7. Understand When To Use Voice-Over Narration
Iron Man 3 differs from its predecessors in the sense that the story is partly narrated by Tony Stark himself, which - at first - seems kind of odd, given that this trope hasn't been utilised before in any movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There's a time and a place for a narration, though I think ultimately the idea makes sense here, given that
Iron Man 3 is an very personal story, and one that deals with the whole "is it the man or the suit that makes Iron Man?" thing that comic book fans so often like to discuss. This is the movie where Tony is coming to grips with his entires career so far, after all, and is almost reflecting back on what has happened to him - if this is to be his swan song, the narration sure makes it feels like it. And the narration matches up, in the sense that it makes the movie feel more personal and intimate, as if Tony is finally ready to open up to us, the audience (a post-credits scene reveals that he is in fact talking to Dr. Bruce Banner of, you know, Hulk fame). So how do you know if a narration is right for your script? A lot of writers will advise against it totally (in the same way that they would advise against using flashbacks), deeming it lazy. If you want to give your movie a distinct voice, and you think it can work to enhance the action on-screen, you're probably okay. In this case, we've got Robert Downey Jr., which is a kind of failsafe narration device of sorts, so it's not a great example. But generally speaking, voice-over narration should never be used to tell the story, but only to
comment on it. I like to use this rule: if you can remove the narration from the script when it's finished and the story still makes perfect sense without it, then you're fine. This begs the question, of course... if it works fine, do you need it all?