Iron Man 3: Five Things They Did Right

In spite of a number of flaws, Iron Man 3 was a pretty good movie–not that you needed us to tell you that, since it’s clearly resonating with audiences, having made $175 million this weekend.Once some of the more major spoilers started to hit the Web for Iron Man 3, it became clear that the movie wasn’t going to please everyone. More akin to The Dark Knight Rises than The Avengers, director Shane Black and his co-writer Drew Pearce took some chances–some of which paid off and some of which didn’t.But the ones that paid off were, in general, pretty impressively done. We’ve already told you what we didn’t love about this movie–and been chastised by the fans of the film for it. What did we like? Read on…They gave us an ending.Everybody loves a trilogy, and while most fans are still hoping for more Iron Man films with Robert Downey, Jr., this movie did its best to give fans a conclusion that will allow the films to seem definitive if, five years from now, somebody else is in the suit for Iron Man 4.In doing so, Shane Black and co-writer Drew Pearce did something that’s remarkably hard to pull off in a feature film: they provided fans with an ending that’s satisfying in its own right, without closing too many doors.There was reportedly an alternate ending out there, where Tony offered Pepper that he would give up being Iron Man in order to convince her to give up her powers. I’m glad that didn’t make it to the screen, as it diminishes everyone involved–Pepper seems power-hungry, and Tony seems controlling, not to mention the fact that he isn’t Iron Man just for himself anymore, and quitting the gig because his girlfriend is being difficult seems like a decidedly unheroic way to go out. Still, that final scene with Tony throwing away the Arc Reactor could have been filmed for either version, with Tony’s voiceover/chat with Banner being the only way you know which way it would go.