On Tuesday I was fortunate enough to get a ticket to an advanced screening of Iron Man 3. I'm sure that you can imaging my excitement to get a little peek before the rest of the world lines up to see it (if you can't, then let me help you. Very, very high!). I was asked to share some of my thoughts here and am happy to oblige. Please forgive me if it is a little more terse than I might normally like, but this has already been a busy week. We are gearing up for Free Comic Book Day (more to come on that soon) and so much of my time has been focused on those preparations. Okay, let’s not play around anymore and just get right to the heart of things. Should you go see this movie? Of course you should go see this movie! What, didn’t you see the first two? Don’t like big budget action flicks with awesome 3D graphics and concert quality sounds? Don’t like a wisecracking superhero who is both brilliant and yet very human in his failings? Well, I guess there are movie out there for folks like you, but they probably include weak love-struck vampires or Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan complaining and doing absolutely nothing for 90 minutes. If that’s the case, what are you doing reading this blog?

Now that I’ve got that off my chest, let me say that I don’t do spoilers. If you are the kind of person that wants me to ruin the movie for you, go somewhere else. I don’t even like watching too much of the trailers in case they give it all away. Far better to just immerse yourself in the movie and the moment.

Once again Robert Downey Jr. played the part of Tony Stark to a tee. Perfectly snarky, in the face of both danger and the common citizen (the scenes with the kid are great - makes me wish I had a potato gun), he elicits laughs throughout the entire picture, many at times that will surprise the audience. He also shows frailty and humanity well, even (gasp!) admitting some failures. If you liked him in the first two (and of course the Avengers), he has driven the role home deeper. It’s tough to imagine Stark as anyone else.

But what about the bad guy? I want to know about the bad guy! Fine, fine, keep your pants on. Ben Kingsley does a mean Mandarin. And I do mean mean. The cowl, the beard, the voice. He’ll scare Homeland Security into an immediate lockdown. Kingsley played his entire part very, very well.

And the supporting cast? Once again, solid. Gwyneth Paltrow reprises her role of Pepper perfectly, as does Don Cheadle as War Machine, er excuse me, Iron Patriot. Guy Pearce’s transition from bumbling scientist to something much more sinister was well done. Tack on a cadre of nasty underlings and Tony has himself in one heck of a predicament. Just make sure you brace yourself for one heck of an action packed sequence at the end that might even surprise you a bit in its outcome.

So were there any problems with Iron Man 3? I’m sure some of the hardcore fans will pick some things apart, but if you are looking for a movie with constant action, comedy and a couple cool plot twists, it is totally worth some of your hard earned cash. Go see Iron Man 3, you won’t be disappointed.

-Mark