The suits have taken over the franchise. Not the corporate suits, though 'Iron Man 3' is so incoherent that it might have been written by a particularly quarrelsome committee, but the robotic suits. The movie is obsessed by them. Tony Stark, the supersmart industrialist played once again by Robert Downey Jr., has his Mark 42 suit, which comes when he calls it, piece by piece, anywhere in the world. Tony's friend Col. James 'Rhodey' Rhodes (Don Cheadle) has his Iron Patriot suit, which is a War Machine suit with upgrades and fresh paint. There's a point to this sartorial tech. Tony himself is obsessed by the suits, so he keeps building new ones. They give him a sense of security, and promise relief from the anxiety attacks he has been having since his near-disaster at the end of 'The Avengers' last year. But the third iteration of a franchise that began so well becomes a hollow hymn to martial gadgetry. The suits and story clank in unison.

That's not to deny the distinctions of this huge production, which was directed by Shane Black. The computer animation is often astonishing, even if the 3-D is indifferent and explosions are explosions, no matter what's being exploded. (Tony's cliff-clinging house in Malibu is reduced to rubble after he gives out his street address on national television.)

The film's greatest distinction is the spin it puts on its villainy, which involves not only Guy Pearce as the malevolent entrepreneur Aldrich Killian, but Ben Kingsley as The Mandarin, an arch-villain unlike any other. To explain why he's unlike any other would spoil one of the few good surprises in the script, which was written by Drew Pearce and the director. Let's just say that Mr. Kingsley, or Sir Ben, if you will, makes The Mandarin both frightening and terrifically funny