I saw Iron Man 3 on Saturday and now I've had a few days to absorb it. I tend to do that with movies, think on it and find out what stuck with me.
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This is a Spoiler Free review for our colonial friends.
Iron Man 3 is really rather good! I really hope it is an indicator of the quality of the upcoming Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: Winter Soldier. If they come close to this in terms of quality, Marvel/Disney is likely to have a very profitable couple of years. I also suspect they are desperate to keep Robert Downey Jr. in the role for more appearances. I have to say, so am I.
There are a couple of very key, very important things Iron Man 3 does absolutely right.
Firstly, it immediately steps out of the shadow of The Avengers. This is once again Tony Stark's story in his corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with big business, high technology, politics and war on the human level. Tony, Pepper and Happy are back to what they do.
Secondly, despite what I just said, the events of The Avengers are not ignored. Indeed, Tony can't quite seem to reconcile even his quite incredible lifestyle with the time spent fighting with gods and monsters. He doesn't know how to go home again. This makes for some good character drama.
Thirdly, Iron Man 3 continues with the growth of characterization in Tony Stark and "Pepper" Potts, something that began way back in 2008's Iron Man. Despite all the explosions and comedy moments, there are some real human moments and the characters end the film in a different place to where they were at the start. Obviously, this isn't protracted or plumbing the depths of the human heart... It is a comic book movie. But, the development is there, especially if you've followed these characters from the first movie.
In and of itself, Iron Man 3 has similarities to Iron Man 2. We've got some high technology put to nefarious use and initially at least, Iron Man just isn't ready for it. He thinks he is... And you've all seen the posters that show how well that goes.
Iron Man 3 hangs together well. It has a long running time, but fills it well, with only a couple of minor scenes that could probably have been cut out. They really did cherry-pick the better ideas from the "Extremis" comic storyline and discard the really stupid ones, giving us a new threat that thankfully moves away from power armour and robots.
The final verdict is overwhelmingly positive. Marvel/Disney continues to put out superhero blockbuster action movies that are actually fun and funny, and it seems that the post-Avengers "Phase 2" is off to a very good start.
The one thing that did really annoy me was that for whatever reason we didn't get a Thor: The Dark World trailer at our screening. We got one for every crappy movie coming up like The Hangover 3 and Star Trek Into Darkness instead. Y'know, movies they could pay me to see.