Iron Man 3

Iron Man 3

While I’m wary of sequels proving popular for falling back on laughs – see last year’s Avengers and Skyfall – this is a damn entertaining film, better than the previous Iron, uh, Men by a mile and my pick for best Marvel Studios movie to date. Reuniting with the writer-director whose seminal Kiss Kiss Bang Bang gave him his comeback, Downey Jr delivers another plethora of gold one-liners, while the film’s pace is such that you know you’ll need to revisit the film to more fully appreciate them. With the 2005-06 Extremis run proving much more interesting story inspiration than the Iron Ripoff threat of the prior films, a dash of psychological intrigue distinguishing the piece from standard heroism fare (- a few scenes are clearly Watchmen-inspired), and some ingenious plotting that counters the weaknesses of some other Marvel movies, this is a fresh shot in the arm for the superhero genre 13 years into its cinematic renewal.