My son Nathan has been excited about Iron Man 3 for weeks. He's been watching the previous two movies over and over again on DVD in preparation. He stops everything he's doing to closely study the trailer for the new superhero movie. Needless to say, he's going to see the Robert Downey, Jr. flick on opening weekend. But, with all the hype and all the exposure this movie is getting, will it live up to its billing? I'd doubt it.

In Iron Man 3, our hero, Tony Stark (Downey, Jr.) faces his most personal, emotional challenge yet, as the love of his life, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) is being threatened by evil-doer Mandarin (Ben Kingsley). In the trailer, Stark says to Potts, "Honestly, there's a hundred people who want to kill me. I hope I can protect the one thing I can't live without.". Check it out here:

It became "personal" for Rocky when Clubber Lang shoved Mickey and he died in Rocky III. Bear in mind that this is the movie that opened with Rocky wrestling Thunderlips. Bad movie.

In Jaws 4: The Revenge, the catch phrase used to promote the film was "this time, it's personal". How exactly does something become personal for a shark? It's been over 25 years and I still haven't figured that one out.

Both the Rocky and Jaws franchises lost credibility by taking this story angle. Now, the "personal" card is being played by the makers of Iron Man. I wouldn't expect to see a different result.

Let me make it clear that I'm not predicting the third installment of Iron Man will tank. In fact, with all the anticipation brought on, it may very well break box office records, and have droves of fans for weeks to come. 13-year old kids like mine will watch it multiple times in the theater. I just can't help but think that the "this time, it's personal" angle of sequels is overdone, and the best of the Iron Man franchise has already been released to DVD.

Every movie that has featured the Iron Man character - The Avengers and the first two Iron Man films - have been really good. Movie sequel history tells me that Iron Man 3 is the beginning of the end for our hero on the big screen.

Don't take it personal.

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