Iron Man 3
This is definitely my favorite of the 3 movies, in part because its heart is in the relationships more than the action sequences.
Did I read somewhere that Joss Whedon helped polish the final script, or something like that? Because the Tony/Pepper relationship in this felt real to me in the way it did in Avengers. I have always shipped Tony/Pepper, but when I rewatched IM1 and IM2 after watching Avengers, I realized that Joss, in about 4 minutes of screentime, did their relationship better than the first 2 movies entirely. Anyway, whether or not he helped on the script of IM3, I did love Tony and Pepper in this: they have real feelings for each other and also real problems; he can't choose an appropriate gift to save his life but she's clearly his priority; she still finds him exasperating and has realistic responses to the issues of living with a superhero with PTSD (her reaction to the armor threatening her after his nightmare was mild, I thought), but I love that she gets him like nobody else (eg rejecting AIM's proposal because it's weaponizable) and trusts him when the chips are down (letting go and trusting him to catch her).
I thought her fall and resurrection was sort of interestingly parallel to Steve and Bucky, btw, though it's going to take Steve a lot longer to get Bucky back, and Tony's trauma was much shorter-lived. It was fascinating to me, symbolically, that she can't actually depend on him to catch her, but I did really like the fact that it meant she ultimately saved herself (and him). I do hope she got to keep some Extremis powers and Tony just fixed the problems, rather than removing Extremis altogether, because that would be cool. I'd heard she was in the armor in spoilers, and was slightly disappointed she didn't get her own, but considering the whole film was really about how Tony Stark is NOT his armor (and neither is Iron Man), that worked for me thematically.
And speaking of which, I loved that whole plotline. It was great that for most of the movie Tony couldn't rely on his suit, or his usual tech, or even faithful Jarvis; he had to rely on his own ingenuity and inventiveness while coping with very realistic PTSD, and he did it well. I loved so much that he got the arc reactor removed at the end, because it really fit with his character arc in the film, and yet I'm sure that, and the destruction of his armor, are setting up interesting things for the next Avengers movie.
We got to see so many great character moments in this! I loved all of Tony's interactions with the little boy--he doesn't cease to be Tony Stark, jerk extraordinaire, just because he's dealing with a kid, but I love that the kid gave as good as he got, and the end scene was cute. I also laughed a lot at his interactions with the fanboy with the tattoo, and all of his scenes with Rhodey were fantastic. I loved all their banter, especially over his password, and also how well they worked together.
I also thought they did a good job making Maya Hansen into a multi-layered character (and passed the Bechdel test in the process!) I don't know a lot about the comic canon surrounding Extremis other than what I've absorbed by fannish osmosis, but I definitely enjoyed her in the film. It was interesting that she used the story of her own fall from grace to reel in Pepper, but then turned out to still have a soul after all.
And I loved the plot twist about the Mandarin! Again, all I know about him was via fannish osmosis, but I did know the comic canon was kind of racist, so I've spent the past year going "Oh, Ben Kingsley, no!" but now I completely understand why he took the role (beyond the huge paycheck), because it was brilliant.
Finally, I loved that we got so much Jarvis in the film. I was never really worried that Pepper was dead, but when the house first blew up I was extremely worried about Jarvis and the bots--especially when Jarvis seemed to be losing his systems in Tennessee. I'm very glad he was ok, and I'm also glad we got confirmation that Dummy, at least, was salvaged. And we got lots and lots of lovely Jarvis snark, which I really enjoyed.
This entry is crossposted at http://norwich36.dreamwidth.org/255718.html, but feel free to reply at either place.
Did I read somewhere that Joss Whedon helped polish the final script, or something like that? Because the Tony/Pepper relationship in this felt real to me in the way it did in Avengers. I have always shipped Tony/Pepper, but when I rewatched IM1 and IM2 after watching Avengers, I realized that Joss, in about 4 minutes of screentime, did their relationship better than the first 2 movies entirely. Anyway, whether or not he helped on the script of IM3, I did love Tony and Pepper in this: they have real feelings for each other and also real problems; he can't choose an appropriate gift to save his life but she's clearly his priority; she still finds him exasperating and has realistic responses to the issues of living with a superhero with PTSD (her reaction to the armor threatening her after his nightmare was mild, I thought), but I love that she gets him like nobody else (eg rejecting AIM's proposal because it's weaponizable) and trusts him when the chips are down (letting go and trusting him to catch her).
I thought her fall and resurrection was sort of interestingly parallel to Steve and Bucky, btw, though it's going to take Steve a lot longer to get Bucky back, and Tony's trauma was much shorter-lived. It was fascinating to me, symbolically, that she can't actually depend on him to catch her, but I did really like the fact that it meant she ultimately saved herself (and him). I do hope she got to keep some Extremis powers and Tony just fixed the problems, rather than removing Extremis altogether, because that would be cool. I'd heard she was in the armor in spoilers, and was slightly disappointed she didn't get her own, but considering the whole film was really about how Tony Stark is NOT his armor (and neither is Iron Man), that worked for me thematically.
And speaking of which, I loved that whole plotline. It was great that for most of the movie Tony couldn't rely on his suit, or his usual tech, or even faithful Jarvis; he had to rely on his own ingenuity and inventiveness while coping with very realistic PTSD, and he did it well. I loved so much that he got the arc reactor removed at the end, because it really fit with his character arc in the film, and yet I'm sure that, and the destruction of his armor, are setting up interesting things for the next Avengers movie.
We got to see so many great character moments in this! I loved all of Tony's interactions with the little boy--he doesn't cease to be Tony Stark, jerk extraordinaire, just because he's dealing with a kid, but I love that the kid gave as good as he got, and the end scene was cute. I also laughed a lot at his interactions with the fanboy with the tattoo, and all of his scenes with Rhodey were fantastic. I loved all their banter, especially over his password, and also how well they worked together.
I also thought they did a good job making Maya Hansen into a multi-layered character (and passed the Bechdel test in the process!) I don't know a lot about the comic canon surrounding Extremis other than what I've absorbed by fannish osmosis, but I definitely enjoyed her in the film. It was interesting that she used the story of her own fall from grace to reel in Pepper, but then turned out to still have a soul after all.
And I loved the plot twist about the Mandarin! Again, all I know about him was via fannish osmosis, but I did know the comic canon was kind of racist, so I've spent the past year going "Oh, Ben Kingsley, no!" but now I completely understand why he took the role (beyond the huge paycheck), because it was brilliant.
Finally, I loved that we got so much Jarvis in the film. I was never really worried that Pepper was dead, but when the house first blew up I was extremely worried about Jarvis and the bots--especially when Jarvis seemed to be losing his systems in Tennessee. I'm very glad he was ok, and I'm also glad we got confirmation that Dummy, at least, was salvaged. And we got lots and lots of lovely Jarvis snark, which I really enjoyed.
This entry is crossposted at http://norwich36.dreamwidth.org/255718.html, but feel free to reply at either place.