Does The Man Make The Suit In Iron Man 3?

I've missed Iron Man 2, but thoroughly enjoyed Iron Man 3. All these Marvel comic-book storylines more or less follow the same formula: the good conquering the evil. The hero will never die - even if dead, only temporarily.

In this movie, industrialist Tony Stark (Iron Man) answers his own question: does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man? It's obviously the former and Writer/Director Shane Black (Lethal Weapon fame) did a terrific job of giving the audience more scenes of Robert Downey Jr. without his Iron Man armour. We see more of the Iron Man in vulnerable situations in this movie more than the rest in the sequel. But they make this comic-book hero more human at times.

We see Tony Stark as a playboy and a possibly good father figure. I love his interaction with the 11-year-old kid Harley Keener (played by Ty Simpkins who's also in Revolutionary Road). Stark is protective, witty and cool with kids. His playboy role is less impressive. The role of Maya Hansen, the researcher, is kind of superfluous and what a waste of Rebecca Hall's (Sir Peter Hall's daughter and famous for her roles in Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Frost Nixon) talent to play that role!

For those of you who are Ben Kingsley fans like me, you've all seen how he can be chillingly villainous in Sexy Beast (Oscar Nomination for Best Supporting Actor), but as The Mandarin, the 69-year-old Kingsley is just downright hilarious!

I've never liked Gwyneth Paltrow and find her as irritating as ever in this flick. Guy Pearce and Don Cheadle are both talented actors, but very mediocre in their respective roles as Colonel James Rhodes and Aldrich Killian in this film.

China is becoming a huge market for American films, so it's no wonder that Iron Man 3 got funding and input from DMG, a Chinese marketing and entertainment group. Apart from the villain, The Mandarin, I could hardly see any other Chinese elements. The movie was shot primarily in North Carolina and California, so I was disappointed when I mistakenly thought that it's partially shot in China. I heard that there's a Chinese version of the movie which added an extra four minutes to include a minor, irrelevant plot twist and a few shots of female heart-throb Fan Bingbing and another local star, Wang Xueqi. Maybe this is why the film has been compromised without Susan Downey (Robert Downey Jr.'s wife) as a producer for the first time in the Iron Man sequel!