Iron Man 3: The ComicBook.com Review [Spoilers Ahead]

 Shane Black crafts a terrific, stand-alone movie that manages to combine all the best elements of the Iron Man franchise in a satisfying package. The performances are uneven and the humor often falls flat, but the script is excellent and Tony’s character ends in the perfect place, whether Robert Downey, Jr. comes back or not.Iron Man 3 is a story about promises unfulfilled, and about illusion and perception. That’s a pervasive theme that’s incredibly effective in part because director Shane Black and his co-writer Drew Pearce managed to let it leak out of the film and become part of the film’s meta-narrative.Within the story of the film, there are certain expectations built up that the movie sets out to dash. There are illusions that exist for the characters, for the plot and for the Marvel Universe.Some of them, the characters are aware of and the viewer is made of almost immediately–War Machine wasn’t a sustainable name for an operative who would be so close to the President, Rhodey tells Tony in the first fifteen or so minutes of the film. It’s too aggressive. Iron Patriot is a rebranding–an attempt to shape the public perception of the role he plays via semiotics and the iconography of the flag, rather than substantive change. Aldrich Killian puts on a spectacular light show in the hopes of impressing Pepper, seducing her intellectually more than romantically.