We talked about the first film where all The Avengers came together; now it’s time for the last one where the original one shown flies (and as usual he literally does fly) solo.
Well, not quite. He does have his right hand man War Machine. The other Avengers, however, are nowhere to be found as Tony battles a fellow tech genius named Aldrich Killian. It’s a great conflict, and Guy Pearce plays his role to a T. Makes you lament the fact that the iconic movie Memento never made him an A-list star. Rebecca Hall is terrific as someone caught in the midst of the battle; years before her amazing performance in Christine she was already showing she’s more than a pretty face. My only quibble is that “The Mandarin” is merely lame when he’s supposed to be funny.
All that stuff ultimately takes a backseat to what anchors the film. Tony has grown as a person to the point where he’s a devoted boyfriend to Pepper and the question becomes whether he can put aside the danger of being Iron Man for the sake of his relationship with her. Beautiful performances from Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow make this very compelling.
Many people besides me liked this. It earned a robust 79% on the Tomatometer and grossed over SIX TIMES its budget with a total exceeding $1.2 billion at the box office. That’s how big a deal the MCU had become post-Avengers, especially with its anchor front and center.
Game: Two Oscar winners (Paltrow, Ben Kingsley), three nominees (Downey, Don Cheadle, briefly Mark Ruffalo)
Up next: Another direct sequel.
Bottom line: Not Iron Man’s bet outing but well worth watching.
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