TORONTO — It has already earned a whopping $242 million overseas and will blow away the competition at the North American box office this weekend — but is Iron Man 3 worth the price of a ticket?
The third chapter in the Iron Man franchise, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Don Cheadle, was directed by Shane Black.
The headline on a review in Forbes declares: “Iron Man 3 is the best superhero comic book part 3 ever.”
In his review, Scott Mendelson offered a caveat. “It’s mostly by default. There really hasn’t been a terrific ‘part 3’ in the realms of comic book superhero movies.”
Mendelson described Iron Man 3 as “a surprisingly satisfying adventure that flirts with greatness.”
In the Hollywood Reporter, Todd McCarthy said the third movie is much better than the second.
“Iron Man 3 benefits immeasurably from the irreverent quicksilver humor of co-writer and director Shane Black,” he wrote. “Brandishing at least a couple of killer twists, this … will be the (early) summer’s first massive hit.”
Richard Corliss of Time also credited Black with revitalizing Iron Man.
Entertainment Weekly reviewer Owen Gleiberman echoed the praise, calling Iron Man 3 “an ominously exciting, shoot-the-works comic-book spectacular.”
“It keeps throwing things at you, but not with the random, busy franchise indifference that marked the hollow and grandiose Iron Man 2,” he wrote. “I can’t say I was moved by Iron Man 3, but I was transported.”
Not all critics were fans of the flick.
André Crous of the Prague Post said for all its bangs, the movie ends with a deafening whimper.
“The narrative pull is never particularly strong, as it seems we have seen this all before,” he wrote. “Much of the film is actually just a drawn-out series of flying carcasses, or rather empty suits, as Stark has worked hard to control his likeness from afar, and duplicating his Iron Man costume over and over again. The metaphor shouldn’t be lost on anyone, and it is surprising the filmmakers didn’t realize this point when they were in production.”
In The Boston Globe, critic Ty Burr called the movie the weakest in the series.
“Iron Man 3 suffers from confused plotting, flat-footed exposition, and more pure, noisy nonsense than even a comic book movie should have to put up with,” he said.
Kyle Smith of the New York Post wrote: “There’s so much dumb stuff in Iron Man 3 that I expected the credits to say, ‘Written and directed by Thor.’ The villains are all wrong, the motivations are muddy, even the gadgetry is off. And the swaggering genius at the center of it all has become a preening fool. It’s like watching a great company switch CEOs from Steve Jobs to Donald Trump.”
Snap.
Smith lamented that the film is aimed at a younger audience. “Gone are all of the actual ideas (such as Tony’s robust defense of capitalism), gone is the witty dialogue, gone is anything like character development (Tony and Rhodes barely share any screen time and when they do they’re ducking and running).”
Iron Man 3 opens in theatres on Friday.
Comments