Robert Downey Jr. blasts off again in Iron Man 3 as Tony Stark, or Iron Man as many know him. With the aftermath from the Avengers, and his realization that he is no more than a man in a can, where is Stark now, and what more can he possibly do?

He has been struggling with insomnia, anxiety, and fear of losing his loved one, Pepper Potts, (Gwenyth Paltrow). He starts to create more suits, with different designs, including one that he can control with his mind, which has the handy ability to fly from elsewhere and form on him. Also the corporation AIM and the leader of it Aldrich Killian, (Guy Pearce), is coming back from the past to make another offer to Stark with his new experiment. A terrorist on the loose on top of that, the Mandarin, (Ben Kingsley). He has been terrorizing cities and causing trouble. Stark decides to take it into his own hands and threatens the Mandarin. A lot of action ensues after that and leaves Stark alone and heading towards the deep end of the water.

I enjoyed this Iron Man a lot for many reasons. First off, I liked how he expanded on the suits. In the first Iron Man, it was this suit that was difficult to get out of and not portable at all. In the second film, he creates a suit case version that is much more portable. In this movie, he creates one with the ability to move to him wherever he is. This is not a spoiler if you have seen the preview. He creates a plethora of more suits he can control with his mind and can jump in or out of easily in a fight, which he does.  The flip side of this is that the suits seemed much more flimsy or weak. This may have been due to the strength of the enemies he faced, since they were strong and had some pretty sweet powers, which I don’t want to spoil for you. Maybe it was just my nerd side kicking in as well to notice the weakness of the suits. Plus, the War Machine is now revamped as the Iron Patriot, a less threatening but still pretty cool name. The suit oozes the American Flag, with a very patriotic design. The action that came along with the new and maybe improved suits was fast paced and stellar as well.

Secondly, I liked the idea behind this film. It has more of a mystery aspect and isn’t just about some guy building another suit to kill Tony. It connects with the first film, but not really the second at all. Stark is shown how weak he is and how he has met Nordic Gods and flown through a wormhole into other galaxies, but hey at least he can make a metal suit with some gadgets! He clearly struggles with that weakness, which Downey Jr. plays incredibly. In the film he is out of the suit and physically fighting and making makeshift weapons. While it was very cool to see that he can take care of himself, the film still emphasizes he is just a man.

I also liked the plot line. There a few twists you would never see coming. While there are a few obvious parts, there were times when I found myself having to double take. I can’t tell you what they are, since I don’t want to spoil the movie for you, so it looks like I’ll be leaving a cliff hanger. A semi spoiler alert! Pay attention to the terrorist group in the first Iron Man and this one, and the name of it, and how it connects with the Mandarin. I did not get that until a friend pointed that out.

I would give this movie a 9.5 out of 10. The only thing that threw me off was the ending and a single plot twist.