The Top 10 Films Of 2013 So Far

By and large, 2013 has been a middling year for cinema. The first four months of the year offered exceptionally little in the way of truly interesting or compelling commercially-released content, instead delivering a long string of uninspired, unengaging material that, while rarely awful, only occasionally piqued my interest. I found myself skipping a lot more films than I normally would, in part because I was busy working on other projects, and in part because what Hollywood had to offer seemed almost aggressively dull.

Jonathan R. Lack

Published: Jul 10, 2013 09:02 am

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[h2]6. Iron Man 3[/h2]

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Iron Man 3 We Got This Covered Review

There is one superhero movie I enjoyed more so far this year, but Shane Black’s Iron Man 3 made it abundantly clear to me that Iron Man is my favorite superhero. How else could Black so perfectly tailor every single element of his film, a sprawling studio blockbuster of mammoth proportions, to expertly advance Tony’s intensely human arc of identity and insecurity? ‘Complex characterization’ is not a strong enough term to describe what he and Downey Jr. accomplish here. This is an insightful and engaging psychological analysis of an impossibly rich and fascinating central character, and alongside Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel may be the current pinnacle of the superhero film as character piece, surpassing even Nolan’s Dark Knight films in terms of cutting to the heart of what makes the title figure tick, and vibrantly defining what audiences love about him in the process.

Iron Man 3 is also tremendously funny, of course, and endlessly intriguing, and bombastically exciting as only the greatest comic-book blockbusters can be. I am convinced this is a watermark for the genre – the second Marvel has delivered since May 2012 – and the only proof I ever need to defend that, cinematically speaking, Iron Man is not only the best Avenger, but the most emotionally rewarding costumed hero of them all.

Read my full analysis here.

Iron Man 3 is still playing in select theatres, and will arrive on DVD and Blu-Ray September 24^th.

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Author

Jonathan R. Lack

With ten years of experience writing about movies and television, including an ongoing weekly column in The Denver Post's YourHub section, Jonathan R. Lack is a passionate voice in the field of film criticism. Writing is his favorite hobby, closely followed by watching movies and TV (which makes this his ideal gig), and is working on his first film-focused book.