Why I Saw It: Do I even need to explain? The whole Avengers experiment has been fascinating to watch and this is the beginning of phase 2.
Cast: There's Robert Downey Jr., of course, and he is still the embodiment of this role. The movie hinges on him and he nails it yet again. He's much more tortured than he was in The Avengers and that's an interesting development. Gwyneth Paltrow has a few moments when she gets to be an action hero and I wouldn't mind seeing some more of it. Don Cheadle had a much smaller role this time. Guy Pearce plays a good villain. Rebecca Hall is sadly, pretty sidelined in this. It's nice to see her in a high-exposure movie, although I like it more when she actually gets to do something. Jon Favreau still has a presence despite not directing this time around. As for Ben Kingsley, all I can say is that he gets to show more of his range as an actor than I expected. A kid named Ty Simpkins plays a surprisingly important role in the movie and even though I am generally irritated by precocious kid types, he has such a great rapport with RDJ that I didn't care.
Plot: This was going to be a let down from The Avengers. It's an unavoidable fact that there would be a drop from, arguably, the best superhero movie ever (at least in the Marvel universe). Compared to Iron Man 2 though, I'd call this an improvement. This is a lot darker and it does a great job integrating the rest of the Marvel universe in. This time, they were a lot more focused on being funny and I was impressed by the restraint of it all. They realized that there was no way to up the stakes so it is all scaled back and more focused on who Iron Man is: the man or the suit. This isn't to say the movie is perfect. it is filled with logic holes in the story and a lot of the battle staging is confusing or outright illogical. I'm in one of those good moods I hear other people talk about right now, so I won't harp too much on the negative.
Elephant in the Room: He sure has a lot of suits. Apparently, between this movie and the last one, he started making out of aluminum or something. I lost track of how many times suits broke in this. I get that he's been experimenting a lot with different models but it is borderline absurd how many time he has to switch suits. I'm also confused by how we see the suits destroyed at one point in the movie, them they show up twofold later. Really, I think half my issues with the movie are suit-related.
To Sum Things Up:
Summer has officially begun and this is a great start to both it and the second phase of Marvel's movie universe. While, far from perfect and not even the movie I'm most looking forward to this month, it is a fun tent pole summer movie and keep the momentum going for Tony Stark and company.
Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend
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