Iron Man 3 Review

" A great sci-fi action movie...
but one that practically tramples the 
characters of the source material."

Robert Downey Jr. returns from his schwarma-themed superhero convention codenamed "The Avengers" for a third installment in his Iron Man film series. But departing from a movie that had Norse gods, super-freaks and aliens, how does Downey fair in getting back to the roots of his character? 

Iron Man 3 shows Tony Stark (Downey) back home and dealing with the trauma and anxiety of a man shaken right to the soul. No longer is his world all fun and games, he now knows that there's a bigger world out there he doesn't have all the answers to and the people close to him are potential targets to his enemies. His girlfriend Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) are especially worried about his state of mind since he spends the majority of his time working upgrading his suit...expecting for the worst to happen. 
Here arrives the Mandarin (Sir Ben Kingsley) an anarchistic terrorist who has put Tony into his crosshairs and is out to completely destroy everything and everyone he loves. Using the technological virus called Extremis, he has developed a power superior to the Iron Man armour that will be a deadly instrument in his plans. Wounded and alone, Stark promises to set things right by confronting the Mandarin and protecting the ones around him. 
What Iron Man 3 excels best at is taking the character of Tony Stark into a mature but still likeable journey. Taking over from former director Jon Favreau is new Marvel man Shane Black who is able to mingle well with the tone of this series without taking it too far away from its roots. Strong themes are delivered in this story that shows some of the best acting Downey and the other cast members have brought to the series yet. 
New additions come in the form of Kingsley, who's Mandarin character really doesn't fit all that comfortably in the plot, but makes up for it with an almost show-stopping performance. Key word is "almost" since, without delving into spoilers, his role is very minimal and not the main focus in terms of bad guy face time. That belongs to Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) who plays well off as a foil to Stark, though you can figure out in about 2 seconds flat that this guy is your cardboard cut-out villain. 
The action scenes have never been better in the series than here. As the trailer shows, Tony's house is forced into an afternoon swim at a certain point in the film and it truly is a highlight of drama and spectacle. Even for a superhero movie though, the science logic does get a little too nonsensical for the Iron Man mythos. One can buy a super-powered bad guy with heat powers...but breathing fire is just overpowering the cool factor.
Iron Man 3 is a great movie...if you can forgive the twisting of these characters from their comic book counterparts to the point of near breaking them in two. Turns are taken in this last chapter that will make sense to some fans and leave others scratching their heads for days on end. It remains on-par with the same intensity delivered in the first film.