The Road to Infinity War – Iron Man 3 review

Director: Shane Black Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Guy Pearce, Ben Kingsley Released: 2013 With the stellar Avengers Assemble topping off the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s “Phase One” just a year previously, it’s safe to say that the pressure was on for the third instalment of the box office-crushing Iron Man franchise.  But with fan-favourite director Shane Black (the Lethal Weapon movies, Last Action Hero, etc.) at the helm, and the early trailers hinting that Ben Kinsgley’s Mandarin would be the ‘big bad’ of the movie, the pieces were definitely in place for yet another MCU slam dunk. As it turned out, Iron Man 3 would end up becoming easily the most contentious Marvel movie to date, with a “marmite” level fan response that, let’s be honest, is pretty well-deserved.  Yes people, there are some major problems with this one, but before we get to them, let me take a moment to point out that it’s not all bad here. I mean, there’s Robert Downey Jr. himself, who – four films in – continues to remove any trace of doubt from the fact that Tony Stark was the role he was born to play.  It also doesn’t hurt that Black [...]