Iron Man 3 - A Stark Difference

I was running late. 7:45pm with my eyes on the 9:00 showing in 3D and a friend texts me to say that the theater was filling up. I’m normally the type to walk in halfway through the first preview and rarely on opening night. (I’d nearly gotten into fisticuffs at the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire opening and it had soured the experience.) I walked in to find my party occupying prime real estate in a nearly empty theater. I couldn’t believe it, at 8 o’clock just outside the door the first ambitious few were lining up for the 12:01 showing of the same movie I was about to see in an hour. Suckers.


Even the previews thrilled: Star Trek Into Darkness, Man of Steel, Thor: The Dark World. My inner nerdlet squeeing with joy. Even at this point the theater was still mostly empty. It was ok though: our row was holding enough collective nerdiness to fill the vacant seats. Occasionally, throughout the movie, I would tilt my 3D glasses down to test the depth and found it impressive. None of the effects were so over the top that I thought to myself ‘they put that in there just to show off the 3D.’


With the third installment of the Iron Man franchise we find Tony Start working full tilt on his suits in the aftermath of the Avengers.  I don't need to tell you that he cracks wise, does some amazing stuff, and saves the day because that's what we've all come to know and love about this unabashed bad boy.  But, this movie feels different somehow, it does more than just scratch the surface of the suit: it shows you what really makes Tony tick and it's not the arc reactor in his chest.


Jon Favreau set the bar high and director Shane Black did not disappoint, bringing a touch of nostalgia to his vision of Iron Man with flashy sectioned shots resembling comic book paneling as well as some indescribable filter I can only say reminded me slightly of Bond, and it fits. Let's face it, Tony Stark is basically Bond without any capacity for subtlety, but Black shows us the softer side amidst rising action and snarky one liners. The dozen or so people in the theater laughing, cheering, and gasping in unison, the effect no less awesome due to diminished numbers.

Iron Man 3, while not staying entirely true to the original Extremis story arc (which I did not read before seeing the film,) delivers all the action we expect to see and then some. The movie mixes an engaging plot, a new take on a favored villain,  and the evolution of a major character.  There's no reason to walk away feeling anything but satisfied, even if you happen to be an Extremis purist. As we came out of the theater, we couldn’t help put a nice capper on the night: observing the throng of of people clamoring to get into the 12:01 as we sauntered out of our theater some of us began trolling the crowd. “I can’t believe Iron Man died at the end...”