PG-13, 130 minutes
Commentary by Christopher Lloyd
After three outings plus an Avengers tie-in movie, Iron Man is showing his rust.
What once was a fun, zippy roller-coaster ride of a super-hero franchise has quickly devolved into a predictably dark-and-dreary phase. Much like with the last Batman movie, the man behind the mask has grown tired of wearing it and spends a lot more time stewing in his personal pit of despair than battling bad guys.
Here Tony Stark is facing confidence problems and panic attacks in the wake of battling aliens. Robert Downey, Jr. still has that rapscallion twinkle in his eye, but he has fewer opportunities to show off his motor-mouth charm.
Lady love Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) is demanding that he give up the whole super-hero shtick. But with a mysterious terrorist named the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) blowing up stuff all over the world, that isn’t about to happen.
New director Shane Black and screenwriter Drew Pearce opt for the buffet approach to storytelling: Throw in a little bit of everything and hope people find something they like. The result is a hot mess of action scenes, male posturing and political plots.
“Iron Man 3” isn’t a bad movie, but clearly the red-and-gold avenger has lost much of his luster.
Movie: C