Certificate: 12A
Running Time: 130 Minutes
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Guy Pearce, Ben Kingsley, Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle
Director: Shane Black
Everyone’s favourite genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist returns for a third solo outing. He also has the honour of being the first Marvel superhero to come out swinging in phase 2 of the Avengers franchise. And where are the Avengers you might ask? Well, with one amazing cop-out of a line they are explained away – ‘This isn’t superhero business. It’s American business’
This time – it’s Shane Black who has taken on the directorial duties and he’s delivered an absolute treat of a film. The cocky one liners and hilarious henchman are straight out of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and like Bond and Batman before him, here we see our hero stripped of his power. The film is a lot less Iron Man and a lot more, well, man.
Suffering the after effects of his near death experience at the end of Avengers Assemble Stark now has to go up against The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley), a terrorist mastermind taking over America’s broadcast systems to threaten the general public. Thankfully, the character is nowhere near as culturally insensitive as the name suggests. At the same time Killian (Pearce) is back on the scene after creating Extremis, a DNA reprogramming method to regenerate and repair limbs. Or course, all is not as it seems.
This time around Stark is ably assisted by Rhodes (Cheadle) in the straight guy role. He walks away with a fair share of the laughs too.
For all the wisecracks, sidekicks and shiny gadgets our superhero is only as good as his nemesis. Almost everyone knows that Superman battles Lex Luthor, Batman takes on the Joker, Penguin and the Riddler. All but the most ardent of fans would be able to name this Iron Man enemy. Ben Kingsley does a sensational job with the character he’s given but there’s no sense that this character will go down in the history books.
Speculation now turns to whether Downey Jr. will return as Tony Stark in any further Iron Man outings or as part of the Avengers. His contractual obligations are now up. Hopefully, his ego (and agent) won’t get in the way and start demanding mega bucks from the studio. Of all the Avengers, Downey Jr. would be by far the most difficult role to recast.
Next up for our Avengers – Thor 2: The Dark World
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