Iron Man 3
For a film that had Tony suffering from PTSD, losing his home, his suits, his bots (DUMMY NOO!!!), almost losing Pepper and Rhodey and Happy, Iron Man 3 is surprisingly upbeat. In fact it's a lot more like a comedy than an action movie, or it would be if comedies were ever actually funny.
IM3 was also about ending Tony's story, and leading us on to Phase 2 of the MCU. Phase 1 was built around Tony. First came Iron Man. Then Tony showed up in The Incredible Hulk. Coulson was dispatched off from his IM2 babysitting job to go babysit Thor instead ("Is that one of Stark's?"). Tony's dad helped "create" Captain America. And of course Tony was pivotal to The Avengers.
So in IM3 you're bringing to a close what kicked it all off and I like that. The lovely call back to Yinsen meeting Tony before Afghanistan was the first thing that made me smile, because if you're ending something, you should always go back to the start. I don't think that this in any way means they won't be using Iron Man again - I'm sure he'll be in The Avengers 2, the credits did say Tony Stark will return - but I think it's good to finish telling a story. Then if you want to, you can start a new story. In this case the new story would be very interesting, because Tony's gone back to basics. He's not trapped in his body or his suit. The arc reactor's not keeping him alive now. He has no excuse now for the way he lives his life. If anything, the act of him making the decision to sacrifice himself in New York, which is what brings on the panic attacks throughout the film, is actually the catalyst he needed to take control of his life. Terrible things happen and in those moments you have a choice. Tony wasted a large part of his life, not caring about things, but when faced with death and the knowledge that he was indirectly helping terrorists and murderers, he stepped up and took control. Since then he's used the arc reactor and the Iron Man suits to shield himself and to rely upon. Thinking about it, it's really interesting that Steve says repeatedly "Put on the suit" during The Avengers and that without the suit, Tony's nothing special. Obviously that tied in with Tony's sacrifice at the end, but light of this film, what is Tony really. As he says, he's Iron Man. Not the arc reactor. Not the suit. He is Iron Man. Now he has finally let go of everything related to that former life, he's going forward on his own terms, with Pepper, with The Avengers (nice to see you there Bruce, you beautiful, adorable man you), with his hopefully resurrected bots and with whatever new creation he decides to make. He has a truly clean slate.
If you've managed to read this far, well done and thank you. I know I'm rambling.
Guy Pearce found just the right level of mounting insanity, so that while he never seemed trustworthy, he saved the out-and-out batshit craziness for the final few scenes. I loved the twist with The Mandarin. I imagine it'll be one of those things you either love or hate, but personally I think it was inspired and genuinely took me by surprise. It also made me happy because Ben Kingsley's "evil American" accent just sounds like Gerard from Teen Wolf to me and I cannot take that seriously.
Pepper continues to be amazing and I'm glad that she got to do as much "saving of Tony" as Tony did "saving Pepper." I would have liked to have seen a bit more of her flying around in a suit being a badass, but that's a minor quibble.
I think there was probably one too many Downton Abbey references, but as MCU films go this one was fun and a decent send off for Tony and his old life. I imagine Phase 2 is going to get a lot darker from here on out. All I can say is, bring on Thor 2.