Review of Iron Man Three

Wanted to give this 6/10, but couldn't. So much of this felt inconsequential in that I know all these characters are in the other movies, so I have no reason to be worried if they'll live or die. A lot of this felt like it was throwing everything at me in the hopes that I'll be entertained. There were so many explosions and spectacle, way too much to be beneficial to the narrative. So much of the character conflict relies on callback to The Avengers movie as well- it's called Iron Man 3, not Avengers 2. Additionally, Downey Jr. gave a pretty shallow performance of an anxiety attack, it felt really out of touch. I will say that the end fight was impressive, but it was still difficult to suspend my disbelief entirely - Tony's falling and getting beat up so much but he doesn't seem very bruised at all. The post credits scene was nonsensical- you're telling me that a super rich genius wouldn't hire an actual certified therapist to talk through his anxiety? Really? Overall, a very by-the-numbers superhero movie that didn't seem to have much of a purpose other than concluding the Iron Man arc, which didn't need to be 130 minutes long.