Iron Man 3

Once again, I'm faced with a review dilemma. Do I make mention of my invitation to the premiere, sharing a red carpet with Robert, Sir Ben and Don (first name terms now) and sat a few rows behind Dermot O'Leary and the boys from JLS, and instantly sound like a toe-curlingly horrendous show-off? Or just subtly ignore the fact that I'm actually publishing this review a week before the film's actual release date? Well, I think we all know what kind of guy I am...

Iron Man's explosive return to the big screen not only rounds off his own personal trilogy, but also gives Tony Stark the rather dubious pleasure of having the first crack at Marvel film life post-Avengers. And while some (myself included) may have thought that the rod fashioned for his own back may simply have been too great, it's a thrill to be able to report that there are some genuine treats to be had. In fact, if anything, the team seem to have learnt so much of what worked from the Avengers that this film is actually much better for it.

For their first trick, Iron Man 3 is surprisingly laugh out loud funny, complete with some particular gems for British audiences (a joke about Croydon and some well crafted references to Downton Abbey being particularly well received at the premiere). The 3D achieved on this film is also very impressive, and perhaps some of the slickest and most immersive I've seen. Frequent references to events of previous films also help to keep an audience fully immersed in the franchise's universe, and almost effortlessly weave a much bigger narrative into this single film without compromising the plotline of the individual exploits of Tony Stark and co.

Fact of the day: snow angels are no more impressive when done in an armoured suit

All that said, though a more than valiant effort, Iron Man 3 isn't without it's faults. The pace does dip slightly low in places, a facet only made forgivable by the fact that the character empathy has almost become soap-ish at this stage, so regardless of the lull between the action set pieces, you still care what's happening to them. There is also a degree of suspension of disbelief required for some of the plot points. In fact, there are some that may even need a doctorate, as the story becomes so far fetched in places (yes, even more than an over-engineered body suit powered by a clean energy reactor driven electromagnet that keeps a piece of shrapnel out of a billionaire playboy engineer's heart) that even the possibility of one of the suits turning out to be C3PO starts to sound plausible.

As far as the actors are concerned, all the main faces are well and truly back. Much as Johnny Depp is to Jack Sparrow, Robert Downey Jr. continues to make it impossible for anyone else to ever play that role, and delivers some first-class dialogue expertly. The biggest shout-out however really must go to Sir Ben Kingsley, who aside from very obviously having one of the best written baddie roles since Keyser Söze, is blatantly having the time of his life playing it as well.

Scrapheap Challenge; bedroom style

Overall then, it's difficult not to rate this instalment as the best in the Iron Man saga. Provided you are willing to just accept whatever is presented to you, however unlikely or implausible, Iron Man 3 does well in learning from all the best bits of previous Marvel offerings, and delivers a truly impressive single character film straight off the back of last summer's spectacular. While the end-of-credits mini-scene is certainly not the strongest of the series (and for the first time, doesn't whet any kind of appetite of exciting things to come), it seems almost inconceivable that having learnt so much from their past in making this film so strong, we should be any less enthusiastic about the next instalments in the personal Thor and Captain America sagas, both due in the next 12 months.