Mr Stark, today is the first day of what's left of your life.

Date: Thursday 18th April
Film: Iron Man 3 (2013)
Director: Shane Black
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle and Ben Kingsley
Running time: 02 hours, 10 minutes
Rating: 9/10

My love of Superheroes is well documented. As is my love of all things Marvel and, worst of all, everyone knows exactly how I feel about the (beautiful) Tony Stark. So, going into Iron Man 3, my excitement levels were high. It wasn't helped when we sat down in the Sky advanced screening and they slipped these beauties into my hand and allowed us to watch 30 minutes of Robert Downey Jr. frolicking on a red carpet.

I want to say lots of things about IM3. I won't though. Instead I'll say look at my snazzy 3D glasses. pic.twitter.com/rkcJITjIGj
— Jenni Block (@evilnoodle) April 18, 2013

Opening with the subtle sounds of Eiffel 65's Blue (Da Ba Dee), Shane Black ensured the audience were giggling before we even had the chance to see a single character. Something that he kept up throughout the film.

Iron Man 3 takes place after the Avengers, it's Tony adjusting to life knowing there are other realms out there, knowing about gods, monsters and aliens.In order to put this all into perspective the script focuses on taking Tony away from his comfort zone, taking away his suit, his machines, stripping him back to explore exactly where Tony Stark ends and Iron Man begins. And, boy, does it do that brilliantly.

The second Iron Man film was by no means a disappointment, but compared to the first film it was lacking something. I'm not sure what but it just didn't feel as comfortable as the first film. The third film, however, shines above both the second and, dare I say it, the first. There is more humour, there is more action, there are twists and turns that take you by surprise, there is further exploration of characters who previously were a little two dimensional and, most excitingly of all, this film is one of the few big movies of the year that actually passes the Bechdel test.

By no means am I saying this film was perfect, there was room for improvement in a few places, but overall it made me very happy. It had all the trademarks of a Shane Black film (Christmas, someone losing a finger), it had great action scenes, it had character development. Overwhelmingly, it made this superhero loving girl very happy indeed. And not ,just because the post credit sting made me squeal with pure joy.

Challenge day: 204
Challenge time:: 12 days, 22 hours, 40 minutes
Challenge film total: 159