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AFTER battling grandiose villains and teaming up with other superheroes, it’s back-to-basics for Iron Man in the third instalment of the multimillion-dollar franchise starring Robert Downey Jr.
Iron Man 3 has Downey Jr reprising his role of superhero industrialist Tony Stark from the frst two flms as well as last summer’s The Avengers. Collectively, the three flms have made about $2.7 billion at the global box offce in the past fve years.
Iron Man 3 centres around an evil extremist known as The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) who is hell-bent on destroying the US.
When The Mandarin destroys Stark’s personal life and his superhero suit, he must begin from scratch, rebuilding his suit, freeing the woman he loves and saving the country from destruction.
Bombs go off in crowds of people and buildings are destroyed in the flm that the cast says refects real-life threats.
“We do live in an unsafe world, that’s the truth,” said Gwyneth Paltrow, who plays Downey’s love interest, Pepper Potts.
“I don’t think there is anything wrong with presenting that idea. We can’t lie to our children and pretend the world is perfect.”
Marvel’s frst self-fnanced flm, 2008’s Iron Man, became a global phenomenon, transformed Downey Jr into a superstar and set off a chain of action movies that spawned other Marvel franchises, culminating in last year’s crossover flm, The Avengers.
However, in 2009, Walt Disney Co bought Marvel Entertainment Inc for $4billion, and Iron Man 3 is Disney’s frst release in the franchise.
