Mmph. Iron Man.
Opening - just in case you've forgotten Shane Blake is the director of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, the opening is set to remind you of that fact. Not to mention that Guy Pearce looks A LOT like Val Kilmer.
I'm one of those odd people who actually didn't like KKBB.
The entire first hour (or so) - reads like a cliche h/c PTSD fanfic. Also, RDJ is very unsuitable for this kind of PTSD portrayal. He was fine in Iron Man 2 (I actually didn't hate this movie unlike apparently everyone else in the universe?) portraying the whole 'I'm miserable' thing, but here it was just embarrassing. Probably the embarrassing writing though, I mean - "oh look! I can't sleep! I have nightmares so my accidentally-controlled-in-my-dream suit almost kills Pepper!" I mean... REALLY?
Second act - actually really good. It had the annoying-kid (♥ ♥) who was a combination of genre savvy and meta and actually got RDJ to act like RDJ rather than badly portrayed PTSD. And it also had... THE MANDARIN! (♥ ♥ & hearts; ♥ ♥ ♥). Ben Kingsley was wonderful and their take on the Mandarin was excellent. Huzzah!
And then the third act was... well... Lethal Weapon 2. Seriously. Including the boat and all. I swear it's the same shots even.
Also - not enough Rhodie - he was barely in this movie until the third act and then he disappeared again. Horribly underutilised. :(
All the characters were plot devices. I know, I know, it's Iron Man, what do I expect... but honestly, even Pepper had more personality in the previous movies than in this one. It's just sad.
RDJ's 'thing' has officially tired me. I've lost all patience for him, I think.
Eurgh, the bad guys. So they discover that the brain has regeneration properties... from a plant... someone needs to explain them something about plants. And then Guy Pearce becomes a dragon and breathes fire. And his dragon tattoos regenerate with his body. Oh, yeah, and he's shot and dropped off a huge height and bombed and whatever and he still survives, and then Pepper (!!!) kills him. Cos being injected with these regeneration particle thingies teaches you how to fight, apparently. See: Characters-as-plot-devices.
Also. All the suits were stupid.
The post credits scene though was ♥. Yes, more Bruce Banner please.
Speaking of Bruce Banner/ the Avengers.... er. Look. You acknowledge the events of the Avengers. You need to actually have an effect on society. I know the Marvel movies in general ignore this thing called 'society' - the Avengers itself is the proof of that - but this is just ridiculous. A huge ass alien invasion that almost destroyed a huge city... and nothing? The world continues with - extremely bad thought of - political conspiracies by the American VP? Seriously?
Look, it's a comic book movie, I know it is. But I guess this is why I prefer the Nolan Batman movies over MCU - I do like it when there's at least a pinch of realism and anchoring in the real world. Although it does seem like they stole a LOT from TDKR even more than I realised from the trailer - I mean: our superhero loses everything, finds himself far far away from home where all his resources are no longer available, has to rebuild himself from scratch, and in the end he lets go of his superhero persona and all the gadgets that made him a superhero. Which movie are we talking about again?
Blargh. At least we had a REALLY good dinner afterwards? :D