Superhero Summer: Iron Man 3

If you are in the mood for a rock-em sock-em ADHD style superhero movie, you might want to consider checking out the latest installment of the Iron Man series which opens today.  This movie has so much going on inside of its 130 minutes of run time that I found myself removing my 3D glasses and closing my eyes just to cleanse my sensory pallet.

Iron Man’s mission:  find out who the Mandarin is before he strikes again! Dun Dun Duuuuuuun!!!

Robert Downey, Jr. is always delightful playing the super sexy super neurotic super hero Tony Stark.  How many times did I just use the word super?  Downey brings a level of fun to the genre that you don’t normally get with super guys who are usually way to busy taking themselves too seriously…which also typically equates to being rather unlikable.  Not Downey…he nails it.

Guy Pearce handles the villainous role of Aldrich Killian with ease.  In fact, he was my favorite part of this film.  His seemingly personal vendetta against Stark that is referenced in the beginning of the movie gives way to a fast paced thrill ride that truly does not slow down until the very last two minutes.

Without giving too much away, I would have to say that the number of Iron Man suits that have been built by Tony Stark and are at his disposal in this film is a bit unnerving.  How did he have time to build all of those suits?  The last Iron Man movie was just released in 2010, but there are enough Iron Man suits in this movie to create its own army!  You will have to suspend reality even further than you might normally to accept this as his truth, which is that he has literally done nothing since his last tryst with the Avengers except build Iron Man suits.

One pleasant surprise about the movie was Gwyneth Paltrow’s character.  I have never cared for Pepper, Stark’s “seemingly annoyed with him most of the time” love interest, but her turn as an almost superhero in this film was on point.

Iron Man's 3D effects were moot for the most part so if you are not sure whether to ante up the extra money for 3D, I would say it probably doesn’t matter one way or the other.  The story is not enhanced by this seemingly unnecessary effect.

Iron Man 3, despite its busy nature, is a fun ride.  So, if you don’t mind an impossibly uncountable number of explosions, stressful moments and that guy from NCIS being a total turd of a bad guy, then you should fly yourself on down to the multiplex of your choice and hold on for dear life!