Iron Man 3

ACTION/ADVENTURE

The Demons We Create

8.5 out of 10 | Movie and DVD

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Rated: PG-13 Sequences of intense sci-fi action violence throughout, and brief suggestive content
Release Date: May 3, 2013
Runtime: 2 hours 20 minutes

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Director: Shane Black
Writers: Shane Black, Drew Pearce
Cast: Robert Downey, Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Ben Kingley, Rebecca Hall, Jon Favreau, James Badge Dale, Stephanie Szostak, Paul Bettany, William Sadler, Ty Simpkins, Miguel Ferrer

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SYNOPSIS:  After the events in New York City fight off the alien attack alongside Captain America, Hulk, Thor, Hawkeye and Black Widow, Tony Stark's world is further torn apart by a formidable terrorist called the Mandarin. After those he holds dear are put into jeopardy, Stark starts an odyssey of rebuilding and retribution.

REVIEW: Shane Black re-invented the action genre with his screenplay for Mel Gibson's Lethal Weapon. After writing The Long Kiss Goodnight, Black slipped into the background for a period of time before he and Robert Downey, Jr. on the 2005 Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. That film may have been the catalyst that reintroduced both into A-list territory again. Now they collaborate again, with writing efforts from Drew Pearce (the upcoming Pacific Rim), with the fourth adventure of the armored avenger named Iron Man.

The alien attack on New York City from a wormhole connected to the other side of the galaxy is over. The Avengers have disbanded for the moment. Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr., The Avengers), still suffering from the aftermath of the battle and his near death experience, finds he can not sleep and finds himself spending sleepless nights making new Mark armors. Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow, Contagion) has moved in with Stark at his Malibu ocean front home, with her and Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau, Identity Thief) working at Stark Industries. Colonel James Rhodes (Don Cheadle, Flight) still pilots the War Machine suit, repainted and renamed the Iron Patriot as it serves the United States' interests.  AIM think tank director Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce, Prometheus) approaches Pepper with the idea of rewriting the human DNA structure for healing people, but she worries that the technology is too easily concerted to a weaponized version. All the while, United States President Ellis (William Sadler, Man on a Ledge) and Vice President Rodriguez (Miguel Ferrer, The Manchurian Candidate) deal with a new terrorist threat in the form of The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley, The Dictator), a man who hi-jacks the airwaves with announcements of America's corruption and need for cleansing fire. When a bomb blast puts Happy in a coma, Tony declares to the public that The Mandarin is in Iron Man's vengeful cross-hairs. Tony's public announcement sets off a chain reaction of destruction and damage that tests the limits of both the Iron Man suit and Tony's determination and abilities.

Tony Stark has come a long way from his abduction and captivity in the desert under the thumb of the Ten Rings. He has endured threats from within his own company and threats by his own government. Now a hero in the eyes of the nation, he must deal with internal demons revolving around his own insecurities against defending against the unknown, and new international terrorist threats that strike too close to his own home and family. Insomnia and anxiety rule his life, even with the support of Pepper.

Shane Black brings a different dynamic and tone to the third solo Iron Man adventure. Pulling his source from the 'Extremis' storyline, Black and Pearce create a modern villain to put in Tony Stark's path, coupling that hidden threat with the public face of Iron Man's most famous nemesis, The Mandarin. Tony Stark must face overwhelming powerful enemies, face questions about his own mortality against the likes of gods, aliens, and monsters, and face the fact that even with all of his armor he must rely on his own guile and wit. In the first two Iron Man films, Stark's genius created the Mark suits to win the day. In Iron Man 3, the power of the suits in simply not enough - no matter how smart Stark is.

Robert Downey, Jr. shows again why there is no other choice to fill the Mark suits as Tony Stark. Its not just the designer sunglasses and well groomed facial hair. Downey, Jr. has the humor, physicality, snark, and range to put Tony through all of his paces. Jon Favreau acts his namesake as Happy Hogan, happy to be an actor instead of pulling directing duties as well. He even gets to play detective for a bit. Paltrow shows she is not just a pretty face, donning the Iron Man suit on one occasion and kicking serious butt in another. Guy Pearce is at his slick, charismatic best as the rival genius Killian to Stark, taking Iron Man 2's Justin Hammer and adding a more beautiful exterior and a more mad scientist interior. Ben Kingsley, who may never hear the end of it from the devotee fans of the comics about his interpretation of The Mandarin, brings the Iron Man villain to an all-too-real modern era as a terrorist, losing the powers of the alien rings that the comics' Mandarin relied on to face the armored avenger. Rebecca Hall (Everything Must Go) joins the cast as bio-geneticist Maya Hansen. 
Joining the bad guys, James Badge Dale (The Grey) plays Killian #2 thug Savin and Stephanie Szostak (We Bought a Zoo) plays soldier Brandt. Paul Bettany (Priest) returns as the trusty A.I. servant Jarvis, and Ty Simpkins (Insidious) plays young Harley Keener, a kid that seems to set off Tony's anxieties with a couple simple questions.

Shane Black plays with a 70s motif and sensibility, making Tony Stark deal with a mystery that he may not be able to solve with computer models and simulations - or his powerful armor. Part Bourne Identity, part Mission: Impossible, part I Spy, Stark deals with a threat as fluid as Cold War tension and as real as Modern Era terrorism. Stay through the graphic end credits for the retro style and music to end cap Black's tone. Also stay until the end for an Easter egg scene. It's not as geek-tastic as some of the sequences we have seen in the past, but it is amusing.

Iron Man 3 is a different machine from previous outings. A little more serious than Favreau's films, this sequel has everything we have come to expect, and more. The only thing missing is the AC/DC soundtrack.

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Priest

Not Much To Sink Your Teeth Into

Director: Scott Stewart

Writers: Cory Goodman, Min-Woo Hyung

Stars: Paul Bettany, Cam Gigandet, Maggie Q, Karl Urban, Lily Collins, Christopher Plummer

SYNOPSIS: After centuries of war between humans and vampires, a tentative peace has been reached. With humans living behind the walls of mega-cities under church laws, vampires have prospered and gained strength. When his niece is kidnapped by the vampires, a warrior priest disobeys church doctrine to track her down.

Very loosely based on the original Korean comic graphic novel by Hyung Min-Woo and written by rookie film writer Cory Goodman, veteran visual effects man and Legion director Scott Charles Stewart re-teams with Paul Bettany for Priest. Gone are the zombies, the twelve fallen angels, and the rich complex story line from the comic, replaced with hordes of vampires and warrior priests. And instead of taking place in the times of the Crusades, the 19th century Wild West and modern day, Priest takes place in an alternate Earth's post-apocalyptic future.

The setting of the film alternates from the dark, ash-filled industrial religion run society with a look similar to Judge Dread and George Romero's Land of the Dead to a bright stark desert wasteland that hearkens back to Road Warrior: Beyond Thunderdome. Even the climax of the film tears a page out of Beyond Thunderdome's third act with the use of a desert train chase.

Priest strays wildly from the source material, and those who are not familiar with Min-Woo Hyung's graphic novel come away with a straight-forward vampire hunter revenge flick while fans of the Priest comic will be critical of the end product. Paul Bettany returns in great physical form as the dedicated warrior title character. Now that the wars against the vampires is over and the rest of the bloodsuckers have been forced on penal reservations, the warrior priests have been forced back into the general society structure within one of many mega-cities that the last of civilization cower within under the rule and protection of the Clergy.

When his brother Owen and his family is attacked, and niece is kidnapped, Priest disobeys Clergy doctrine in order to hunt down those responsible. Christopher Plummer stars as the head monsignor Orelas of the Clergy, bow beating and looking down on Priest with wonderful disdain and entitlement. Cam Gigandet joins the film as the wasteland Sheriff Hicks who enlists Priest's help, complete with a perfect 5 o'clock shadow and a knife throwing demonstration and target shooting right out of The Magnificent Seven. The antagonist simply named Black Hat (Karl Urban) steals his scenes with his ultra cool ex-priest, current-vampire hybrid performance. Finally, the women of the film, Priestess (Maggie Q) and the niece Lucy (Lily Collins), make good impressions, but are stunted by their lack of screen time. One good move made was that the vampires, other than Black Hat, are sightless, over-sized fanged mutants rather than glamorized pretty boys.

Although coming in at a vamp's tooth under 90 minutes, Priest still slowing plods along as it sets up the action scenes. One of the beginning scenes where Priest confesses to a prerecorded monsignor via a public confession booth and a microphone gives us a taste of a society that could have been explored further. One of the first larger action sequences in the bowels of the vampire "reservation" camps uses the smokey darkness to effective and creepy success. And in the climatic third act train chase, we are treated to a triad of cool sequences, from a furious fight atop the train cars between Priest and Black Hat, to Hicks moving through the rail cars trying to find Lucy, to Priestess looking to destroy the rail line while fighting off masked motorcycle marauders.

Whether in 2D or 3D, Priest should have tried to stay closer to its origins. The film is tight and somewhat steady but, ultimately, left me drained.

WORTH: Matinee or Netflix

The Tourist

Look for a Domestic Destination Instead

[Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie, Paul Bettany, Steven Berkoff, Timothy Dalton]

image from daemonsmovies.com

RANT: Today, an old man and his wife were in the theater. It was very touching to see the man take his wife from her wheelchair to the theater seat, put her drink in the armrest holder and cover her with the blanket they had brought with them from home. I could only imagine the richness of their lives together up to today.

SYNOPSIS: Elise Ward is the subject of a police investigation. As she trains to Venice, she selects Frank Tupelo, a math teacher from Wisconsin, as a diversion in order to reconnect with her criminal lover.

Screenplay writer and director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck brings Venice alive with this cat and mouse tale. All of the elements were in place with the story, the exotic locales and a top notch cast to be a hell of a ride. Unfortunately, even with Depp, Jolie and Bettany, The Tourist should have stayed home.

Angelina Jolie is sultry sexy and Johnny Depp is at his bumbling best. But even though Jolie's eyes could smolder a hole through a man, the chemistry between Depp and her is tenuous at best. Depp's character, Frank Tupelo, is a math teacher from Wisconsin targeted by Jolie's Elise Ward during the high-speed train to Venice. Elise uses Frank for his similar build to her long-missing criminal lover, Alexander Piers, in order to distract and confuse the investigators, led by Paul Bettany's Inspector John Acheson, who are running surveillance on Elise once in Venice. Add to that intrigue British drug lord Reginald Shaw who surrounds himself with Russian mercenaries bent on capturing Alexander Piers in order to get his stolen money back.

For a suspenseful cat and mouse drama, there needs to be the chance of failure or pain. Since Reginald Shaw directs his men to not harm the mistakenly targeted Tupleo, every bribe, every boat chase through the canals of Venice, every near miss is really just a shadow of effort. We also are certain that the beautiful Jolie will not be harmed, hurt or disfigured in The Tourist (nothing like Salt) since she is far too valuable as the porcelain doll that she is. Bettany brings a tired intensity as the long pursuing Inspector John Acheson. Berkoff somewhat relies on the Reginald Shaw reputation for murdering entire families (even the dog if it suits him), although he does get his hands dirty a little bit.

Although I had high hopes for this film - despite the critics' reviews - I have to side with the general consensus. Venice and Jolie are exquisite and Depp is ever fun to watch, but all together there is just not enough luggage to make it worth the trip.

Worth: Netflix

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