While polarizing to sticklers for continuity, Iron Man 3 delivers much more than expected and is easily the best Iron Man movie as well as one of the best super hero movies.

Iron Man 3 finds Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) struggling after the events of the Avengers. He is having major anxiety with panic attacks any time anyone mentions New York and can’t sleep as he obsessively works on new iterations of his armored suit in an effort to prepare for any possible danger that might threaten those he cares about. When a bombing perpetrated by newly emerged  terrorist calling himself the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) injures someone close to Stark, he springs to action and finds that all that paranoia and obsession has been blinding him to real threats looming at his periphery.

It is somewhat difficult to really dig into this movie without spoilers. A lot of surprising things happen here and it is really nothing like the movie you might imagine it is from the trailer. For some people, this will be a bad thing if they have difficulty separating what happens in the comics from what happens here. There is already some backlash towards the movie for some of its choices and while I understand on one level I completely disagree with the detractors on another.

There has been a worry cropping up lately that comic book movies in general and super hero movies in particular are going to burn out and crash due to over saturation and repetition. Even comic fans are showing signs of franchise and genre fatigue and to those people I point to Iron Man 3 as the antidote. With this film, writer/director Shane Black has given us a different sort of movie than we have seen previously and shows that just like in the comics there are different sorts of stories that can be told about these heroes. In the comics it is easier as you can plan out the arcs and take several issues to resolve it or do a one or two month long arc that is much cheaper to produce than a movie so you see a lot of creative sorts of stories that take the characters to different places and show them in a different way. It is a huge gamble to do that for a film as it is a lot more expensive and it is just 2 hours and 2o minutes worth of material that has to last fans for years. I honestly never thought I would see anyone do it.

Iron Man 3 puts the focus much more solidly on Tony Stark as a person and what being Iron Man costs him and the people around him. It also explores the concepts of security, trust and loyalty. There are a lot of moving parts here with Guy Pearce stepping in as Aldrich Killian, the head of Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM) who wants Tony to work on his Extremis project with him while making a bit of a play for Tony’s girlfriend and head of Stark Industries Pepper (Gwyneh Paltrow) in addition to the Mandarin threat. The US government has also re-branded War Machine as Iron Patriot which Stark’s friend Jim Rhodes (Don Cheadle) still controls and how this power is used plays a big part in the proceedings.

Even with all these balls in the air, the one constant is Tony Stark and his struggle to find himself in the midst of great turmoil. He has to dig deep inside himself to find out who he really is and what it really means to be Iron Man both for himself and for the people who count on him. It is kind of amazing that so much can go on and the film never loses its central focus and manages to deliver satisfying conclusions to all of it. It is hard to talk about while being vague about details but suffice it to say there is a lot going on and it is handled expertly.

One fear I had going in from the trailers is that the movie was going to be too dark and overwrought and lacking in the signature humor the series and character is known for and I am very happy to report that the worry was unfounded. There are certainly heavy themes at work here but the movie is also really, really funny. Stark has some of the best dialogue of the series, and that includes the Avengers, and that wit and humor extends to other characters and events in the movie. The tone of this film is both spot on and awesome and shows that you can deal with serious and heavy topics while still having a sense of fun and excitement. It doesn’t all have to be doom and gloom darkness. Not all super heroes are Batman and it is good to see that, once again, Marvel understands that.

The performances are great across the board  here with Robert Downey Jr turning in his best and most nuanced performance as Stark yet. Guy Pearce is terrific as Killian and makes for a very convincing and effective opposite number of Stark. Killian is kind of what they tried to pull off in Iron Man 2 with Justin Hammer but he works so much better here. I give the credit to Shane Black’s writing as well as to Pearce being excellent. Gwyneth Paltrow, now in her fourth outing as Pepper, turns in her best performance of the character as well and shows the strength and growth she’s had across the films. She is proactive and strong and not merely some damsel to be saved. Ben Kingsley is also great with decidedly weird ass speech patterns as the Mandarin. I am not sure why he chose to go that way but I am glad he did. The character is fun here and I think Kingsley had a lot of fun playing him.

Don Cheadle gets even more of a chance to shine in this outing and he does just that. In all due respect to Terrance Howard, I am glad Cheadle is in the role as he matches Downey Jr in charisma and is just as fun to watch. He gets to do a bit more action here than in the past and that is awesome to see as well as he handles it very, very well. James Badge Dale, a favorite of mine from his stint on 24, does a great job as Killian’s thug Savin and Jon Favreau returns as Happy Hogan and reminds me that while I love him as a director, I miss him as an actor. Rebecca Hall turns in a good performance as Extremis creator Maya Hansen and handles her material very well.

Conclusion [10 out of 10]

I was a fan of the previous two films and I was worried that Iron Man 3 would stumble especially considering it is the first Phase Two film and the first Marvel movie after the incredible Avengers but in taking things in a new direction and providing a mostly self-contained film here, Shane Black has done what I feared was impossible. It is funny, exciting and completely satisfying. There are a couple of stumbling blocks for those caught up in comics continuity but it works for this movie and this series and you can always go read the comics if you want those details. For those who can let go of those issues, this is a great movie and shows what can be done with super hero movies if you step outside the typical blue print. I have zero complaints and highly recommend this. Also, it is very worth staying for the after the credits sequence.

Editor’s note: If you are interested in a more in depth discussion of Iron Man 3 complete with spoilers, please listen to The Gentlemen Radio Episode 49. Thanks!