Review Detail

A huge improvement all around for one of the weakest MCU movies -- the villains seem more threatening and less comical, and the deleted scenes contribute much needed insight into one of the central conflicts of the film, namely Tony against his own faltering body. In all, the various plot threads (of which there are still, unavoidably, too many) are cleaned up as much as can be. The scenes with Gwenyth Paltrow's Pepper Potts do seem to suffer from some jerky editing, to the point where I had to rewind to be sure my DVD hadn't skipped, as shot continuity and the rhythms of conversation seemed quite off. I'm tempted to point out that less Paltrow is never a bad thing, but in terms of the characters' arcs, it does make a noticeable difference.

Great artwork on the cover, as always, by lapis, who remedies the MCU's habit of generic, interchangeable character mosaics with distinctive, memorable images. In all, a vast improvement with a few flaws to be ironed out (no pun intended).