Iron Man 3 is the third and final film in Marvel Studios' highly-successful series.
Robert Downey Jr returns for what would be the fifth (but far from final) time in the role that made him a mega-star. The plot this time pits him against the classic comic-book villain The Mandarin (in a decidedly not classic riff on the character), played by actor Ben Kingsley. The larger villain is Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), the jealous rival owner of Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.).
Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle and Jon Favreau return to their roles as Pepper Potts, James Rhodes and Happy Hogan.
Favreau hands the directing reigns to Shane Black, who co-wrote the screenplay with Drew Pearce, and who had previous good experiences working with Downey on Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
The movie is a mixed bag, with a somewhat overblown finale that promised to retire Star from the role of Iron Man. The retirement didn't take though as Iron Man became a key figure in five more Marvel films that followed.
