It is a nice occasion when, as an audience member, one is not quite sure what to expect from yet another return trip to a cash-cow franchise. Such an occasion was precisely the case with "Iron Man 3". This is not to say, however, that no one was expecting anything. Whenever a film like this is advertised, two sets of expectations inevitably follow. There is one camp whose hopes walk themselves up the garden path, reaching for something of high quality, which manages to speak to the eyes, testosterone, and soul altogether. The other camp is of a more pragmatic and somewhat cynical nature. They expect to go into the theater and be decently treated to another nice popcorn vessel. In the case of many films that spring from the soil in which "Iron Man 3" grew, those in the latter camp are far less surprised. As a possible conclusion to the saga, it was certainly a hope that the elements that had brought success in the first two films would finally come together in a harmonious culmination. But unfortunately, it seems the garden path has once again proved misleading. Those with the expectation of finding Eden will in return find merely the scattered seeds of attempts to grow its fruit. This third installment of the Iron Man franchise leaves no room for slack in its eye-candy and other momentarily wondrous aspects, but as a consequence misses the wide-open opportunity it had to leave a lasting impression by seemingly turning many of its key characters to wood and sprinkling the less flashy areas of its plot with usually less-than-satisfactory attempts to attach emotional strings to its audience and disguise itself as though it had far more deep themes and plot intricacies than it really does. Members of the second camp will have no trouble seeing through.
However, this is not to say that more pragmatic viewers will be completely unimpressed. Whatever its misgivings, "Iron Man 3" does in fact succeed at being more than another popcorn vessel. Its saving grace is its very character-central story. The entire plot that spans all three films has been centrally about Tony Stark's metamorphosis, a journey which does strike chord with much of its audience. The film does have a nice call-back towards the earlier installments of the series and succeeds in helping show that "Iron Man" is not merely another god among men whose mind is as unreachable as his power, left isolated from his audience to flaunt his naturally selective favor. Rather, he is portrayed as something far more human, a lost man struggling through the events following a radical shift in his ideology who must amend his mistakes and destroy the demons he's created. In this aspect, "Iron Man 3" deserves reverence.
Although the film has a great character, it does fail, on many occasions, to tell his story well. One of the main reasons it fails to pull its audience in is that it leaves no time to "creep up on things". It rushes in, leaving little time for build-up and secondary character development. The characters often interact as though they are curiously already aware of their destination in the plot, and make great leaps with little provocation. As a consequence, there are many points in the film which are clearly key plot points, but do not feel different from any script cavity-fillings. Doing this always results in the horrible aftertaste of anticlimax, and the film's chief vice is that it does not slow down, and finds itself struggling to introduce new faces in exciting ways, create a proper atmosphere of animosity between protagonists and antagonists, leave lasting impressions, develop character relationships, have climatic vibes in its major plot points, and, of course, address the eye-bulging question that serves as the elephant in the room: "Why aren't the avengers helping him?".
Ultimately, "Iron Man 3", serves as the afterglow of its 2008 original, which remains to be the only Eden that's been found in the franchise. The full package consists of quite the flashy superhero story one would hope for, but oddly sacrifices some of its respect by swiping itself through with an undercurrent of bad attempts to add terrorism themes, deep character connections, and climatic plot surprises. In exchange, it gets the job done. "Iron Man 3" is worth the admission, providing the basic set of thrills one would expect, leaving a satisfactory product, which serves fitting kick-off to the next wave of Marvel films following "The Avengers".
