IRON MAN 3

"I would not go in there for the next twenty minutes."

My apologies for not getting this post up sooner since it's now been a couple of days since I saw IRON MAN 3. Here are my thoughts on the film.

Even using my AARP membership card at the box office, my ticket for the 10:15 showing of the film still cost $10.25. Granted, it was for the 3-D version of the film which I didn't have to choose to see but I figured "in for a penny, in for a pound". Add a small Dr. Pepper and small popcorn for $10.75 and I'm out twenty-one bucks before the film even starts. Regular readers of this blog will recall a previous posting about how cheap I am. This is one of the reasons why I don't see as many new, first-run films in the theaters as I used to. I've become spoiled by not having to pay to see classic films at the Paramount during the summers and I enjoy watching films at home on DVD where I can turn around and sell the DVD (if II so desire) on eBay. There are a few other films that I want to see this year but I won't be going to the theaters just to be going to a movie.

I liked the fact that A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics) is in this film but I really wish the minions had been shown in their distinctive, screaming yellow hazmat suits with the bee-keeper headgear. 

I liked the fact that Roxxon Oil Company (the Marvel Universe version of Exxon) is in this film.

The Mandarin is in this film. The Mandarin is not in this film. Both of those statements are correct.

Falseface, a villain from the old BATMAN TV show is in this film. No, wait, that's Joan Rivers. Sorry.

I really dug the closing title sequence featuring a montage of scenes from all three IRON MAN films set to a driving, jazzy score that had the feel and vibe of a '60s spy film soundtrack.

Tony Stark spends a great deal of time out of his armor and at times the film plays like a James Bond adventure. That's not necessarily a bad thing. When Tony does suit up, the action set pieces are pretty damn spectacular.

Overall I'd give the film a solid B+. It's not AVENGERS great. It's not CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER great and it's not SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE great. But it is a well-written, directed and acted super-hero action/adventure film. The special effects are dazzling (as we've come to expect) and the ten-year-old me that still exists within my soul is just jazzed to be able to sit in a theater and watch a big-budget IRON MAN film on the screen.

This is something I used to dream about and for years, that's all I could do: dream. Iron Man was one of my favorite Marvel superheroes when I was a kid and I was privileged to read his adventures over the course of several years during which three top-notch artists were drawing the book: Don Heck, Gene Colan and George Tuska. There have been many, many other Iron Man artists over the years, some good, some not-so-good , but none (in my opinion) have defined the character as well as those three men did. Thanks for the great work and the great memories gentlemen.