The first Iron Man was awesome, the second forgettable. The third falls somewhere in the middle. Downey is game for the sequel, Ben Kingsley rocks it as “The Mandarin”, the problem is the story. It’s kinda lame and lazy. The other big problem: too much unbelievable action in the last half hour. A character falls from a building or very high place and grabs onto something with two fingers…I can buy that type of scenario once but it happens too many times throughout the final act. So much that it completely took me out if the movie. And why add a kid as a sidekick? Stark doesn’t need Cousin Oliver hanging around. And finally, an annoying trend that has surfaced in several of this summer’s big movies: fake out tragedy. Character blank dies, other character gets mad and seeks revenge, character blank turns out to be fine thanks to convenient plot twist. Happy ending. Enough. I didn’t hate this movie but I was floored that critics heaped it with the praise they did. It was okay but I think the “Iron” series has run out of steam. Should have stopped after the first one.

Stormy Curry