Iron Man 3 (2013) **1/2

Release Date: May 3, 2013

Running Length: 2:10

Rated: PG-13 (Violence, Profanity, Brief Sexuality)

Cast: Robert Downey, Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Rebecca Hall, Guy Pierce, Ben Kingsley, Don Cheadle, Miguel Ferrer, William Sadler

Director: Shane Black

Screenplay: Drew Pearce and Shane Black

Marvel Comics scored a home run with last summers The Avengers and it wasn't long before the question was being asked: what was going to follow it. There was always the chance that it would spawn another series based solely on The Avengers but that seemed like aiming a little low. Instead there is going to be a slew of new films based on the individual characters leading up to the Avengers sequel. The first of these films is Iron Man 3, a film that tries to infuse some consequences leftover from The Avengers into its mix and not entirely succeeding.

Tony Stark has been struggling with his new found selflessness and budding romance with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). This fear of his exploits putting her into danger is plaguing him, causing him to lose sleep and when he is resting his new suit that can function without him in it responds to his mental being and acts out accordingly. Meanwhile there is a growing insurgence of terrorism being directed at the President of the White House and various other government officials and being led by a man who goes by the name of The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley). These acts also serve the purpose of drawing out War Machine, complete with new Red, White and Blue paint, in an attempt to possess the armoured suit.

An attack is levied against Tony Stark at his home after a woman named Maya (Rebecca Hall) shows up to talk to him about her boss Killian (Guy Pearce) whom she believes is working for The Mandarin. The attack destroys Tony's home and sends him rocketing out of control eventually crash landing in rural Tennessee, his suit in ruins. The film also works in a story about amputees and a special injection that is meant to restore their limbs but also turns them into super soldiers who can turn superhot on demand.

The primary weakness of Iron Man 3 is the over-familiarity with many of its elements. For starters the villain obsessed with repairing his crippled body. This was seen in The Amazing Spiderman recently. The super soldiers was reminiscent of many many MANY episodes of The X-Files and Fringe. There are other elements that were unoriginal as well, especially during the film's prolonged time in Tennessee, but I won't go into more detail here. Suffice it to say this film has a genuine feeling of familiarity.

This film takes a long time to give us any real battles with Iron Man. This wasn't a problem in the previous two films as the first one was an origin story and the sequel gave us fight after fight. Here however whenever Iron Man is on screen more often than not he's either trying to escape or he's saving someone. The only real battle he's involved in is the final one which almost makes up for it in it's sheer grandeur, a flaw that almost completely sank the previous one.

War Machine is completely wasted in this film. In Iron Man 2 he is a part of the final battle with Whiplash but here he's almost a buffoon, getting captured effortlessly, surrendering his suit when the going gets too hot, and then never really getting it back. Don Cheadle is a fine actor but he has nothing really to do here until the finality and none of that involves him in the suit.

Fans of the previous films will be pleased that the humor from the previous films is intact even as other things that worked in the other films is not quite up to snuff. This includes the relationship between Tony Stark and Pepper Potts, which suffers from the long time these two characters spend apart from each other. This relationship is built up in previous films but not given solid ground here so that a lack of familiarity with the other movies will mar this. This is a mistake as so much of the film focuses on his willingness to do anything to keep her safe and we aren't given the background to really know why. For this much focus there really needed to be something a little more concrete here than just 'they started dating a few films ago.'

The ending leaves things in a much different place than expected. There is no easy set-up for the next one as these characters are fundamentally changed by the end of things. There is still talk about extending Downey's contract to include a second Avengers film as well as Iron Man 4 but that's all there is at this point. Should the film series end here it won't feel like an abrupt ending to it. Still, there are things, primarily dealing with what happens to Potts in the finale of the film, that leave the audience wondering where her character can head the next time around.

This film is flawed. The worst offender is the lack of explanation behind motivations outside of this film itself. There are also some poor pacing choices, spending way too much time in Tennessee. There is also a twist in the middle of the film that, while not entirely predictable, was ridiculous and annoying. It's a real groaner that serves no purpose other than to draw out the film and misdirect the audience at the same time. Still, when looking at the list of actors in the film it shouldn't have been as much of a surprise as it was.

Ultimately the film is able to succeed in closing out another chapter in the Iron Man franchise, possibly, but not likely, the last chapter and also managing to be entertaining, if a little overtly familiar and redundant at times. It succeeds on the charisma of its lead actor and goes out with a bang, providing the best finale in the franchise's history. I just wish the rest of the film had been as exciting as the last twenty minutes had been.

Evil Dead (2013) **1/2

U.S.Release Date: April 5, 2013

Running Length: 1:31

Rated: R (Violence, Profanity)

Cast: Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Lou Taylor Pucci, Jessica Lucas, Elizabeth Blackmore

Director: Fede Alvarez

Screenplay: Fede Alvarez, based on the screenplay by Sam Raimi

Perhaps I stacked the decks too far against 2013's Evil Dead remake prior to going into it but the night before I sat down with my Blu-Ray copy of the original 1981 horror classic The Evil Dead and had 85 minutes of pure gleeful gross-out fun. Watching the remake in close proximity to the original has allowed me to see what worked in the low budget original that was completely done wrong this time around and for that I am not repentant for going into it the way that I did.

The basic story has not changed from the original film although the further into the film you go the more it starts to deviate from it. There are five people. three girls and two guys, going out to a cabin in the woods for some time away from the world. This time around there is an actual reason given for this trip: Mia (Jane Levy) has recently had an overdose on drugs and has sought the help of her friends to detox in an environment where she won't have access to her drug of choice. Along for the ride are her estranged brother, David (Shiloh Fernandez), his girlfriend, Natalie (Elizabeth Blackmore), registered nurse Olivia (Jessica Lucas), and high school teacher Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci). A dog named Grandpa has been added to the mix but otherwise this is the same set-up that graced the original.

Shortly after arriving at the cabin Grandpa discovers a blood soaked trap door to the cellar which leads to a bunch of dead cats (this is never really explained, unfortunately) and a book wrapped up in barb wire. Eric foolishly cuts the wire, ignores the scrawls that tell him not to read it, and unleashes a demon bent on killing them all and swallowing their souls.

The film doesn't take too long to get going which is a good thing because there isn't a character among these leads worth rooting for. They are all as dimensional as the cut-out cardboard images posted inside the theatre lobby. A couple of them are a little more interesting, primarily Mia and her brother David, but their back story is glossed over and relegated to a couple of brief scenes about how he was never there for her or their family. It is mentioned several times but never given enough attention to really mean anything other than that it happened. Likewise Mia is given her drug addiction which only serves to keep those around her from believing what is going on to her at first because it is easier to believe that it is all a part of the withdrawal symptoms of her drug use. It is a convenience to get these characters to this locale and keep them in doubt for the first part of the film. It in no way comes back later in the film and appears to actually get dropped by the later parts.

In the original film it became obvious early on who was going to be the one audiences were to root for. In most cases this is the virginal woman who is destined to run around screaming while all others around her get killed one after the other. The Evil Dead (1981) gave us Ash (Bruce Campbell), a man driven to kill all those around him as they, one after another, became possessed and homicidal. David plays this part in the new film but with a twist I will not reveal in this review. I will say that the film takes a dramatic shift in focus late in the proceedings that will take fans of the original film by surprise. This shift is at once abrupt and more than a little disorienting. It is also a necessary departure from the original that makes it its own beast.

There has been a trend in the last decade or so to sanitize the horror genre, remaking foreign horror films and watering them down to a PG-13 and thus watering down the scares. Evil Dead does not fall into that pitfall. Instead it goes in the opposite direction and ramps up the gore and violence into the realm of torture porn. It not only goes over the top in the gore but it doesn't rely on CGI to portray it. The effects are practical and it shows. This is old school horror ramped up a few notches.

There are a few things that keep this film from being the rollicking good time the original is. The characters are bland, although that was also the case in the original. The primary issue is the lack of focus that keeps us from really getting into the scenario. There is a prologue to the film that is new for this version. It gives us some back story that is never delved into again and is pretty much dropped by the time the rest of the story comes along. There is also the thing about the cats I mentioned before that seem to only be there to make things creepy. The timeline for the prologue is also left unexplained. It has to be recent because of the leftover stench of the decaying cats and burnt bodies but that is left for us to puzzle out and is never addressed.

Remakes are a difficult thing to get right. Remakes of classics are even worse. Fans of the original film will undoubtedly go see it for the experience and then be left disappointed if it doesn't live up to the original. That is the case here. There are more than enough things to make this film worth seeking out if brutal horror films are to your liking. However, gone is the humor and subtlety that made the first film a classic that still enjoys an ardent following more than thirty years later. This film does not have that type of staying power and is destined to be an interesting side note in reference to The Evil Dead series, nothing more.