The latest installment in the Iron Man franchise follows up on the Avengers—and, with its terrorist themes, arrives at an uncomfortable time, critics note. Wonders Anthony Lane in the New Yorker: "Had we really congregated in this place to savor the spectacle of bodies being flung around by the machinations of an evil plan?" As for the film itself:
- It's got "an uncommon zest and zip," writes Lane, along with a twist that "signals both the making of Iron Man 3 and, with any luck, the possible unmaking of the genre. From here on, the dumb-ass grandeur around which superhero plots revolve can no longer be taken on trust."