Iron Man 3 (Black) 2013

Robert Downey Jr. is back playing Tony Stark in the third of his own films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this time directed by Shane Black.

We pick things up not long after the Battle of New York from The Avengers and find that Tony is having trouble sleeping after what he experienced during that battle. The film begins with a flashback to New Year's Eve 1999 where Tony meets a scientist named Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall) and a disabled scientist named Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) who tries to set up a business meeting with the younger Stark.

Flash forward to the present day and the world is under pressure from an eccentric terrorist called The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) who claims responsibility for a number of bombings around the globe. Tony publicly announces his private address in an attempt to flush out The Mandarin, who sends attack helicopters to destroy his seaside villa.

Following the attack, Tony is left on his own with a broken Iron Man suit and, with the help of a young boy name Harley (Ty Simpkins), he begins to investigate some of the bombings, only to discover they may not be bombs after all.

The feelings that Tony deals with throughout this film are very indicative of PTSD related to the Battle of New York. The fact that the film deals with this issue, albeit somewhat indirectly, is impressive and Downey plays the man on the verge of a psychotic episode well. My one issue with this is how easily he is able to mentally reset and get down to business when the time comes, something that most soldiers dealing with similar mental and emotional issues following wartime stress don't experience.

As with The Avengers, there is a now iconic scene, this time featuring Tony using his Iron Man suit to rescue a group of staffers and flight attendants ejected from Air Force One during an attempt to kidnap the president. It is an impressive scene and even knowing how it ends, I was on the edge of my seat this time around.

Like both previous Iron Man films, Iron Man 3 nabbed a nomination for Best Visual Effects, losing out to the Sandra Bullock film Gravity.

Iron Man 3 keeps the story moving forward while allowing us to see the "broken" side of one of the main characters. While not critical to understanding Endgame, this one nicely rounds out the Iron Man trilogy.

​​9 out of 10

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