Iron Man 3’ keeps Robert Downey Jr. in the driver’s seat
Despite feeling like a one-man show for Robert Downey Jr., ‘Iron Man 3’ delivers enough big laughs and bigger action scenes to prove that summer movies needn’t insult their audience’s intelligence.
- Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios
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Robert Downey Jr. disproves the idea that superheroic spectacles will always upstage their actors. The choice of Downey to play armor-wearing Tony Stark in Iron Man remains a casting master stroke. The movie star and comic book character share such traits as blazing talent, sizeable ego and famous character flaws. Downey brings not just wit and energy to the role, but an unusual level of personal involvement for a comic book movie. Plus, you get the impression that when Downey signed on, everyone involved in Iron Man and the whole apparatus of new Marvel movies upped their game.
Iron Man’s first sequel seemed pulled in too many directions to be a complete success, but Iron Man 3 delivers an abundance of big laughs and robust action scenes. At the same time, the film seems a little more concerned with keeping Downey center-stage and engaged than serving the movie audience, until Iron Man 3 feels as much like a one-man show as a film packed with A-list actors, explosions and CGI super-suits possibly can.