Oiled up and ready for action

Film review: Iron Man 3 (PG)
Running time 130 minutes
Rating:**

Now that we are entering the season of the action blockbuster, cinema audiences will have to be very quick on their cultural toes if they are going to keep abreast of who is shooting whom, with what new weapon, and with what nasty end in sight for the world, universe, or even the next door neighbours.
For it doesn’t matter whether your crash-bang movie comes from a cult television series (Star Trek: Into Darkness), from a comic book aimed at kids (Iron Man 3), or just some fevered film executive’s brow (Olympus Has Fallen), we are all going to see a lot of death, mayhem and mischief this summer.
Having watched the Olympus Has Fallen saga, with an impressively high body count, and planning to see Star Trek next week, anyone could be forgiven for momentarily forgetting the title of the film they’re watching, such are the similarities between them in narrative terms.
Iron Man 3 is the latest in what seems like an endless stream of Marvel Comics adaptations, designed to give Michael Downey Jnr permanent employment until his joints rust up permanently.
Mr Downey is a fine actor, who does well to give life, animation, and even some character, to a lump of metal. Unfortunately, the reoccurring themes risk tiring us all and driving us back to British films about ordinary people again.
Iron Man 3 starts with a bearded terrorist called Mandarin, threatening the world with bombs that arrive in position mysteriously, blow up without leaving any evidence, and make politicians and Iron Man sorely displeased.
Iron Man unwisely challenges Mandarin to do his worst – a challenge he accepts with extreme prejudice and a nasty laugh. From then on the plot becomes confusing, but an old girlfriend, a disappointed fan of Iron Man and an evil Vice President of the USA all feature.
There is much blowing up of things, many people go to meet their maker prematurely, and Iron Man’s paintwork is badly scratched.
Although Robert Downey Jnr does his best to give this metal man some character, with merry quips and apologetic stage whispers, and Ms Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow) tries some metal cross-dressing, it’s hard to escape the fact that this film is a faithful adaptation of a comic book aimed at teenagers in the 1960s.
And no matter how many special effects you use, and how many plot twists you employ, the bottom line is, it’s childish and unfulfilling. That said, the explosions are quite fun.