The third time might be the charm for some things, but the number three after a movie title is typically shorthand for a deal with the devil.

The studio thinks there's more money to be squeezed from a particular property, and voila: Spider-Man 3, Superman III, The Godfather - God help us - Part III. OK, The Godfather's a special case. Most other threes, though, are what happens when a too-thin plot meets a too-fat budget.
Iron Man 3 conquers the curse of the 3 in a novel way: It pretty much takes Iron Man out of the equation. He's in there, obviously - people would tear down the theater if he weren't.

But Robert Downey Jr.'s billionaire industrialist Tony Stark doesn't spend much time in that computer-generated Iron Man suit, which means fewer cut-ins of Downey's little head inside it, reacting to battles that we know - no matter how much we want to believe - have no actual human component whatsoever.

The excellent idea of director Shane Black, who co-wrote the script with Drew Pearce, is to kick Stark out of his comfort zone. Instead of throwing money at every problem, Stark has to function as a lone gumshoe, think like a garage mechanic and, when necessary, jury-rig something crude - or, as we like to say nowadays, MacGyver it.

Black directed Downey in 2005, in one of the actor's first post-prison vehicles - Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, a good, tense Hollywood private-eye spoo.