Harvey Dent, can we trust him? Oh wait wrong movie.

Iron Man 3:

Story:

A post-alien invasion Tony Stark, fights his inner demons as well as a terrorist mastermind known as The Mandarin.

Review:

Several years ago, the first Iron Man film came out and was a tremendous box office success. It featured a rich guy fighting bad guys in a suit. A few years after that, Iron Man 2 came out, again with a rich guy fighting bad guys in a suit, as well as his military buddy in a suit. Again, box office success.

Both movies lead to the upcoming Avengers film, which featured several people with extraordinary powers/skills who united to fight an alien invasion of epic proportions. This film was the biggest success of the Marvel franchise, and even brought about the concept of multi-franchise crossover to the superhero genre.

Now, Iron Man 3 has hit theaters, accompanied by new director Shane Black and the returning cast from the previous Iron Man films.

So, how does this installment stack up to the previous films in the storyline?

Well for starters, it is a lot more serious, while also being incredibly cheesy. While that isn't entirely foreign to the Iron Man series, it is a slightly irritating signature of Iron Man 3. Never will you hear so many jokes as this one had. It almost felt like watching a Brett Ratner movie.

The forementioned cheesiness also hinders the story, which is for the most part, the most darkly serious Marvel story in film. The jokes during moments which would normally be serious serve to undermine those moments (and there are many of those moments).

As far as acting goes, Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, and Ben Kingsley all do their parts amazingly genuinely, with each character portrayed at their best.

Overall this is a delightful Iron Man 3 film, with what is possibly the most amazing ending action sequence in an Iron Man film and possibly in all the Marvel movies except for Avengers. The barrage of special effects just serves to be a visual treat, especially in 3D. Iron Man 3 just would have been better without the abundance of cheesiness.