Iron Man 3 – 3D (12A) ****

Iron Man 3 – 3D (12A) ****

Dir: Shane Black

Starring: Robet Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Guy Pearce, Don Cheadle

Synopsis: Tony Stark is still suffering after the events of New York (see Avengers Assemble) when a terrorist known as the Mandarin begins to tear down his world. With his suit broken, he desperately tries to find and stop this formidable enemy.

Verdict: Shane Black really makes the latest in the Iron Man franchise his own, successfully keeping it faithful to the character of the Jon Favreau films while giving it more intensity and that touch of darkness that makes it stand out.

The story is darker and more intense than the previous films, which we all knew already from trailer scenes of Iron Man tapped underwater in the rubble of his own house, Pepper Potts in a restraint and the broken armour in the snow. All hints from the trailer seem to point to a possible hiatus/break for the Iron Man side of the whole Avengers storyline of the Marvel Universe.

Downey Jr. returns to the role well, bringing forward not just the charismatic persona that we’re used to, but the troubled side that first emerged when he faced his mortality while being subjected to palladium poisoning - now accentuated since the events of The Avengers. His performance of both these aspects is as good as we’ve come to expect, expressing the fear/panic of anxiety attacks while still retaining the sort of sense of humour that his Tony Stark never seems to be fully able to relinquish.

There are some fairly unbelievable moments in the film (I know, it’s a work of fantasy, but even these are farfetched for its own storyline and what I’ve come to expect from the character development), which make you think: ‘Huh? Why did they write this?’ These little niggling moments bring the end product down a little as they’re difficult to ignore being as important to the plot as they are, but it would have been an improvement if the moments in question were written more in tune with the characters.

One of the primary appeals of these films is the special effects which, as you would expect from Marvel are fantastic. The big attention grabbers from the trailer are the destruction of starks cliff-top mansion and the arrival of a whole host of suits without pilots. I loved the CG detail that was put into the house collapsing into the ocean (with the circular living area’s resemblance to the crashing Enterprise from the Star Trek: Into Darkness trailer catching my eye), and the work put in to the sheer variety suits that have been designed - battle damage and the now classic head-up display that is associated with the ‘in helmet’ shots.

The only downside is that they still haven’t cracked that pesky 3D (then again, who has?). At times it felt like there wasn’t any 3D: at times it was apparent, flecks of ash floating across the screen and the like, but nothing that jumped out of the screen and impressed me.