IRON MAN 3

It's armor time!  There's lots of action -- and a good deal of investigation too -- as the Marvel superhero franchise continues with Iron Man 3.  This latest film adds a bit more angst to the mix.

Following the events of The Avengers, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is a mess.  He hasn't been sleeping, is worried about protecting his girlfriend Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), keeps tinkering with his suits of Iron Man armor, and suffers panic attacks when he thinks about what happened in Manhattan.

There are also plenty of threats too.  A mysterious terrorist mastermind called the Mandarin (Kingsley) is orchestrating terror acts to teach America a lesson.  Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), once spurned by Tony Stark, is somehow connected with the Mandarin.  Killian also has a biological creation called Extremis, which lets people heal almost any injury in seconds, glow with amazing heat -- and occasionally explode.

James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) wants to help Tony but is busy -- as the Iron Patriot -- chasing down leads on the Mandarin.  Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall), a one-night-stand of Tony's from years ago, is a biologist who may have information on Killian and Extremis.  And when a massive attack on Tony's home destroys everything, Tony goes essentially undercover and without resources (but with the help of a spunky kid) to figure out what's going on.

I suspect Iron Man 3 will wrap up Iron Man as a star, though I have little doubt he'll be in future Avengers movies.  As for this outing, it's something of a mixed bag.  Downey Jr. is great as always as Tony Stark, here given more vulnerability as well as genius as he seems to suffer from PTSD while still battling on.  The storyline also works quite well, as most characters rely on their intelligence rather than brute force.  That said, there are plenty of plotholes here (not the least of which is how Stark wanders through the whole middle of the movie virtually powerless, yet is able to call dozens of suits for the finale) and most of the other actors don't have much to do (though Guy Pearce makes for a fine villain).  In the end, Iron Man 3 is a good but not great, solid but not spectacular, wrap-up to Shellhead's movie trilogy.

Overall grade: B
Reviewed by James Lynch

Lockout (2012)

 Star Wars Has Nothing To Fear
 
I can't begin to describe Luc Besson's Lockout without making
reference to Star Wars.  Not because Lockout deserves to be mentioned
in the same galaxy as that 1977 classic, but to highlight that the
similarities between the two do not make Lockout especially
interesting.
 
Han Solo, I mean, Snow (Guy Pearce) is framed for espionage in 2071
America. He is given a chance to redeem himself if he goes aboard the
Death Star, I mean, maximum security orbital prison to rescue the
princess, I mean, First Daughter of the President of the United
States, Emilie Warnock (the lovely Maggie Grace).
 
As you can imagine, there is little rhyme or reason as to why the
First Daughter was even allowed to enter this space prison, nor why
she did not go with at least a battalion of Marines to guard her.
Yes, the inmates are all kept in stasis while there, but why the
prison warden allowed her to meet with the lunatic Hydell (Joseph
Gilgun) is beyond plausible explanation.  Nor do I care.  The entire
setup of this movie ignores logic at almost every turn.  What follows
is a station crawl as Snow and Emilie try to evade and escape from the
Imperial stormtroopers, I mean, prisoners, hunting for them.
 
Spoiler Alert (and lots of them):  Given the chance to escape, Emilie
refuses to go, allowing her escape pod to leave without her.  Ugh.
The leader of the prisoners (who of course all come out of stasis -
did you have to ask?) is Alex (Vincent Regan) brother of the crazy
Hydell, who assumes command of the prisoners without explanation as to
why they would follow him in particular.  Perhaps it is his cool
beard.
 
Also, the orbital prison is destroyed at the end of the film by an
attack of X-wings, I mean, American space fighters, which shoot a
missile into the center of the station to blow it up.  No, really,
that is what happens!
 
Snow is your typical wisecracking tough guy/special ops/cop type, and
his character shows promise at times.  I could also see him being put
into a sequel that is better than this first installment.  That being
said, he is not very much different from any other tough guy of the
genre, and apart from the heavy Star Wars similarity, the film most
reminds me of Die Hard, with the lone American battling an
international cast of space bad guys. 

Lockout is not terrible.   It is not that good either.

-Marc