It looks like this summer’s really shaping up to be a great season for genre films, and the verdict is finally in on two of the biggest.
The first reviews just came in for Star Trek Into Darkness, which are pretty good so far, and now the first reviews are in for Iron Man 3, which has a lot to prove considering the second one didn’t deliver, not to mention it’s following up the incredible success of The Avengers.
Well, from what we’ve been reading, it looks like the third Iron Man has indeed passed the test and it will be a big winner this summer. A Fandango poll listed the third Tony Stark adventure as the most anticipated movie of the summer, and judging by the reviews so far, the movie absolutely delivers.
Veteran critic Todd McCarthy wrote in The Hollywood Reporter, “After nearly crashing and burning on his last solo flight in 2010, Iron Man returns refreshed and ready for action in this spirited third installment…Brandishing at least a couple of killer twists, this will be the (early) summer’s first massive hit.”
While we’ll have to wait until 2015 for the next Avengers film, Iron Man 3 apparently is a sequel of sorts to The Avengers because it takes place after the events of that movie. (In one scene, Tony Stark says, “Nothing has been the same since New York.”)
IGN writes that this is “the finest Iron Man movie yet, a sequel that rights the wrongs of Iron Man 2,” and the Guardian gave it four stars out of five. “Iron Man 3 is smart, funny and spectacular,” the Guardian writes, and Digital Spy also called it “a witty, well-oiled entertainment machine.”
You know Robert Downey Jr.’s going to be great, he couldn’t give a bad performance if he tried, but what’s a great superhero movie without an amazing villain. Apparently in this regard, Ben Kingsley delivers, and the reviewers are also giving him high marks as The Mandarin, who the Telegraph writes may be “the smartest screen interpretation of a villain since Heath Ledger’s Joker.” Now that right there is reason enough to see the movie.
And yes, like the previous Iron Man films, make sure you stay until the very end to see what’s to come, either in Avengers 2, or another Iron Man film. From these reviews, it looks like Tony Stark will keep going for years to come, and one reviewer also hopes that Shane Black, the creator of the Lethal Weapon series who wrote and directed Iron Man 3, will tackle another superhero movie again.
