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776 reviews in total

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356 out of 608 people found the following review useful:
How could they mess this up so bad?, 27 April 2013

Author: sirdavidofthecourt from Portugal

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

This is my first review and I'm writing it because the critics are all praising this film so much.

Let me tell you, if you like Iron Man in any way and/or are familiar with the mythology, do not pay to watch this film. This is a poor excuse of a plot that outright spits in the face of fans and destroys one of Marvel's most powerful villains. Seriously, the Mandarin is Tony Stark's antithesis; their conflict was always the symbol for magic vs. science. Like Joker's insanity contradicts Batman's great use of logic. In Iron Man 3 they ruined him so bad only a reboot could save the character (and believe me, I hate reboots as much as everyone). The Mandarin is now used as a joke character with the main twist just playing for laughs (or in my case, tears). This guy should have ten powerful magical rings that alone could rival the Avengers' powers combined. Was this "adaptation" really the best thing to do? Magic CAN be done on the big screen, they've done Norse Gods! Ten Rings are nothing compared to that...

Other than that, the film still wouldn't be good. Shane Black writes comedy action films, only this time the comedy is much more cringe worthy and not really funny, and the action probably sums up about 20% of the film. The main plot-device for armor malfunctions, power-downs and or stupid failures is so overused I was wondering how could they ever fill up 120 minutes without it. The actual Iron Man suit is so underused that you'll think this is Bourne or Bond you're watching. Also noteworthy: If a film relies on poop jokes for a quick laugh, it got as low as it'll ever get.

Also, I must say Rhodes (War Machine) needs a plot arc. He's a tool. I love Don's work in the role and think he's charismatic (as are RDJ and Gwyneth), but he needs to have some kind of a story.

Other new characters' besides the Mandarin are really hit and miss. This series' villains really have become one-note. We all know the bad guy is the one wearing the fancy suit that wants corporate power and tries to take over. Special mention goes to Maya, that one person who changes her mind all the time and leaves the film never having stepped in in the first place.

Wait, I'm not done yet. There's also a kid "side-kick" and you guessed it. He's in an hostage scene! Well, that's some good innovative writing right there! All in all, this is as bad or even worse than X-Men: The Last Stand. Beware of the actual ending that retcons everything about Tony's back-story. I don't know how Marvel green-lighted this script, I really don't! I know any fan could have done it much better!

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221 out of 365 people found the following review useful:
I do not understand how this script was OK'd by Marvel, 3 May 2013

Author: deflep318 from United States

I would have gone into detail and actually clicked on spoiler but there is no need. Looks like at least 100 people did that already tonight. So I am just going to hit the high notes and the low notes and call it a night.

The good It was an OK movie. Not great, not good. but I got to see explosions and hear one liners.

Pretty good acting by the major players. Kingsly particularly was great with what they gave him.

Stay for the ending credits for a small laugh

The bad

This script sucks They completely retcon'd a major villain and a major organization. Screwing them up for any future marvel movie. Seriously screwed the pooch on that.

This was a Tony Stark story, not an Iron Man Story It appears that Tony must have got some shield training because now the rich guy that only knows how to blast people and tackle people acts more like a cross between Macguyver and Hawkeye then Iron Man.

They screw up several major plot points from the first two movies such as why Tony has a superconductor in his chest to begin with and the weapon systems war-machine uses.

Finally, Where the hell is Nick Fury. Iron man does not need to have Nick Fury in his movies. Except when that movie basically deals with domestic terrorism on a massive front. If you see this movie you will see a part specifically where iron man calls out a major bad guy in the press and says bring it on I will be here. In the marvel universe there is no way in hell something that public would not have shield all over it. Especially since Tony Stark basically builds their cool stuff.

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162 out of 251 people found the following review useful:
This is not Iron Man, nor is it the Marvel universe., 25 April 2013

Author: zo_axe from Croatia

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

First of all, I would like to say that I have been an IMDb user for 4 years and 4 months now and this is going to be my first movie review, which makes me kind of sad because it is not going to be a very positive one.

This movie starts off with a very good promise, a promise also given to us in the trailer. It was supposed to introduce Iron Man's toughest villain 'The Mandarin', show us the state our world was left in after the events in 'The Avengers' and develop the Iron Man characters, that we've come to love so very much, even further. Instead Shane Black and Drew Pierce decided to make a ridicule of the true Mandarin character from the comic book and gave us an uninteresting villain, almost altogether ignored the consequences of the Avengers movie (that should be an important issue at this point) except for some hinted psychological issues Tony has, that weren't developed at all just like all of the side characters that seemed to exist just because they were there in the prequels.

But the biggest issue were the so obvious plot holes that defy all the logic set up by the prequels and 'The Avengers' which leads me to believe that the writer/director Shane Black and co-writer Drew Pierce didn't even see the afore mentioned movies before writing the script for 'Iron Man 3'. How can these 'enemies' melt the Iron man suit if Thor couldn't even scratch it with lightning which achieves much higher temperatures; how can the same people rip off parts of the Iron man suit if Thor barely dented it with his mighty hammer 'Mjolnir', ergo Thor is just a giant pus***; if it was so easy for Tony Stark to remove the shards from his blood stream why didn't he do it in the second Iron man movie when he was facing immediate and painful death from the exposure to palladium radiation, and so on...

As far as the acting goes, it was good but nothing spectacular.

The script wasn't very good. There were some funny one liners but by the end of the movie there were so many of them it just left a bad taste.

The action and the special effects were fine but didn't serve much purpose since the storyline was so illogical and uninteresting.

So in conclusion, this movie would be good if it were a stand alone SF movie, but since it is connected to all the marvel universe movies that came before it it simply isn't. It would seem that Shane Black and his crew couldn't find a way to deliver the promise given to us by the creators of the afore mentioned marvel films.

So if you must see this movie wait for the blue-ray because in my opinion it isn't worth the price of admission.

I give it a 4 out of 10 stars only out of respect for such great actors as Robert Downey Jr., Guy Pearce, Don Cheadle, Ben Kingsley and so on, which could have made it such a great movie with the right script in hand and the right director in the coaching seat.

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233 out of 401 people found the following review useful:
An uneven experience, 26 April 2013

Author: Bruno Youn from São Paulo, Brazil

While the first Iron Man was great entertainment, the sequel was still fun but not so memorable. Well, the third chapter is finally here and I must confess I was a bit disappointed with it. Robert Downey Jr. is still excellent in his role and delivers his comedic lines very nicely. There are some hilarious scenes for sure, but overall the humor didn't really work for me like with the first Iron Man. Now this film has quite a few unexpected moments and I felt that not all of them were so interesting or believable. I always appreciate a nice twist, but I think this time some of the ideas presented were too convenient and inconsistent. Also, I must say I thought Guy Pearce's character and his motivations were way over the top. The positive aspects of this film are that the action sequences can be quite creative and exciting (The CGI was unrealistic and weak in a few scenes though) and I liked how Tony Stark feels very conflicted, being constantly haunted by personal dilemmas and identity crisis. Iron Man 3 isn't bad, but I couldn't help feeling disappointed with the final result.

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165 out of 270 people found the following review useful:
Awful Film, 27 April 2013

Author: mikeraven1889 from United Kingdom

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Please save your money and don't watch this film. The plot is all over the place you seen Tony having anxiety attacks then ping it magically stops.....how!?

The mandarin is not true to the comics, in fact its miles from it. No ten power rings in fact no explanation of how they came about his powers at all i mean why change a comic book storyline and main villain the storyline is already there!

Magically at the end Tony can get rid of the shrapnel in his heart, and ceases to be ironman, genius idea.....not! if that was the case why didn't he have the surgery at the end of first ironman, secondly what the hell are you going to do with avengers two now!?

The ending with Pepper Potts i'm sure was to just keep all feminists happy!

i could go on with the flaws in this film....but ill put it simply like this for the first time in ages i walked out of the cinema angry at film so thanks for ruining the trilogy Shane Black! may we never see you near a comic/graphic novel adaptation again!

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204 out of 351 people found the following review useful:
Should have been better, 25 April 2013

Author: Crave04 Masters from New Zealand

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

This was released yesterday in New Zealand and after the Avengers i was really looking forward to the so called "phase 2" of movies about our favourite superheroes starting with Ironman 3. Unfortunately for me this movie took a backward step. It was fairly slow but it also did have plenty of action. The story was simple, all the special effects were fantastic and RDJ did his thing again owning the screen as IM. The downside for me was the vulnerability of IM and the lame enemies. I thought that it was great that Tony Stark was pushed to his limits but would have been better against a different foe, someone challenging on the technical side maybe. Instead we have some people that can annoyingly rejuvinate over and over again. They reminded me of the ugly vampire people on Blade 2. And the biggest downer was how easily IM's suit was trashed. My daughter asked me after leaving the cinema "how come ironmans suit keep breaking so easily?" And shes right. The lame bad guys seemed to overpower ironman quite easily and the amount of suits that were ripped to shreds left me wondering, are they made of plastic now? Considering the types of opponents hes come up against in previous movies IM 1, IM 2 and Thor and all the aliens in Avengers, its quite a shock to see the suit torn apart like that. It just didn't make sense. We all love Tony Starks Ironman suit and all the little gizmos in all the previous movies but unfortunately this time around, the Ironman suit wasn't that Iron at all:(

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121 out of 186 people found the following review useful:
Better than I expected, but worse than I'd hoped., 3 May 2013

Author: BeatleFloydZeppelin from Canada

The first Iron Man movie changed the way comic book adaptions were made. It (for better or worse) began the "Marvel Cinematic Universe" that climaxed with The Avengers. This is the first marvel movie to be released after The Avengers, and in many ways it proves that the series is still going strong, however, it is far from perfect.

ACTING: 8/10

The acting from the main cast members is great. Robert Downey Jr. continues to be the perfect Iron Man, I just can't imagine a better suited actor. His comedic timing is perfect, and he allows Tony Stark to be lovable while being a total jerk. Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle don't get a ton of screen time, however, they are wonderful when they do. Ben Kingsley, Guy Pearce, and Rebecca Hall are all fantastic and underused. The rest of the cast is perfectly adequate, however, there seems to be a theme of casting great talents and completely under using them.

WRITING: 3/10

This is the biggest failure of the movie. The comedy works well (partially thanks to Robert Downey Jr.) and the action scenes are good, however the plot hidden behind the popcorn fun is plain awful. I have never really liked movies that deal with "super soldiers" and "protecting the president," and this movie deals with both badly. The technology written into the series continues to become more and more ridiculous. And the twist is both easy to predict and manages to reduce the main villains role to nothing. Finally, the scene after the credits is a bit of a let down as it gives no hint towards the direction of the series.

DESIGN: 6/10

The design is just as good as previous films in the series, which is to say that it fits somewhere between satisfactory and slightly above average. The tech looks great despite its lack of plausibility, and the wardrobe and sets fit the overall tone of the movie.

EFFECTS: 10/10

The CGI is near perfect in this film, and there is a ton of it. There are scenes where Iron Man's suit magnetically attaches to Tony in separate pieces and it looks totally convincing. The explosions and impossible technology looks great too.

MUSIC: 4/10

The soundtrack in this movie is awful. Hans Zimmer has inspired many with his booming and electronic score for Inception and the Batman franchise. This concept has been replicated a hundred times since those movies, and in lesser hands it is nothing but a loud mess. This is the case with Iron Man 3. The score is loud and booming, and completely forgettable, dull and repetitive.

VERDICT:

This movie is mindless, unimpressive, forgettable, action packed... and thoroughly enjoyable. It is a great summer blockbuster popcorn movie that will leave your mind as soon as you leave the theater. That being said, if you liked The Avengers and Iron Man 2, you will likely enjoy this movie as well. Overall, I give it a 6.2/10

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134 out of 214 people found the following review useful:
Shocking, Cannot Believe What I Have Just Watched, 29 April 2013

Author: Garry Thomas from United Kingdom

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Other reviews have covered exactly how bad this movie is.

If you love Iron Man, Iron Man 2 and Avengers Movie it will be natural to want to go and see this movie but my advice would be to stay away from this one as it will leave a sour taste, gut wrenching feeling, I am dumbfounded that Marvel has let this movie be released like this.

The soul of the first 2 movies and the Iron Man character in Avengers has been stripped bare and replaced with something that wouldn't be out of place in a Scary Movie Film.

Issues with the movie are as follows:

- Background music from the start of the movie is wrong and doesn't compliment what you are used to from an Iron Man / Marvel movie. - RDJ spends most of the movie out of the suit and he has seemed to gain a lot of quick martial arts skills and reflexes similar to something in a Bourne Movie. - Don Cheadle's character is irrelevant and spends most of the movie out of his suit. - Don't get me started with the Mandarin character. - Little boy in the movie doesn't serve any purpose what so ever. - Most of the characters are shallow and you have no feeling for them. - The wit and charm of previous movies is replaced with unfunny gags and one liners that don't work. - The movie tries too hard to be cool instead of being natural.

I could go on and on about how poor this movie really was, I was in the Cinema thinking to myself am I really experiencing this? WTF is this I am watching.

Shane Black and anyone who agreed to release this movie, hang your heads in shame and find a new career. This is unacceptable!!!!

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150 out of 253 people found the following review useful:
Made only in the hope of box office success, 25 April 2013

Author: j-rudy_117 from Melbourne, Australia

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

1) You do not mislead the audience by teasing in the trailer and the hype that The Mandarin would be a force to be reckoned with, and then have the most ridiculous reveal!

2) Tony tells Rhodey that his suits are designed for him, but places them on Pepper and Aldrich, I'm not sure if its only the Mark 42 that can do that, if so, they should have mentioned it in the movie.

3) No explanation as to why some people blow up when injected with the extremis virus

4) As everyone is saying, his armor withstands the forces of Thor and Aliens but fails miserably against the extremis soldiers.

5) This is supposed to be an epic conclusion, not a comedy romp. I felt like I was watching Lethal Weapon.

6) If the Mandarin was just an actor why would he need body guards and an entourage? Very very poor script.

7) Building gadgets with hardware equipment, HOME ALONE!?

There were so many more gripes about it. Thats why Nolan and Zack Snyder are masters at making sure we connect with the characters and connect with the story, instead of having a fast paced movie where we wouldn't have time to relate to whats going on.

The ending should have been in the Mojave desert, with an extremis base of maybe 10000 soldiers, the u.s. army fights against them with tanks and choppers, but they make rubble out of them, then Tony and Rhodey make their way to the base but the suits lose power and they face the soldiers ahead of them, as the soldiers walk towards them, the other suits emerge through the dust and the darkness behind tony and Rhody... And the war begins.

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148 out of 257 people found the following review useful:
Most disappointing marvel movie EVER!, 27 April 2013

Author: Ajinkya Nazare

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Let me start by stating the obvious. The movie was super-hyped, the trailers misleading and the story turned out to be something else (and not good at all). Shane Black must have thought that the twist about the Mandarin would blow people's minds but the only thing it did was cause frustration and disappointment. What was he thinking while destroying and ridiculing the best and most menacing villain in the Iron Man universe?! What in the world happened to his 10 rings and every ring having a different power? Imagine if the Joker comes out to reveal that he's just some joker hired from some circus and the real mind behind him is Sal Maroni! To make things worse and humiliate the Mandarin, Aldrich Killian says "I am the Mandarin". Seriously, Shane Black has totally destroyed what could've been a 9.0+ rated movie instead turning it to be a comical mishap. And plot holes.. Plot holes everywhere! His suit is supposed to be made out of a gold and titanium alloy and it breaks into pieces when it gets hit by a truck?! It felt more of a love story than a superhero movie. If he knows he can summon all his suits, why did he wait to call them in the climax instead of doing that when his house is getting blown to shreds? That is not Iron Man, he doesn't wait to destroy when he knows he already has the firepower. Robert Downey Jr. has delivered a good performance though. Ben Kingsley is totally wasted! I don't know why he even accepted the role. Aldrich Killian can never look as demented as the Mandarin, especially after the reveal, and so even a great actor like Guy Pearce was wasted. And for a seemingly "most important thing in" Tony Stark's life, Pepper Pots was not seen much in the movie and in the end she's the one killing Killian! WHAAAAAAT?! In all, the movie is certainly NOT for the dedicated comic readers who'd literally scream after the stupidity of Shane Black destroying the Mandarin and making a small character like Aldrich Killian the prime antagonist. He should have just stuck to the original story line by modifying it such that it didn't affect the Mandarin-Iron Man rivalry. Extremely disappointing movie. Wouldn't watch Iron Man 4 (if it is coming out at all) unless it was directed by someone else.

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