HAVING saved New York with the help of a few of his chums in Avengers Assemble, surely there’s nothing left for billionaire industrialist turned superhero Tony Stark to do?

Why doesn’t he sit at home – a fantastic clifftop pad in Miami – and enjoy life with girlfriend Pepper Potts who, despite her silly name, is running Stark Industries?

But he insists on tinkering with his Iron Man outfit, perfecting his trademark armoured suit. He’s reached the stage where the various pieces come to him and attach themselves to his body when he calls.

When a one-night stand from years ago, geneticist Maya Hansen, shows up the earth moves. Literally as his home is under attack from rocketlaunching helicopters on a raid ordered by the villainous Mandarin.

That explosive sequence, a masterpiece of effects and action, sends Stark/Iron Man if not to hell and back then to snowbound Tennessee where a boy wielding a potato gun becomes his ally and helpmate.

He and pal Colonel James Rhodes (Rhodey’s wearing a patriotic red, silver and blue patriot suit of armour as Iron Patriot) need all the assistance they can muster because The Mandarin has some evil-minded minions. Like Aldrich Killian and his gang of genetically enhanced killers who glow in the dark.

Iron Man 3 is, on the face of it, typical comic book fodder. But it is elevated by utilising Robert Downey JR’s talent for off-hand comedy and put-down backchat to offset the noisy, explosive set piece action sequences.

The result sets the bar high for the summer blockbusters to come. This is an object lesson in combining thrills and spills with heart and humour. Only a toopat ending, too-long running time and an overdose of big bangs in the climactic scene prevent it being a five-star movie.

Downey is just perfect as Stark/Iron Man. Without him, this would be just another superhero franchise movie. He’s not as good with women as he is with fighting evil. No wonder Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper gets exasperated with him (although she does get to show off her ridiculously toned body and kick ass herself) and Rebecca Hall’s scientist Maya wants him for his brain as well as his body.

Ben Kingsley plays another screen villain as The Mandarin but still manages to surprise in a revealing confrontation scene with Stark. Guy Pearce has a chip on his shoulder the size of several bags of King Edwards as mad, bad and dangerous to know Aldrich Killian.

After Olympus Has Fallen, here’s another movie where the US President has a bad time, notably being thrown out of an airborne Air Force One. So are the other dozen or so people on board.

Never mind, flying Iron Man can catch them. Or can he?

“How many can I hold?” he inquires of the suit’s on-board computer.

“Four,” comes the reply. It’s an answer that threatens to being these ejected passengers down to earth with a bump.