After Iron Man 2 it’s easy to see why people thought this (mini) series was in need of a bit of a new direction. And this film provides it. I’m not sure it fits in very well with the main MCU movies, so I can see why this was the last Iron Man but it is among the better of the MCU movies for much of its runtime (if you can ignore the cartoon science).

SPOILERS!

What do you do when a hero seems invincible and always seems to have the same sort of villains? (i.e. people in Iron Man suits.) Well you make the hero less invincible and you make the villains more interesting, which is what this movie does.

So Stark’s house is destroyed and he’s off with only a beta suit in Tennessee and this adds a lot to what was a tired scenario. For at least a little while Stark is back in that cave in Afghanistan trying to figure out how to survive without all his infinite resources. Yes, they will eventually come back into play – of course they will – but at least we get to see him operate in a world in which he doesn’t have everything at his beck and call.

Apparently fans of the comics got a little angry about the twist with “The Mandarin” but, as someone who doesn’t care about this at all, and who likes a little bit of subversion, I really love this idea. It’s perhaps my favourite twist of the entire series and it has extra meaning for us all given Ben Kingsley’s history of being cast as brown people in the past.

The climax is a little ridiculous but this is Marvel after all. And I must admit that I do at least appreciate that Chekov’s gun went off. I’m not sure the odds were as equal as the film tries to make them, but it works better than “And now it’s time for Iron Man to fight Bigger Iron Man” Part 3.

Anyway, this is much better than Iron Man 2.

7/10