I walked into Iron Man 3 with some trepidation. Iron Man 2 was deeply flawed and early previews that suggested new writer/director Shane Black was aping Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” style weren’t encouraging. My favorite parts of the first two films are the awkward moments of human interaction that are the Jon Favreau touch, and I was worried that the third film would be a self-serious take on terrorism, technology, and hubris. Just another generic over-color-corrected superhero movie.
Well, I’m happy to report that I was wrong. Iron Man 3 is great. Shane Black takes the fun, snarky, intelligent characters Favreau developed and successfully places them in a tightly scripted thriller with some truly pulse pounding action sequences.
[The same characters in a new tone work surprisingly well]