“I was feeling a little bit invincible, I guess,” Downey said last week while making the promotional rounds for “Iron Man 3,” which rockets into theaters on May 3. “I checked it out, and I was like, ‘Oh, we got this.’ And we didn’t have it.”

When it comes to playing Tony Stark, the genius-billionaire-playboy-inventor whom Downey first brought to the screen in 2008’s record-breaking “Iron Man,” the Oscar-nominated actor could be forgiven for overreaching.

The character’s entire ethos is built on overreaching, believing there’s no situation or nemesis he can’t defeat with his winning combination of ingenuity, charm and resourcefulness. “Iron Man 3,” the first film from Marvel since the $2-billion worldwide success of “The Avengers,” finds Tony Stark feeling less invincible, however.

After saving the world from invading aliens, he’s stricken with bouts of insomnia and full-blown panic attacks — and that’s before a terrorist known as the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) sends Stark’s sleek Malibu compound crumbling into the Pacific Ocean. Tony is forced to face the threat and protect lady love Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) without the benefit of his superhero trappings.

“It’s an attempt on our part to have something worthy of Robert’s skills,” said director Shane Black, “which is to have a guy pushed to the edge endurance-wise and also psychologically to see someone thinking on their feet when they’re in trouble — real trouble, not the kind of smug champagne problems of a billionaire with infinite tech.”

Black penned the script with Drew Pearce, drawing from a well-known comic book story line involving a biological agent known as Extremis, which holds the power to cure illness and repair physical deformity — though not without serious side effects.

Franchise newcomer Rebecca Hall plays Maya Hansen, the scientist attempting to perfect the substance; Guy Pearce stars as Aldrich Killian, the entrepreneur who hopes to make a fortune from it. But it’s Kingsley’s role that has generated the most attention leading to the film’s release.
 

Directing a superhero movie is never an easy proposition, but it’s a task made infinitely more difficult on a tight schedule. Downey’s injury forced Marvel to suspend filming for nearly two months while the star recuperated, and the post-production period was compressed to compensate for the lost days.

If early reviews are any indication, the rush to finish the film didn’t hurt the final product. Critics have praised the movie’s wit and sense of invention.

“I think Shane brought a lot of innovations to an already pretty edgy, cool franchise,” Downey said. “There’s such a groundswell of excitement about it, and I know that we earned it by the merits of what we created together.”

– Gina McIntyre | @LATHeroComplex