Theater Interruption (Iron Man 3)

Iron Man 3 (2013)

Director: Shane Black

Writers: Drew Pearce (screenplay), Shane Black (screenplay), and 

Stan Lee, 

Don Heck, 

Larry Lieber, 

Jack Kirby (comic books)

Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle

Iron Man 3 represents a significant step up in quality from the middle child of the series, but it still can't quite live up to the quality of the original. This franchise entry is a mixed bag of elements that work fairly well and a couple of aspects that have been pretty badly botched. The humor and action are well executed and definitely satisfying - in fact, I was extremely impressed that they managed to pull of a kid as a comic sidekick without completely tanking the film. So kudos on that score. The handful of sequences where Iron Man is actually in his suit are pretty awesome, but are too few and far between. Overall, the execution is great and the main problems are due to a mediocre script, which suffers from some pretty severe inconsistencies with the rest of the Iron Man mythos, logical gaps in the plot, a throwaway PTSD subplot and an eye-roller of an ending. It's still a great way to waste a couple hours and watching RDJ do his thing is as entertaining as always.

Score: 6 / 10