosions and there are plenty of fights happening at once. Make sure that you keep your eyes peeled so that you see everything that’s happening.

Unfortunately the film ends on a really negative note. Stark makes a really bad move involving the “Clean Slate” protocol and also gets rid of an ally’s superpowers that would have come in handy for the future. The film also has a really underwhelming after credits scene that I didn’t find funny or epic. I would still recommend this film, but it is one that you can wait until DVD to watch. It’s a good addition to the marvel franchise, but nothing awe inspiring.

Overall 6/10