[JD10367]

Saw it last night. It was... interesting. I think it's good. I think I liked it. But it's... strange.

Spoiler!

From the get-go. (Strange choice of music, strange narrative.) Plot's a bit lighter on action than most people will like. Not sure what the Iron Man canon is but I get the feeling it plays fast and loose with it (i.e. Mandarin, Pepper Potts). As a film, it felt a bit rushed from scene to scene, with a lot of info packed in without much exposition or time to sink in; many people will be, like, "Wait... what?" It actually could've benefited by being a bit longer so things would have more time to absorb, a la "Avengers". It's a very story-driven film, with much less of "let's watch Iron Man do cool shit" and more "let's watch Tony Stark out of the suit having to deal with various issues". Just overall kinda weird. (Especially the weird man-boy-bond subplot in the middle that seemed to have no real purpose that I can discern aside from squeezing in one-liners and capturing a youth demographic, and later giving them the opportunity for a lot of corporate logo sponsorship. You'll understand when you see the film.) But the few set action pieces they had were well done (house destruction, Air Force One, multi-suit end-battle). Sound was excellent, 3D was well done like "Avengers" (nothing "comin' at ya!" gimmicky, in fact after it started I never even thought about the 3D part). I'm not really sure I liked it any better than "Iron Man 2", although "3" has more story to it. I'll have to see it again. I think true Iron Man fans will enjoy it, but I don't think the general public will have much affection for it, and it won't do the kind of business "Avengers" did.