MCU: 10 Things You Learn Rewatching Iron Man 3

10. Its Action Is Incredibly Inventive

Shane Black is Hollywood's preeminent action aficionado, but not even his biggest fans could've predicted that Iron Man 3 would be as clever as it was with its big set-pieces.

For the vast majority of Iron Man 3 Tony actually spends most of his time out of the suit. That in itself holds great thematic importance for the character, but it also allowed Black to experiment with the film's action, making Tony's new Mark XLII armour a unique part of Iron Man's wardrobe. Now, when Tony suits up, he need only point towards a target in order to ensconce it in the armour, whether it be himself, his partner Pepper (during the attack on his Malibu mansion), or an enemy on the verge of going supernova.

It makes a massive difference for a series that struggled with action scenes in the past, but by far one of the film's best sequences occurs when Tony is attempting to escape from Aldrich Killian's hideout. With the Mark XLII trapped 800 miles away in a barn in Tennessee, Tony is forced to adapt while his suit flies at him one piece at a time, ultimately being forced to dispatch Killian's men with one repulsor, a boot, and a nearby submachine gun.

It's just really clever, and while it's not the film's best action sequence, it does intimate the qualities of Black's direction with added gusto.