“Iron Man 3” — Marvel-ous!

Full disclosure: As a lifelong Marvel Comics fan I am inclined to enjoy any Marvel movie simply because it exists. Any chance I get I’ll pop in the Blu-Ray of The Avengers and watch the last 40 minutes. It’s like comfort food.

So Iron Man 3 is my sort of thing but beyond that is a wholly unique movie. It is not only a “threequel” of a particular franchise, but also a follow-up to an epic blockbuster that in turn was the culmination of five movies in an intertwined cinematic universe. The journey to Iron Man 3 is long; some of the steps along the way suffered from the need to bend the plots in order to set up the next film. (I’m looking at you, Iron Man 2).

But IM3 is a post-Avengers Marvel movie and man does it feel different. Much of what plagued the last Iron Man film has been smartly avoided. Gone is the need to set up the next movie. Gone is the need to shoehorn in characters for the sake of using them later. What’s left is a focused and self-contained story that succeeds as both a standalone adventure and the culmination of Iron Man’s first story arc in his particular corner of the Marvel Universe.

Director Shane Black took the giant looming shadow cast by the scale and ambition of The Avengers and, instead of trying to match or surpass it, used it as an opportunity to show us the vulnerable side of Tony Stark.

We return to Tony Stark fresh off his experiences in The Avengers and struggling to be prepared for a world where demigods, aliens and a Hulk exist. He is paralyzed by the idea that he is nothing more than a man in a tin can, suffering frequent panic attacks at the mere mention of the movie’s climactic battle.

So what does he do? Well, for starters he builds a helluva lot more tin cans which, as alluded to in the trailer, leads to one of the film’s many great action sequences.

More importantly, he matures and we really begin to see what makes Tony Stark tick behind all the arrogance and well-timed quips. Have no fear true believer, its not all doom and gloom. Robert Downey Jr. is consistently entertaining and the movie is funny throughout because he refuses to phone it in. A flashback at the top of the movie that harkens back to the arrogant Tony Stark we saw in 2008’s Iron Man shows us just how far Downey has come from his initial portrayal.

Black’s emphasis on the “man” in Iron Man gives us a surprising amount of time with Tony Stark out of the suit, even in action scenes. In some of the most enjoyable ones, Stark displays his resourcefulness by “MacGyvering” his way to outmaneuvering the bad guys and using his suits in more ingenious and clever ways.

Returning cast members Gwyneth Platrow, Don Cheadle and Jon Favreau enjoy similar smart development of their characters. Guy Pearce portrays Aldrich Killian with the charisma of a great Bond villain. Tony Stark also teams up with a kid, played by Ty Simpkins, which sounds like a terrible idea but it isn’t because this is one child actor who doesn’t drive you crazy.

And then there is Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin, an international terrorist, inspired by real-world villains like Osama Bin Laden. Kingsley’s fantastic portrayal of Iron Man’s arch nemesis will polarize diehard comic fans. But as a comic lover, I found a juicy plot twist — I won’t spoil it here — involving the Mandarin completely mind-boggling.

Oh, and I would recommend seeing the movie in 3D. It is well used throughout the film and really enhances the action sequences. For instance, the attack on Stark’s Malibu home feels visceral — you can sense the mass and momentum of rubble falling a hundred feet into the depths of the ocean.

In this decidedly post-Avengers Marvel movie, Tony Stark finally embraces the role of hero. The soundtrack underlines this point with a distinct hero theme. When I heard someone humming the Iron Man Hero tune on the way out of the theater, I was quick to join in.

Michael Cotey is an actor and director and a co-founder of Youngblood Theatre.