I like Iron Man 3 a lot. I know people tend to rag on it because he gets paired up with a kid, but there's so much good stuff in it. And honestly what do you expect from the guy who wrote Lethal Weapon and Last Action Hero.

But damn, IRONMAN3ROX. So nice to see Don Cheadle back as the tested-better-with-focus-groups Iron Patriot. He and RDJ have such great chemistry, it's just such a joy to watch them bantering and taking the piss out of each other, something sorely missed in The Avengers. I guess his suit was in the shop.

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Directed by Shane Black, who also directed RDJ in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, this movie doubles down on the cool tech and triples down on the buddy-cop genre tropes, first pairing Stark with a precocious, tech-savvy youngster named Harley, and then with Cheadle again for most of the third act. Interestingly, KKBB is pretty much regarded as the start of the RDJ renaissance -- Jon Favreau reportedly considered Downey’s performance there the key reason to cast him as Tony Stark in Iron Man in the first place. So it's quite fitting that on this third entry, Favreau steps down from the director’s chair he occupied for IM1 and 2, letting Black take the helm.

Thankfully, Favreau still sticks around as the ever-faithful Happy Hogan, now proudly serving as (fore)head of security at Stark Industries. Aside from his mullet-sporting flashback and a few badge-centric early scenes, he doesn’t get a ton of screen time; for most of the movie he's stuck in a hospital bed, recovering from a bombing and binge-watching Downton Abbey.

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We also get a pretty fantastic performance from Guy Pearce as Aldrich Killian, channeling his best impression of Val Kilmer (star of such epic films as Top Secret and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang). His transformation from stammering Super Nerd to sleek, Big Brain CEO with abs and an evil plan is maybe a little over the top, but Pearce sells it wonderfully, even once he starts breathing fire.

Paltrow’s Pepper is her usual adorable self, with bonus points for getting to kick some real ass this time around. While the rest of the supporting cast ranges from fine to forgettable, I really liked James Badge Dale as Savin, Killian’s cheeky Trainspotting-reject enforcer. He’s got a great vibe, and his presence adds a much-needed edge to the Extremis goons, who are otherwise mostly lava zombies with bad tempers. And of course, we also get my main man Miguel Ferrer (aka Bob Morton from RoboCop) who I’m always happy to see show up anywhere, even if he only gets a few minutes of screen time here.

Some of the visual effects veer into cheesy territory, especially the red-glowy-skin Extremis stuff that sometimes looks like rejected shots from a Twilight sequel. But the set pieces more than make up for it: the close quarters fight on Air Force One and subsequent mid-air rescue over the ocean is a total showstopper, the compound breakout with Cheadle and Stark is a blast of buddy-action chaos, and the finale aboard the oil tanker with dozens of remote-controlled suits flying around is just fantastic.

And then there's Sir Ben Kingsley, in one of the best red herrings that the MCU has ever pulled off.

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Kingsley is first introduced as The Mandarin, a shadowy, Osama bin Laden-meets-Colonel Kurtz figure who hijacks TV broadcasts to issue cryptic, terror-soaked threats, complete with rings, robes, and a creepy voice that sounds like it was marinated in whiskey and gunpowder. For the first half of the movie, he seems like a legit Big Bad with epic swagger and menace. The absolutely brilliant twist that he’s not a terrorist mastermind at all, but a washed-up, dimwitted British actor hired by Aldrich Killian to play the role of the Mandarin as a cover for his own shady operations is played absolutely perfectly.

Kingsley's Trevor Slattery is all spaced-out charm and confused theatrics, more concerned with football matches and free drugs than global domination. It’s a huge tonal swing but Kingsley fully commits to the bit, and the movie is all the better for it. He turns what could’ve been a boring, one-dimensional villain into a bizarre, hilarious curveball that blindsides both Tony and the audience. It’s the kind of move only Shane Black could pull off, and Kingsley sells it so hard he ends up being one of the most memorable parts of the entire film.

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That said, fans were pretty split on the reveal. Casual audiences mostly rolled with the twist, but a lot of comic diehards hated it. The Mandarin is one of Iron Man’s biggest comic villains, a mystical, serious, rings-of-power type, so turning him into a joke rubbed a lot of folks the wrong way. I know for my part I was pretty excited when I heard it would be a Mandarin storyline, but honestly, I have no complaints with what we got. The original was a pretty heavy (and pretty outdated) stereotype anyway.

Box office wise, Iron Man 3 made serious bank. It pulled in $1.2 billion worldwide, making it the second-highest-grossing MCU movie at the time, behind only The Avengers ($1.5B). That’s a massive leap from the first Iron Man ($585M) and a big flex for Marvel to prove that the MCU could survive and thrive in the post-Avengers world. It also made it the fifth-highest-grossing film of all time at the moment of its release.

A billion-dollar haul for what’s essentially a Shane Black buddy-action movie with a superhero budget? That’s wild, and kind of brilliant.

Final verdict? Iron Man 3 might not be everyone’s (or anyone’s) favorite, but it’s weird, bold, occasionally bananas, and somehow still manages to stick the landing; fire-breathing CEOs, exploding plants, potato guns, and all.

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Potent Quotables

"I loved you in 'A Christmas Story' by the way."

"They say his Lear was the toast of Croydon, wherever that is."

"Then, they approached me about the role, and they knew about the drugs..."
"What did they say, they'd get you off them?"
"Said they'd give me more!"

"Yes, this is normal! It's a big bunny, relax about it!"

"Honestly, I hate working here. They are so weird."

My Personal Ranking

As I go through all the movies, I'm keeping a running tally of where they fit in my personal spectrum of best and worst of all the MCU offerings. Feel free to join in the conversation down below, I love seeing other people's lists!

Next up: We head back to Asgard for Thor: The Dark World, where the cosmic stakes get bigger and the hammer swings harder... and we get whole lot more Loki for better or worse. What is it with this guy?