IRON MAN Movie Franchise

[king_ghidorah]

I'm on a TDY for two weeks in Georgia (really hate being away from my wife for two weeks ) and since I have nothing else to do tomorrow, I'll probably go see Iron Man 3. The reviews I've read have been all over the place. I have no idea what to expect.

[MekaGojira3k]

Iron Man 3 is easily my least favorite of all of the Marvel Avenger films.
Ugh.

I just, I dunno. If I hadn't accidentally seen the tv spot that spoiled the army of suits that may have made it marginally better, but I just didn't really care for it. Blech.


Although Mandarin's voice made me crack up. Apparently my gf and I were the only people who thought he had a dumb voice.

[kiryugoji04]

[MouthForWar]

I'm still a bit mixed on this movie, but I said I'd elaborate my thoughts.

I liked it... didn't love it, but I did like it.

Pros:
-The writing. This is by far the most well rounded and well developed that Pepper, Rhodes and Tony (ESPECIALLY Tony) have been in any of these films. This is the first time we get to see a lot of layers to Tony's character and the first time we really see him act like a true, noble hero. He also gets a lot of great buddy action scenes with Rhodes, which the other films were sorely missing.
-The action sequences are great and aside from Avengers, this is the first Marvel movie that really had a truly climactic battle at the end.
-Ben Kinglsey was great... scary when he needed to be and funny when he needed to be.
-The airplane scene was jaw dropping
-Guy Pearce was also great as the other villain.
-The relationship with the kid actually worked out well... I usually hate that kind of thing, but this movie almost felt like it was poking fun at that trope.
-This movie more than any other one shows how Tony's cockiness is really a defense mechanism and that he really isn't the jerk he often seems to be.
-The rest of the supporting cast is great. WILL SADLER AND MIGUEL FERRER ARE THE PRESIDENT/VICE PRESIDENT AND I WOULD TOTALLY VOTE FOR THAT TICKET.
-I really did dig the whole Shane Black-iness of it all. And this is a TOTAL Shane Black movie. He wasn't a work for hire, they hired him because they wanted a Shane Black movie and that's what they got and its not a bad thing at all. It makes me feel a little better about them having James Gunn and Edgar Wright doing movies for them. It shows that Guardians will probably feel like a Gunn film and Ant Man will probably feel like a Wright film.
-This is the first Marvel CU film that didn't feel like it was just setting up more Avengers stuff. It was an entirely self contained Iron Man story without trying to advertise whatever film is next and that's exactly what I want out of Phase 2. I hope they all feel this way.


Cons:
-I would have liked to see more with the post-traumatic stress angle.
-I thought the last 15 minutes or so got just a little... dumb... very corny and cheesy even for a Marvel film. It kind of jumped the shark and I really hated how Killian was dispatched. I liked that Pepper wasn't just a damsel in distress, but REALLY? That was just too silly for even me.
-The villain's plan really doesn't make much sense when held under scrutiny... its so senseless that it feels like an X-Men villain thought it up.

Both a pro and a con: The Mandarin: Now a lot has been made of the handling of the Mandarin and I have to get into spoiler territory because it was a very ballsy and controversial decision to NOT have Kinglsey be the Mandarin and to have a totally non-Mandarin-esque character be the real Mandarin. On the one end, it works in the context of THIS story, but on the other end, its a complete injustice to one of Iron Man's Big Bads that has been hyped up this whole time and hinted at in the other films. If I were a bigger Iron Man fan, I'd probably be pissed, but since I'm not, I can see both sides of the argument as to why it is or isn't a bad thing. I'm literally on both sides of the fence here. It bugs me on one level, but in the context of the movie its fine... its just a huge missed opportunity for that character and that really is kinda sad. After we have been introduced to magic and aliens in this universe, a comics accurate Mandarin could have worked. But Kingsley is such an amazing actor that he plays the Mandarin as truly scary and the actor playing him as a totally hilarious goof... if not for his performance, I'd probably take more issue with it. I really have no opinion of it... its sh*tty for that character, but the movie makes it work in a way.

So more positives than negatives, but the negatives really did kinda grate on me. All in all, not my favorite of the Marvel film... part one is still the best Iron Man movie, but this is definitely better than part 2, which was just treading water (you could watch all of Phase 2 and skip IM2 and not miss anything... and I say that as someone who LIKES Iron Man 2).

I give it a 3.5 out of 5. I take some major issues with the last act, but the characterization was so f*cking good and they nailed the Stark character so well that I can't ignore it.

This movie also really capped the characters off really well... I almost don't want another Iron Man movie. I'm fine with Stark just being in retirement and coming out only for Avengers movies. They shouldn't push their luck... they already have a decent trilogy.

[king_ghidorah]

[MekaGojira3k]

[MouthForWar]

[MekaGojira3k]

[king_ghidorah]

[MekaGojira3k]

[Dr Kain]

[kiryugoji04]

[Rodanex]

[O.Supreme]

MFW- I'm not going to try to add to your assesment on the last page. I am pretty much in agreement with everything you said, well stated.

With that I may have to do more research, as I am a fan of the comics. I guess I just didn't see the Extremis infected villains as much of a threat as they should have been (when compared to Vanko's Hammerdrone's or the Chitauri), but it seems they gave IM more of a challenge then either of those previous forces.

*On a side not, my son (7) got a pretty cool little book from Target that features many of the suits in the Iron Army. Names, details etc... It's kind of a handy little referrence for a kids book since only a couple of the suits had enough screen time to be distinguishable from others

[Gman2887]

[MouthForWar]

As far as the end goes, I took it that now that he had given up being Iron Man, he had more time to figure out how to do the surgery successfully (there's that line about how now that he's gotten rid of the "distraction" of iron man he can actually figure out how to fix the extremis glitch), and that maybe even in the past he had been purposely avoiding figuring it out because it was a self-imposed mental crutch that he relied on

[Gman2887]

I don't know. I get the symbolism behind it and can even appreciate it, but it still seems like a stretch to allow a mental crutch to kill you years beforehand. It's been established for three movies that this is a permanent thing and to wipe it clean in the last few minutes of a film out of nowhere was a hard pill to swallow.

[Alpha OTS]

[MekaGojira3k]

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

[MekaGojira3k]

[quote="Tom R VanSlambrouck"]If they do an Iron Man 4 they need to do a proper Mandarian and Fin Fang Foom those two would go so well together.[/quote

Eh, I feel like if they do more Iron Man films even a proper Mandarin should be left for later.

[Henry88]

[Dr Kain]

[Henry88]

[MekaGojira3k]