It’s pretty odd that the Philippines is showing Iron Man 3 one week ahead of the States. However, this gives me the opportunity to review it much, much earlier than a lot of people! Don’t worry. I’ll try to make this review as spoiler free as possible.

Tony Stark 3… errr, I mean, Iron Man 3!

Iron Man 3 takes place some time after the events of the Avengers movie. Tony Stark has been traumatized by the attack on New York and is suffering from insomnia and anxiety attacks because of this. At the same time, the Mandarin has been claiming responsibility for a series of bombings all around the United States and one of these attacks severely injures one of his close friends. Tony decides to hunt down the Mandarin and his organization.. but it seems that the terrorist may be more than even the Invincible Iron Man can handle.

Here’s the trailer (which you’ve probably watched hundreds of times already):

Even though the plot of the film draws inspiration from the Extremis storyline from the comics, it definitely takes a different telling on the events and characters involved. This is actually good for comic book fans who’ve read it the comic since they can still be surprised by the twists thrown into the story. They will get a kick of hearing what they’ve also done with “Iron Patriot” and “Advanced Idea Mechanics,” which have appeared in the comics.

War Machine is still a better name, in my opinion.

While there are only a few action sequences, the ones that are there are a blast! The final fight of the movie was pretty well done since Iron Man’s opponent actually seems to have a chance to beat him. Yes, I do know that there’s no way that they’ll have the bad guy win at the end of a superhero movie. But at least it was exciting to think that, even for a moment, that the hero could lose.

The main cast also does a good job acting their specific roles. Props goes to Guy Pierce as Aldrich Killian and Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin. Still, it’s Robert Downey Jr. stealing the show with his portrayal of Tony Stark. We know that he already has that cocky “I’m a billionaire and handsome genius” shtick down pat. But he still has that ability to show vulnerability when needed.

Sometimes, I’m not sure if Robert Downey, Jr. knows that he isn’t really Tony Stark.

Still, the movie is not flawless. Ben Kingsley did a great job in the movie but I’m not sure if Iron Man 3 did justice to the Mandarin, a perennial opponent of Iron Man. I have the bad feeling that fans of the comic are going to be very polarized about this. Some will either like it but others will take up arms about how they treated the character.

No, I’m not pertaining to the fact that the Mandarin is supposed to be asian.

The entire middle part of the film is also pretty slow. I appreciate it trying to advance the story, with Tony Stark investigating the Mandarin’s attacks, but it got to a point that I really wanted to see some action! Also, Stan Lee’s cameo is incredibly fast. If you blink, you may miss it!

Overall, Iron Man 3 is a good movie. I guess the main problem is that it had to be the first Marvel movie to come after the awesomeness of The Avengers, which may make it seem kind of boring by comparison. Still, it a very entertaining movie with great action sequences and incredible acting.

Oh, and please stay after the credits. I’m still amazed that there were people still leaving during the credits even though the previous Marvel movies always have after credits scenes!

It’s no where as cool as the Avengers eating shawarma, though.

If you have any comments and suggestions, please feel free to leave them below!