When Tony Stark’s world is torn apart by a formidable terrorist called the Mandarin, he starts an odyssey of rebuilding and retribution.

Ok, Avengers Phase 2 begins here and get’s off to a strong start
Many people were put off by the low showing by Iron Man 2 and I can totally understand that, it wasn’t the top notch film it could have been, but as part of a whole, it added to Avengers

*Spoilers ahead*

So now we are in Phase 2 and after the events of the Alien invasion of New York by Loki and his alien army, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is suffering from Post Traumatic stress Disorder and having nightmares about the invasion that he nearly gave his life to stop.
This is also causing issues with his relationship with Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow), who is now completely running Stark Industries (didn;t she quit the job at the end of Iron Man 2?!?) and Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) is now her bodyguard and the head of Stark Industries security aswell

The film starts strongly before kicking back to a flashback of Tony at New Years 1999/2000 and we meet Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall), a molecular botonist not only having a fling with Tony, but looking for his help to make her research, named “Extremis”, work, without blowing up.  At this point we also meet Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), who tries, and fails spectacularly, to try and get Tony to join AIM (Advanced Ideas Mechanics), but Tony leaves him waiting on the roof of the hotel without meeting him as the Year 2000 celebrations kick off

We then jump back to the present day and again Aldrich Killian is a very changed man, but still trying to team up with Tony and bring him into AIM, at this point, Happy becomes suspicious and starts to follow up on Aldrich and his bodyguard.  This leads Happy into an explosive situation that lands him in the hospital and rattles Tony’s cage.   This is where we properly meet the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley), an enigmatic terrorist, more than happy to kill and threaten to get what he wants. 

Tony, now rattled, threatens the Mandarin via the press outside the hospital and brings us back to the opening, explosive action scene.

Now, the first thing to notice about Iron Man 3 is how it’s shot.   There is a huge difference between this and all the Phase 1 Avengers films.   It’s much slicker, the special effects are a massive step up, but there is a LOT of comedy. 
Shane Black, does a great job with the film, even the slow parts of the film are filled with content to keep you interested.  But when you realise that this is the same director who wrote most of the Lethal Weapon films, you start to see just how well he has done the film for the star and in Robert Downey Jr. he has a star that can pull off comedic moments, even if the heaviest of action (although it’s a shame Iron Man 3 could be the retirement film for RDJ as shellhead).  The story and direction of the film follows Stark fantastically, there’s no getting to know this character, there’s no character development for the main cast as we’ve had two films for that already.
BUT, thats where the film falls over for other characters like Maya Hansen, Killian and ESPECIALLY the Mandarin.  The film leaves a lot of WTF moments, ESPECIALLY for comic book fans who know all these story moments and wonder, not only why they are there, but why they are merging characters…   Ok, Iron Patriot can’t be Norman Osbourne, not yet anyway, or at least until Sony and Disney do a deal to bring Spiderman back into the fold, but Iron Patriot in the comics was Norman Osbourne when he made the government turn on the Avengers and he took over and made the Dark Avengers and he stole all Tony’s armour secrets.

These issues aren’t just limited to Iron Patriot, but also the main plotline of the film, “Extremis”!  In the comics, it was Tony that was infected with the virus, but it allowed him to merge with the armour and changed the way he used it, not so here and I think that was a major mistake for the fans, we want the Extremis armour, we want to see the armour not just flying to Tony, but coming out of his body and being part of him!

Did these things hurt the film?  No, the character development hurt it a little, but the huge story changes from the comics, not so much.
Now, Phase 2 of avengers has a strong start, as I mentioned above, but we have a few films that could go either way and hurt the franchise…

We’re into mainly sequels now and here’s hoping the good pace that Shane Black started with Iron Man 3 is kept up with the rest.  
Thor 2 is potentially the one that could sink Phase 2, Thor was generally left on the back burner of Phase 1, people are happy to leave it and Thor 2 could go the same way, but we’ll have to wait until October to find out, but it’ll be worth the wait

If you’ve seen all of Phase 1, watch Iron Man 3.  If you haven’t, watch them first or you will be missing key info needed to enjoy this film

Solid 8/10 though

~Lone