Iron Man 3 Blu-ray Review

By: Lynn Barker

In Iron Man 3, Since The Avengers saved the Earth, Iron Man Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) has been a nervous, obsessed mess, holed up in his lab determined to perfect his Iron Man armor. Not even his love Pepper Potts can really distract him but a blast from his past is about to blow his world away.

Iron Man and girlfriend Pepper

Story Goes

Since The Avengers battled aliens in New York, billionaire industrialist Tony Stark (aka Iron Man and Robert Downey Jr.) has been building the ultimate Iron Man armor while his romantic relationship with love Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) suffers from neglect. In a flashback to New Year’s Eve 1999 we learn that Tony hooked up with brilliant bio scientist Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall) while ignoring a pitch from eager scientist Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) who wants Tony’s backing for his company. Tony’s rejection will exact its revenge.

Smug Killian leaves the Stark Industry offices

In the present, When a mysterious string of bombings ends up sidelining Tony’s friend and security chief Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau), supervillain The Mandarin (Sir Ben Kingsley) claims responsibility. Tony urges the baddie to come get him and he does…bigtime, destroying Tony’s home and lab. Tony, in a damaged and malfunctioning Iron Man suit, follows intelligence he’s gathered on The Mandarin to Tennessee where Tony finds an ally in 10-year-old techie whiz Harley (Ty Simpkins).

The creepy Mandarin

Tony learns about the Extremis program supposed to allow those “infected” with it to recover from crippling injuries. There’s a huge flaw in the program however. If the user can’t assimilate the Extremis “virus”, he’ll just heat up and blow up! A lot of veteran test subjects have exploded, thus the Mandarin’s cover-up terrorist bombing plot. Tony’s investigation leads him to Miami where he learns that the real man behind the throne is that long-ago rejected scientist Aldrich Killian who has taken Maya’s Extremis research to cure his own disabilities, eventually hoping to also get even with Tony Stark.

Tony and Rhodey prepare to fight Killian

Killian kidnaps Pepper planning to turn her into one of his super “hot” soldiers in the hope that Tony will fix the project’s flaw to save her. Killian also lures James Rhodes (Rhodey played by Don Cheadle) into a trap. Rhodey, now Iron Patriot, teams up with Tony to escape and foil Killian’s plot to kill the President on Air Force One. Tony can now remotely control his Iron Man armor and saves passengers on the plane in a crazy, daring skydiving rescue. The President has been captured by Killian’s minions and taken to a huge dockside operation where Killian plans to off the Pres on live TV! It’s up to Tony, Pepper, now turned into one of Killian’s killer soldiers, and Rhodey as Iron Patriot to save the day.

Rhodey as Iron Patriot

Special Features

Audio Commentary- Director/writer Shane Black and co-writer Drew Pearce have a great buddy relationship but often make comments totally aside from what is happening on the screen. You do get some fun insider stuff so worth a listen.

Iron Man 3 Unmasked is a “Making-of” featurette with producer Kevin Feige, director Shane Black, stuntguys, production and visual effects guys as well as stars Robert Downey, Jr., Guy Pearce, Gwyneth Paltrow, and James Badge Dale, Don Cheadle etc. talking about their characters and story development. We see Robert wearing motion capture “dots” and flying through the air to film the scene in which Tony “calls” the parts of the Iron Man suit to him. 

Tony Stark with his damaged Iron Man suit

You learn how Tony’s posh home was designed and built and Gwyneth relates how fun it was to wear the Iron Man suit and do action. Finally, her kids think she’s cool! Robert makes funny faces and comments off camera and we see the final confrontation at the docks shot.  An interesting “how’d they do that” feature but pretty wide-reaching without concentrating on all production areas. There is so much more to cover.

Deconstructing The Scene: Attack On Air Force One breaks down the impressive scene in which Iron Man saves people falling out of the Air Force One plane. We learn that the falling victims were a skydiving team really jumping out of a plane! Sure, there were computer effects also used but we see that hidden parachutes were worn beneath their costumes and they are on ziplines at the end of the scene when Iron Man lets them go into the water. Really interesting and cool!

Skydiving stunt team on wires

Deleted and Extended Scenes – in these ten deleted and/or extended scenes we also get some funny outtakes from Joan Rivers commenting on the Iron Patriot costume and Sir Ben Kingsley extending his crazy “Trevor” character’s comments. An entire sequence in which Harley (Ty Simpkins of the Insidious films) is bullied and Iron Man helps him get even was removed from the film and it’s fun to see it here. Better than the average Deleted scene extras. Could have used a director commentary to explain why some of the scenes were cut.

Ty Simpkins as Harley

Gag Reel – This is funny with the usual actors crack ups; Gwenyth’s phone goes off during a take and Ty Simpkins gets a mouth full of fake snow, props fall over etc. Could always use more of this stuff.

Behind-The-Scenes Look – Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World – a short, selling piece on the upcoming new movie with a few comments from stars and director. Nice to have but not much to do with Iron Man.

Marvel One Shot: Agent Carter – This is another fun tie-in extra in which Captain America’s love, Agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) is bored at a desk job after Cappie’s apparent death. She gets to go on a cool, girl-empowering solo mission that results in her being put at the head of the S.H.I.E.L.D. program. Really enjoyable but was this a TV series pilot or….??

Wrapping Up

Iron Man 3 was a wonderful wrap-up to Tony Stark’s story. He has gone through the fire and come out a better man. The film is chocked full of impressive action and a great cast as well as some very cool personal relationship moments for our special Tin dude. It’s also cool to see Pepper Potts in the suit and later kicking major butt alongside her man and watch Tony interact with and be softened up by his relationship with a tween.

Pepper ready for action!

The Blu-ray looks and sounds great and the extras are all enjoyable and well-worth watching. I could have used more behind-the-scenes detailed info and even more of a reel of funny outtakes. You know with Downey, there had to be a ton of good ones.

The extras featuring Thor and Captain America’s sweetie Agent Peggy Carter are a fun addition although they don’t relate directly to Iron Man. Still what is there is fun so we go four out of five stars for the Blu-ray release.

Iron Man 3 Blu-ray Rating:

Iron Man 3 Blu-Ray cover

Iron Man 3 is now available on Blu-ray + DVD!