That's the thing about smart guys: we cover our asses
I saw Iron Man 3 last night! I have things to say! Even though basically everything I am about to say has been said by other people (
coffeeandink, as usual, has some very good meta links here)!
Oh man, this was possibly my favorite Marvel movie of all of them. My thing is that origin stories don't inherently interest me; I find that most of the time, while I enjoy the origin story, it gets to the end and what I REALLY want to know is what happens next. IM3 was what happened next, with consequences and continuity to everything that's come before, and I loved that so much-I love that they're taking the opportunity to make this universe a universe, rather than just a series of tangentially related stories, and this feels like the first time they've really had the ability to fully capitalize on that. I can only hope that the Cap and Thor sequels will be in the same vein, because I adore long-form storytelling, and doing long-form storytelling within a movie franchise seems like an ideal opportunity to get some depth without running into the vamping problem that TV shows (and comic books, for that matter) have, where you have to be able to spin the story out indefinitely, possibly long past its natural lifespan. I'm not sure I've ever seen a movie franchise do this-or at least, I haven't seen them do it this well-and I am DEEPLY appreciative, though of course it could all go to shit at any minute. Hee.
I am also WAY WAY more interested in people than in superpowers, generally speaking, so this was right in my wheelhouse. I was saying to Mr. McK afterward that this was my favorite Marvel movie since Thor, and then it occurred to me that Thor was ALSO that kind of story, about becoming a hero in terms of strength of character rather than strength of punching things. So apparently I really like a good de-powering story! And this was SUCH a good de-powering story; having TONY STARK of all people suffering from anxiety attacks, and from the aftermath of realizing how very tiny and insignificant he is in the grand scheme of the world-I love cocky, smartass Tony, but I love desperate, terrified, freaking out and making it work anyway with his big shiny brain (while still being a smartass) Tony ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE more. Dogged determination, resourcefulness, intelligence are the superpowers I'd want, if I could choose, you know? So I ADORED that, and I adored that one of the messages of this movie was that Tony literally can't do it all on his own.
FORTUNATELY HIS FRIENDS ARE AWESOME (though, while I bought that the Avengers wouldn't necessarily be involved, it seemed highly questionable to me that SHIELD, at least, wouldn't have been all up in international bombings, but whatever). Rhodey was especially badass in this-I wish his role had been larger, but I loooooooved seeing him in his element, running around being super competent and capable and rolling his eyes at Tony's general complete lack of combat training. Also: PEPPER. So I was one of the people who got REALLY excited about Pepper wearing the suit in the previews, and while I thought
eruthros made a lot of good points here about the implications that are potentially involved in being excited about Pepper wearing the suit, for me, it was a combination of "this is another way that Pepper might get to be awesome" and "Pepper is hopefully going to have agency in this movie." Which she has absolutely had in the previous movies-Pepper as CEO of Stark Industries is one of my very favorite things, hell, Pepper as epically competent right from the very beginning is one of my favorite things-but there is an extent to which the kicking of ass is the currency of action movies, and while that's not at all unproblematic, seeing Pepper wear the suit was a potential shorthand to me that Pepper was going to have plenty of that currency here, and that they were hopefully going to serve her character as well as the previous movies did. So one of the really interesting things about the movie, to me, was that Pepper wearing the suit was actually kind of disappointing-yes, she protects Tony while she's wearing it, but she's only wearing it because Tony's trying to protect her, and she only wears it until she's out of danger and Tony calls it back (though her little determined FACE when she's trying to figure out how it works was AWESOME). And then she spends a fair amount of the rest of the movie in distress, and I was really annoyed about that, especially in the context of Maya (who I thought was a FASCINATING character, not to mention helping this movie pass the Bechdel test, if only briefly) betraying them and then dying, and then Killian wanting Pepper as a trophy, UGH.
BUT. THEN SHE KICKS HIS ASS. AND IT WAS SO SATISFYING TO ME. He essentially gives her superpowers as a means to forcing Tony to help him, apparently never suspecting that that might actually backfire, and she turns those superpowers around on him and shoves them down his throat. How's THAT for a fucking trophy, dude? I LOVED it. And I also loved loved LOVED her CEO amazingness in the beginning, and her being on the cover of Forbes, and her continued unwillingness to take Tony's shit, and the fact that they didn't even hint at any jealousy/catfighting between her and Maya, and just SO MUCH GOOD PEPPER STUFF, even in a movie where she was more passive than she's been in some of the previous movies. I guess I give some of the passivity a pass (so to speak!) because I think that was part of the point-Killian put her in the box of the traditional love interest in an action movie, and he paid the price for that fantasy. I really wish Maya had survived (maybe she will still come back! I mean: COMICS), and I wished that Harley, as adorable as he was (that kid reminded me SO MUCH of Sean Astin in Goonies, it was uncanny), could have been a little girl, or basically anything other than a little white boy, but I at least appreciate them purposely trying to subvert the damsel-in-distress trope, even it could have been better.
Obviously they tried to do the same with the Mandarin, and I have seen a lot of thought-provoking posts on that topic (again, I refer you to coffeeandink's links above), by people who are a lot more educated about these issues than I am, so I'm not going to say too much about that. I'm mostly going to say that it seems like it could have been a lot worse, but it also could absolutely have been a lot better, and that I deeply appreciate the internet for giving me access to so many different points of view. I've also seen a lot of great commentary on the ableism that pervades the movie, which really stood out to me, partially for the obvious reasons, and partially because Extremis seems to dehumanize its victims so much-this movie felt like it had an unusually high human body count, and I wonder if maybe we weren't supposed to care because these people had become Terminator-like supersoldiers (the score was even very Terminator-esque in those spots, I thought), but it was really disturbing for me to watch, nevertheless. I saw an interview clip with the guy who played the main Extremis dude and he was saying that one of the things that intrigued him about the movie is the idea of "what would you do if there were no consequences to what you did?", i.e., if you were more or less impervious to permanent harm. The thought that, without exception, all of those people would become remorseless killers seems to me like a much, much darker view of human nature than I really want to spend a lot of time with. Maybe there was more context that got cut, or in the comics, but on the face of it, it seemed extremely fucked up, and especially in the context of these soldiers being formerly disabled.
I also kind of assumed that Tony and Pepper were both all Extremis-ed up at the end, which I am now realizing, as I read reaction posts, was not the way everybody interpreted it! I thought Pepper especially, because Tony references how he had this nearly figured out 20 years ago when he was drunk, and "this," in the flashback, seemed to be a solution to the whole minor exploding problem, but now I can see how it could be read both ways. I am having a LOT of trouble wrapping my brain around the idea of Tony without the arc reactor-I mean, it seems like such a vital part of his character! Also it is hot! Also it has interesting symbolic meaning!-so I'm really curious to see if it stays retired, or if he has reason to reinstall it at some point, but that was the one major bummer about the end for me. Also, the ending reads pretty differently if Tony has Extremis than if he doesn't-I mean, I assume he somehow used it in the shrapnel-removal process either way, but if he doesn't have it permanently, then he really is just a mechanic (and his awesome friends) (and a shit-ton of money) against aliens and gods and all of the worst that the world can bring him; but if he DOES have it, then he's suddenly MUCH less at risk in those battles. I guess the metaphor that the suit was a mask works either way, and A++++ for actual character growth, but still. I will be VERY curious to see where they go with Tony in future movies. (This felt to me like it could very easily be the last IM movie-and I would be fine with that, since it was my favorite of the three by several miles, and felt like a satisfying conclusion to Tony's personal arc in this universe-but we'll see.)
Also: SCIENCE BROS. BEST. TAG. EVER. I LITERALLY CLAPPED MY HANDS, KICKED MY FEET, AND SQUEALED. EVERYTHING ABOUT THAT WAS THE BEST THING. I HAVE NOTHING BUT CAPSLOCK.
Also, on another shallow note, I REALLY enjoyed the action sequences in this movie. One of my issues with action scenes in superhero movies is that they're often full of unstoppable forces and immovable objects, essentially, and you basically know how it's going to end so I just want it to GET there so we can move on with the story (to me, the Iron Man vs. Thor fight in Avengers was the ultimate example of "whatever, let's just get on with it," mixed with a soupcon of DON'T FIGHT YOU GUYS, YOU SHOULD BE FRIENDS). But that's another reason I loved all the time Tony spent out of the suit in this movie, because it actually felt like there COULD be peril, and consequences, AND that final sequence with him jumping in and out of the suits was just COOL AS SHIT. It was like Iron Man Parkour! I LOVE ME SOME PARKOUR. It was creative, and it was exciting, and it made me catch my breath, and I loved it.
Also: ROBOTS IN PERIL. THIS WAS UPSETTING. I was very glad to see everybody on the road to recovery by the end! The destruction of Tony's house was also really viscerally upsetting; I think it needed to be, because it was just another mask that Tony put between himself and the world, but it was difficult to watch nonetheless, both for what it meant to Tony and for the sheer waste of it all. (Mr. McK has SERIOUS problems with destruction of property/artifacts/etc. in movies, and while I don’t have quite his level of sensitivity, we are both still always like, "SOMEBODY IS GOING TO HAVE TO CLEAN THAT UP, YOU KNOW. THAT WAS SOMEBODY'S WORKPLACE, YOU KNOW." Hee.)
Also TONY/PEPPER 4EVA AND EVA. I just. I love them together SO MUCH, and as much as I love first times, I also love established relationships A LOT, so to see that play out here, especially without falling prey to any of the clichés about "I'm going to break up with you for your safety" or whatever, was AMAZING. They have problems, but they love each other, and they're both determined to make this work, and they have date night and Tony gives terrible presents (until he doesn’t) and Pepper has her own life and she loves him but she's not going to submerge her own wants and needs in the face of his issues and YES.
And finally, I found this review both lovely and fascinating; I've been thinking a lot lately about the fact that we seem to be at a crossroads with the internet, where we have unprecedented access to information and to other people, and yet the trend seems to be toward primarily a very basic level of interaction (i.e., every service seems to want to have a single button you can click by way of response, and more and more people seem to be using those in lieu of other types of communication), for whatever reason(s). So this interpretation really intrigued me, even though none of it occurred to me while I was watching. And this is a similar, though not quite overlapping, take on Tony as representative of some of the modern American struggle.
Anyway. It was not a perfect movie, but it was TRYING in so many ways, and it wanted to make its audience think, and I will always appreciate that (especially in a summer blockbuster), just as I will always appreciate having the thoughts of smart people to read about in the aftermath. So. THANKS FOR INVITING THE THINKY THOUGHTS, IM3. YOU WERE PRETTY DAMN AWESOME.
This post is also at Dreamwidth! http://brynnmck.dreamwidth.org/294901.html Comments at Dreamwidth:
coffeeandink, as usual, has some very good meta links here)!
Oh man, this was possibly my favorite Marvel movie of all of them. My thing is that origin stories don't inherently interest me; I find that most of the time, while I enjoy the origin story, it gets to the end and what I REALLY want to know is what happens next. IM3 was what happened next, with consequences and continuity to everything that's come before, and I loved that so much-I love that they're taking the opportunity to make this universe a universe, rather than just a series of tangentially related stories, and this feels like the first time they've really had the ability to fully capitalize on that. I can only hope that the Cap and Thor sequels will be in the same vein, because I adore long-form storytelling, and doing long-form storytelling within a movie franchise seems like an ideal opportunity to get some depth without running into the vamping problem that TV shows (and comic books, for that matter) have, where you have to be able to spin the story out indefinitely, possibly long past its natural lifespan. I'm not sure I've ever seen a movie franchise do this-or at least, I haven't seen them do it this well-and I am DEEPLY appreciative, though of course it could all go to shit at any minute. Hee.
I am also WAY WAY more interested in people than in superpowers, generally speaking, so this was right in my wheelhouse. I was saying to Mr. McK afterward that this was my favorite Marvel movie since Thor, and then it occurred to me that Thor was ALSO that kind of story, about becoming a hero in terms of strength of character rather than strength of punching things. So apparently I really like a good de-powering story! And this was SUCH a good de-powering story; having TONY STARK of all people suffering from anxiety attacks, and from the aftermath of realizing how very tiny and insignificant he is in the grand scheme of the world-I love cocky, smartass Tony, but I love desperate, terrified, freaking out and making it work anyway with his big shiny brain (while still being a smartass) Tony ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE more. Dogged determination, resourcefulness, intelligence are the superpowers I'd want, if I could choose, you know? So I ADORED that, and I adored that one of the messages of this movie was that Tony literally can't do it all on his own.
FORTUNATELY HIS FRIENDS ARE AWESOME (though, while I bought that the Avengers wouldn't necessarily be involved, it seemed highly questionable to me that SHIELD, at least, wouldn't have been all up in international bombings, but whatever). Rhodey was especially badass in this-I wish his role had been larger, but I loooooooved seeing him in his element, running around being super competent and capable and rolling his eyes at Tony's general complete lack of combat training. Also: PEPPER. So I was one of the people who got REALLY excited about Pepper wearing the suit in the previews, and while I thought
eruthros made a lot of good points here about the implications that are potentially involved in being excited about Pepper wearing the suit, for me, it was a combination of "this is another way that Pepper might get to be awesome" and "Pepper is hopefully going to have agency in this movie." Which she has absolutely had in the previous movies-Pepper as CEO of Stark Industries is one of my very favorite things, hell, Pepper as epically competent right from the very beginning is one of my favorite things-but there is an extent to which the kicking of ass is the currency of action movies, and while that's not at all unproblematic, seeing Pepper wear the suit was a potential shorthand to me that Pepper was going to have plenty of that currency here, and that they were hopefully going to serve her character as well as the previous movies did. So one of the really interesting things about the movie, to me, was that Pepper wearing the suit was actually kind of disappointing-yes, she protects Tony while she's wearing it, but she's only wearing it because Tony's trying to protect her, and she only wears it until she's out of danger and Tony calls it back (though her little determined FACE when she's trying to figure out how it works was AWESOME). And then she spends a fair amount of the rest of the movie in distress, and I was really annoyed about that, especially in the context of Maya (who I thought was a FASCINATING character, not to mention helping this movie pass the Bechdel test, if only briefly) betraying them and then dying, and then Killian wanting Pepper as a trophy, UGH.
BUT. THEN SHE KICKS HIS ASS. AND IT WAS SO SATISFYING TO ME. He essentially gives her superpowers as a means to forcing Tony to help him, apparently never suspecting that that might actually backfire, and she turns those superpowers around on him and shoves them down his throat. How's THAT for a fucking trophy, dude? I LOVED it. And I also loved loved LOVED her CEO amazingness in the beginning, and her being on the cover of Forbes, and her continued unwillingness to take Tony's shit, and the fact that they didn't even hint at any jealousy/catfighting between her and Maya, and just SO MUCH GOOD PEPPER STUFF, even in a movie where she was more passive than she's been in some of the previous movies. I guess I give some of the passivity a pass (so to speak!) because I think that was part of the point-Killian put her in the box of the traditional love interest in an action movie, and he paid the price for that fantasy. I really wish Maya had survived (maybe she will still come back! I mean: COMICS), and I wished that Harley, as adorable as he was (that kid reminded me SO MUCH of Sean Astin in Goonies, it was uncanny), could have been a little girl, or basically anything other than a little white boy, but I at least appreciate them purposely trying to subvert the damsel-in-distress trope, even it could have been better.
Obviously they tried to do the same with the Mandarin, and I have seen a lot of thought-provoking posts on that topic (again, I refer you to coffeeandink's links above), by people who are a lot more educated about these issues than I am, so I'm not going to say too much about that. I'm mostly going to say that it seems like it could have been a lot worse, but it also could absolutely have been a lot better, and that I deeply appreciate the internet for giving me access to so many different points of view. I've also seen a lot of great commentary on the ableism that pervades the movie, which really stood out to me, partially for the obvious reasons, and partially because Extremis seems to dehumanize its victims so much-this movie felt like it had an unusually high human body count, and I wonder if maybe we weren't supposed to care because these people had become Terminator-like supersoldiers (the score was even very Terminator-esque in those spots, I thought), but it was really disturbing for me to watch, nevertheless. I saw an interview clip with the guy who played the main Extremis dude and he was saying that one of the things that intrigued him about the movie is the idea of "what would you do if there were no consequences to what you did?", i.e., if you were more or less impervious to permanent harm. The thought that, without exception, all of those people would become remorseless killers seems to me like a much, much darker view of human nature than I really want to spend a lot of time with. Maybe there was more context that got cut, or in the comics, but on the face of it, it seemed extremely fucked up, and especially in the context of these soldiers being formerly disabled.
I also kind of assumed that Tony and Pepper were both all Extremis-ed up at the end, which I am now realizing, as I read reaction posts, was not the way everybody interpreted it! I thought Pepper especially, because Tony references how he had this nearly figured out 20 years ago when he was drunk, and "this," in the flashback, seemed to be a solution to the whole minor exploding problem, but now I can see how it could be read both ways. I am having a LOT of trouble wrapping my brain around the idea of Tony without the arc reactor-I mean, it seems like such a vital part of his character! Also it is hot! Also it has interesting symbolic meaning!-so I'm really curious to see if it stays retired, or if he has reason to reinstall it at some point, but that was the one major bummer about the end for me. Also, the ending reads pretty differently if Tony has Extremis than if he doesn't-I mean, I assume he somehow used it in the shrapnel-removal process either way, but if he doesn't have it permanently, then he really is just a mechanic (and his awesome friends) (and a shit-ton of money) against aliens and gods and all of the worst that the world can bring him; but if he DOES have it, then he's suddenly MUCH less at risk in those battles. I guess the metaphor that the suit was a mask works either way, and A++++ for actual character growth, but still. I will be VERY curious to see where they go with Tony in future movies. (This felt to me like it could very easily be the last IM movie-and I would be fine with that, since it was my favorite of the three by several miles, and felt like a satisfying conclusion to Tony's personal arc in this universe-but we'll see.)
Also: SCIENCE BROS. BEST. TAG. EVER. I LITERALLY CLAPPED MY HANDS, KICKED MY FEET, AND SQUEALED. EVERYTHING ABOUT THAT WAS THE BEST THING. I HAVE NOTHING BUT CAPSLOCK.
Also, on another shallow note, I REALLY enjoyed the action sequences in this movie. One of my issues with action scenes in superhero movies is that they're often full of unstoppable forces and immovable objects, essentially, and you basically know how it's going to end so I just want it to GET there so we can move on with the story (to me, the Iron Man vs. Thor fight in Avengers was the ultimate example of "whatever, let's just get on with it," mixed with a soupcon of DON'T FIGHT YOU GUYS, YOU SHOULD BE FRIENDS). But that's another reason I loved all the time Tony spent out of the suit in this movie, because it actually felt like there COULD be peril, and consequences, AND that final sequence with him jumping in and out of the suits was just COOL AS SHIT. It was like Iron Man Parkour! I LOVE ME SOME PARKOUR. It was creative, and it was exciting, and it made me catch my breath, and I loved it.
Also: ROBOTS IN PERIL. THIS WAS UPSETTING. I was very glad to see everybody on the road to recovery by the end! The destruction of Tony's house was also really viscerally upsetting; I think it needed to be, because it was just another mask that Tony put between himself and the world, but it was difficult to watch nonetheless, both for what it meant to Tony and for the sheer waste of it all. (Mr. McK has SERIOUS problems with destruction of property/artifacts/etc. in movies, and while I don’t have quite his level of sensitivity, we are both still always like, "SOMEBODY IS GOING TO HAVE TO CLEAN THAT UP, YOU KNOW. THAT WAS SOMEBODY'S WORKPLACE, YOU KNOW." Hee.)
Also TONY/PEPPER 4EVA AND EVA. I just. I love them together SO MUCH, and as much as I love first times, I also love established relationships A LOT, so to see that play out here, especially without falling prey to any of the clichés about "I'm going to break up with you for your safety" or whatever, was AMAZING. They have problems, but they love each other, and they're both determined to make this work, and they have date night and Tony gives terrible presents (until he doesn’t) and Pepper has her own life and she loves him but she's not going to submerge her own wants and needs in the face of his issues and YES.
And finally, I found this review both lovely and fascinating; I've been thinking a lot lately about the fact that we seem to be at a crossroads with the internet, where we have unprecedented access to information and to other people, and yet the trend seems to be toward primarily a very basic level of interaction (i.e., every service seems to want to have a single button you can click by way of response, and more and more people seem to be using those in lieu of other types of communication), for whatever reason(s). So this interpretation really intrigued me, even though none of it occurred to me while I was watching. And this is a similar, though not quite overlapping, take on Tony as representative of some of the modern American struggle.
Anyway. It was not a perfect movie, but it was TRYING in so many ways, and it wanted to make its audience think, and I will always appreciate that (especially in a summer blockbuster), just as I will always appreciate having the thoughts of smart people to read about in the aftermath. So. THANKS FOR INVITING THE THINKY THOUGHTS, IM3. YOU WERE PRETTY DAMN AWESOME.
This post is also at Dreamwidth! http://brynnmck.dreamwidth.org/294901.html Comments at Dreamwidth: