NDTV MOVIES
Stars--3/5
The first scene ushers in a New Year's party in Bern, Switzerland, heralding the new millennium where a businessman-cum-genius inventor-cum mechanic Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) is partying hard. The audience waits with baited breath to understand how he creates his own demons.
Iron Man 3 is the superhero's journey of finding the demons he created and destroying them.
Jam-packed with humour and gags, there is no emotional connect with the characters. During the course of the narration, director Shane Black and his co-writer Drew Pearce have meandered from the graphic novel into subplots merging the sensibilities of the eighties and early nineties, thus making everything odd in the character's history.
Ben Kingsley adds a comic dimension to this Chinese looking Osama-bin-Laden-esque villain. While Gwyneth and Rebecca have nothing much to display, Guy nails his character to the T. But it is Ty Simpkins as Harley, the smart kid who surpasses expectations with a mature performance as a friend and ally to Tony and lays the foundation for the next sequel.
With a captivating finale, Iron Man 3 is a slick, inspired fantasy-adventure film that almost anyone can enjoy. Let's pray for the next edition to come soon.
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The Independent
Stars 3/5
Iron Man 3 shows up both the glories and the extreme limitations of the superhero summer blockbuster genre. Director Shane Black and his British co-writer Drew Pearce work tremendously hard to bring humour, irony and complexity to their screenplay, even if they are defeated by the sheer superficiality of their source material.
Downey is a brilliant actor who somehow manages to portray Tony Stark as traumatised without losing the character's laidback and comedic quality.Whereas Bale is saturnine and intense – a superhero carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders – Downey is playful and Chaplinesque. The Iron Man franchise – along with his role in Sherlock Holmes – has revived Downey's career after the drug-related problems he endured a decade ago. He is now a very big star.
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The Indian Express
Stars 3/5
By picking this famous super villain from Marvel Comic books and reinventing him thus, highlighting the sheer idiocy of terror as well as the huge impact of it, Iron Man 3 sets just the right tone for this third film in the series.
If the first part was about both Downey Jr and Iron Man finding themselves – and what a piece of serendipity it was, to choose the actor for the role – the second was about pitting him against one as megalomaniac as him to show him the other side of it.
In the third film, Tony Stark has apparently made peace with his demons as well as come face to face with gods and aliens (The Avengers). Where does he go from here? That's what this film seeks to explore, when Stark is faced with a global terrorist whose uncertain agenda somehow comes to be centred entirely around him.
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Empire
Stars 4/5
Three signs you’re watching a Shane Black movie: it’s Christmas, there’s a meta voiceover, and some of the best lines are dispensed by designer-suited henchmen. Pleasingly, Iron Man 3 ticks every box. Just as Joss Whedon pepped up Avengers Assemble with his unique brand of jocosity, here, despite the sci-fi trimmings and goliath budget, it feels like Black’s been given carte blanche by Marvel to do his thing. The result is a swinging caper with wit, balls, heart and exploding baubles. It’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang with a lot of extra bang. And, by some distance, the Man In The Can’s best solo outing so far.
Like Bond in Skyfall, Tony Stark loses his flash car and big house. He is also, for a sizeable stretch of the movie, deprived of his super-suits. This is a new, vulnerable side to the playboy-philanthropist: he’s on the run, in the corner, pausing between quips to suffer breathless anxiety attacks.
Part of the problem is PTSD, brought on by his near-fatal tangle with that Chitauri wormhole in New York. But his more pressing concern is a very bad man who goes by the monicker The Mandarin. A shadowy, ethnically indeterminate figure with the didactic menace of Colonel Kurtz and the attack-chopper access of Colonel Kilgore, this terrorist overlord is regularly forcing his way onto US airwaves to threaten dire “lessons”. No-one knows his identity, his location or where he’s buying his extraordinarily nifty video-editing software.
As well as the customary Downey Jr wisecracks, there are sight gags, bits of slapstick, Downton Abbey references and a genius beat involving a suit of armour turning its head. The ominous introduction of a boy sidekick in the second act turns out to yield some of the sparkiest repartee. And Don Cheadle’s Rhodes, a character who barely made an impression in the other films, is skilfully tweaked, becoming the amusingly square Murtaugh to Tony’s Riggs. Wait until you hear his password.
Far more successful is the aforementioned Mandarin, who in the Iron Man comics is a super-powered martial artist with magic rings. While a close-up shot reveals that his fingers are adorned by rings, there are surprises beneath the character’s sinister hood which we won’t spoil. Suffice to say that people will be talking about Ben Kingsley’s performance for ages to come — it’s a tricky, delicate role, handled beautifully.
As for why the other Avengers aren’t getting off their invincible butts to help, it’s explained away, a little unconvincingly, with the line: “This isn’t superhero business. It’s American business.” Iron Man 3’s greatest achievement is that they’re not missed.
Like Bond in Skyfall, Tony Stark loses his flash car and big house. He is also, for a sizeable stretch of the movie, deprived of his super-suits. This is a new, vulnerable side to the playboy-philanthropist: he’s on the run, in the corner, pausing between quips to suffer breathless anxiety attacks.
Part of the problem is PTSD, brought on by his near-fatal tangle with that Chitauri wormhole in New York. But his more pressing concern is a very bad man who goes by the monicker The Mandarin. A shadowy, ethnically indeterminate figure with the didactic menace of Colonel Kurtz and the attack-chopper access of Colonel Kilgore, this terrorist overlord is regularly forcing his way onto US airwaves to threaten dire “lessons”. No-one knows his identity, his location or where he’s buying his extraordinarily nifty video-editing software.
As well as the customary Downey Jr wisecracks, there are sight gags, bits of slapstick, Downton Abbey references and a genius beat involving a suit of armour turning its head. The ominous introduction of a boy sidekick in the second act turns out to yield some of the sparkiest repartee. And Don Cheadle’s Rhodes, a character who barely made an impression in the other films, is skilfully tweaked, becoming the amusingly square Murtaugh to Tony’s Riggs. Wait until you hear his password.
Far more successful is the aforementioned Mandarin, who in the Iron Man comics is a super-powered martial artist with magic rings. While a close-up shot reveals that his fingers are adorned by rings, there are surprises beneath the character’s sinister hood which we won’t spoil. Suffice to say that people will be talking about Ben Kingsley’s performance for ages to come — it’s a tricky, delicate role, handled beautifully.
As for why the other Avengers aren’t getting off their invincible butts to help, it’s explained away, a little unconvincingly, with the line: “This isn’t superhero business. It’s American business.” Iron Man 3’s greatest achievement is that they’re not missed.
Verdict
Black proves the perfect blacksmith, forging smart new tech and scenarios for the swaggering super-genius. If this does turn out to be Downey Jr.’s final solo outing, it’s a very strong exit.
Black proves the perfect blacksmith, forging smart new tech and scenarios for the swaggering super-genius. If this does turn out to be Downey Jr.’s final solo outing, it’s a very strong exit.
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One India Entertainment
Stars 3/5
Stars 3/5
With characters culled from Marvel Comics, we know for sure that Iron Man 3 would be packed with spectacular action and nice razor sharp, witty lines. When, the film begins with a voice-over which states - "A famous man once said, we create our own demons. Never mind who the famous man is." We are all the more confident about the same. The voice-over at the very onset sets the tenor of the film.
The first scene ushers in a New Year's party in Bern, Switzerland, heralding the new millennium where a businessman-cum-genius inventor-cum mechanic Tony Stark is partying hard. The audience waits with baited breath to understand how he creates his own demons. Iron Man 3 is the Superhero's journey of finding the demons he created and destroying them.
Flash forward to the present day, following the attacks on New York where a new terrorist, Mandarin (Ben Kingsley), is threatening to bring down the US government. Tony is mentally fatigued. He is worn out with confidence and anxiety issues. This causes a strain on his relationship with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow).
With his back against the wall, Tony has to survive by his own devices, relying on his creativity and instincts to protect himself and those close to him. He has also to juggle a tense relationship with his old buddy James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) and beautiful ex-girlfriend Maya (Rebecca Hall). Along the way, Stark discovers the answer to the question that has secretly haunted him - Does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?
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All in one....it is a must watch movie for all the sci-fi lovers.
IRON MAN 3....
IRON MAN 3....
