Iron Man vs........the zombies?

Seems like a lot of movies these days are attempting to find a reason to include zombies into their plot, and unfortunately Iron Man 3 is no exception.  But first the good news.....

Contrary to the first two Iron Man movies, Iron Man 3 seemed to have more Tony Stark screen time than that of Iron Man. But since that means more Robert Downey Jr., it's definitely not a bad thing.  Downey Jr, in my opinion, has always been the best thing about the Iron Man movies, and getting to watch him do his thing even more in this sequel was probably the best thing about the movie.Not only do we get large doses of the expected Tony Stark humor, but we also get to see more of the real Tony Stark.  From his passion for Pepper Potts to his compassion towards a young boy, we get to experience full spectrum of what makes Tony Stark tick.  There is even a time in the movie where Stark is forced to use his brains over his brawn, which was a particularly nice touch by the screenwriters.

The story wasn't bad (with one exception...keep reading!) and kept you guessing though out most of it. The special effects were some of the best ever put on screen. And there were plenty of them.  And not all involving Iron Man. One of the new gimmicks in the movie was the evolution of an army of computerized Iron Men.  There were so many that at times it was difficult to identify the real Iron Man. Another gimmick was the development of an Iron Man suit that could be summoned remotely.  As a result, anyone who knew how to summon the suit could literally become Iron Man (evidently the Iron Man suit isn't that difficult to master).  And, because of this technology, we were briefly introduced to the first occurrence of "Iron Woman'.  You'll have to watch the movie to see what I mean!

The acting to me was only adequate. Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle were fine in reprising their roles as Potts and Colonel James Rhodes. But that's pretty much all they did.  Didn't particularly care for Guy Pearce as the villainous Aldrich Killian. Too much pretty boy, not enough sinister.

And that brings me to the Mandarin.

Portrayed by Academy Award-winner Ben Kingsley,  the Mandarin had been advertised via previews as the primarily villain in the movie. And although partly true, the Mandarin ended up being a huge disappointment for me. And in more ways than one.  Although the character had a promising start in the movie, and potentially could have become one of the most memorable villains in silver screen history thanks to Kingsley's protrayal, that all changed about half way through the film.  As much as I'd like to say why, I won't so not spoil the movie for those who haven't seen it.  But it's suffice to say that the Mandarin in this movie isn't close to the original Mandarin that was introduced as a notable villain in a 1964 comic book. A Mongolian nobleman in the comics, the Mandarin was a genius scientist/tactician and gifted strategist who possessed superhuman martial arts skills in a addition to possessing energy blasting rings.  The only similarity to this Mandarin and the one portrayed in Iron Man 3 was physical, thanks to the the make up job of Kingsley.  And with that, I'm not going to say any more except that I nearly fell out of my seat when the storyline of the Mandarin took an abrupt turn!

Another disappointment were the other villains of the movie....the zombie-like creatures I mentioned in the opening paragraph, who were unfortunate of victims of an unsuccessful medical experiment conducted by the aforementioned Killian.  Although not technically zombies, these characters were obviously designed after them, likely due to their (somewhat disturbing) popularity in movies in recent years with younger audiences.  Unfortunately, I no longer fall into the "younger audience" category anymore, so they pretty much bored me.

In a nutshell, the movie was particularly entertaining if you like Robert Downey Jr. The action and visuals will definitely hold your attention, which is more than I can say for bad guys in the movie, who, like I said, were primarily aimed more toward the teen and 20-something group.

Using my rating system (1= skip it, 2= rent it, 3= worth a matinee, 4= worth full price), I’d give it a 2.5 for Downey Jr. and the special effects and action (although I wouldn't pay much more to see it in 3D).  Outside of that, it would definitely be worth a trip to your nearest Red Box.