Too many feels!
So on Wednesday I made the mistake of watching Iron Man 3, complete with Star Trek trailier, and reading Bleach 528 on the same day.
Guys, too many FEELS that I didn't even know how to start talking about it! It was only with the distance of oh, 2 days or so that I started being able to talk about it.
So! I'll start with Iron Man 3, and maybe I will talk about Bleach after 530 comes out or something, because KT likes his major character stuff to try and happen on the multiples of 5 chapters. (I told you I'm a geek, didn't I?)
After missing the Madoka Magica movies due to being in the UK, at least this time being in the UK worked out in my favour. I got to watch Iron Man 3 a full one week before the US!!! Of course, that made reading movie reactions hard, but still... <3
As someone who hasn't read the Iron Man comic books, it's taken me the three movies to realise one thing: Iron Man never quite has his shit together. Someone said that Marvel does flawed characters really well, but I didn't realise how it could work until this movie.
Those who have hung out long enough to see my review on Iron Man 2 know my complaint that Tony never quite got to get to be the superhero in the second movie. That upset me a lot, because I thought that a superhero movie should be more about saving people and making a change to the world.
Tony got to do that in Avengers, which is partially why I like that movie very much. Tony got to be Iron Man, and in a team to boot, and still shine as a superhero. That worked out well for me.
But you know the thing that they say about being a superhero: it isn't all that it's cracked out to be.
That's why I liked the premise of Iron Man 3, even though it has Tony falling apart again. This time, Tony isn't falling apart because of ~reasons~, it's directly linked to the stresses of being a superhero. In the Avengers movie, he saved the world but nearly lost everything that he had in the process, like say his life, his relationship with Pepper, things like that.
And the thing is that Tony being Tony, he doesn't quite know how to deal with things finally mattering to him. So much of his life he has been running away from emotional commitment. And now he's not only emotionally committed to saving the world, but also keeping those near and dear to him safe.
So I liked the panic attacks and tickering to deal with his stress, because that's what both Tony and Iron Man does. And when he even uses the suit to interact with Pepper, that hit me right in the feels.
And the SUIT being a danger to both him and Pepper is a nice nod to comic book stuff as well~~
Which will lead me to another point that I was worrying about. Perhaps it was because I was watching Iron Man with a bunch of minorities, including a few Pakistan guys, but we were really worried about the villain. The Mandarin is supposed to be this terrible Chinese dude with a stereotypical goatee and all that jazz. Even though he is powerful and credible as a threat, I didn't like the fact that he had to be from my ethnicity. Especially when what he was doing had so many Islamic extremists overtones.
So I was really happy when it turned out that the Mandarin was a creation. There was too much wrong with the character that needs to be divorced from the character's background. Perhaps we will miss some of the awesome stories that involve the Mandarin, but I think it is a good trade off. Plus, there's a possibility of bringing in a Mandarin like character, inspired by the vision of this Mandarin, but perhaps divorced more from the racial elements. Or the Ten Rings ;)
This movie, Tony got to be badass without the suit, and puts his knowledge of science to great use. At the same time, Rhodney gets to be a badass military guy as well. Watching the different way they stormed compounds makes me want to write a superspy AU where Rhodney is the crack shooter. He gets paired with a mad scientist who can't aim a gun to save his life, but is badass at flying machines and using shockers to storm compounds =)
Plus Tony and a kid bonding over SCIENCE~~~ I like it when people bond over SCIENCE~~~ Plus the kid was more believable than the usual kid, while being smart too.
The other thing I liked about the movie was how it both used the tropes of the superhero girlfriend, and subverted it too. I've been a huge fan of Tony/Pepper since the first movie, and was glad that they got together. When Tony said that she was the one thing that he couldn't live without, I got worried. I mean, see how well that worked for Lois Lane right?
The thing is the movie didn't just have the superhero say it, they also showed it. When Tony Stark's mansion gets blown up, guess what he does? He puts the suit on Pepper instead of himself. The gut reaction of what he needed to protect was Pepper.
FEEEEEEEEEEEEELS.
AND THEN it gets even better!
Another thing I don't like about superhero movies is that it relegates the girlfriend to the weepy woman role. Yes, we do get that the woman will be underpowered compared to her superpowered boyfriend. But Pepper has happily managed to avoid this problem in the first two movies, by being super competent and all that.
So when Tony put the suit on her and the house is about to fall on him, and SHE SAVES HIM BACK...
FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELS.
Plus the banter! "I got you," she says. "I got you first," he replies, because this is Tony Stark but argh FEEEEEEEEEEELS.
Having said that, I'm not sure what to feel about Pepper in the last fight. A Spiderman villain once said that, "You never know when someone will come up with a sadistic choice." Iron Man 3 had such a sadistic choice.
And Tony Stark failed.
While I applaud them for taking the lesser choice it looked like another fridging, until Pepper came back with SUPERPOWERS due to the experimentation that the villain had done on her! On one hand, an AMAZING TWIST that I really like, because Pepper got to save Tony this time, especially since she is more powerful now. But I don't know how this will wwork out in the long run. Does she want to become a superhero too? How will this new dynamic turn out for them?
All in all, A+++++++++++ movie would watch again! It couldn't unseat Iron Man 1 because I like a good 'donning the mantle' story, but it comes pretty close! If I had to rank the three Iron Man movies from best to... let's not go there, it would be Iron Man 1, 3, 2.
Also FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELS.
There will be fic. I feel it.
Guys, too many FEELS that I didn't even know how to start talking about it! It was only with the distance of oh, 2 days or so that I started being able to talk about it.
So! I'll start with Iron Man 3, and maybe I will talk about Bleach after 530 comes out or something, because KT likes his major character stuff to try and happen on the multiples of 5 chapters. (I told you I'm a geek, didn't I?)
After missing the Madoka Magica movies due to being in the UK, at least this time being in the UK worked out in my favour. I got to watch Iron Man 3 a full one week before the US!!! Of course, that made reading movie reactions hard, but still... <3
As someone who hasn't read the Iron Man comic books, it's taken me the three movies to realise one thing: Iron Man never quite has his shit together. Someone said that Marvel does flawed characters really well, but I didn't realise how it could work until this movie.
Those who have hung out long enough to see my review on Iron Man 2 know my complaint that Tony never quite got to get to be the superhero in the second movie. That upset me a lot, because I thought that a superhero movie should be more about saving people and making a change to the world.
Tony got to do that in Avengers, which is partially why I like that movie very much. Tony got to be Iron Man, and in a team to boot, and still shine as a superhero. That worked out well for me.
But you know the thing that they say about being a superhero: it isn't all that it's cracked out to be.
That's why I liked the premise of Iron Man 3, even though it has Tony falling apart again. This time, Tony isn't falling apart because of ~reasons~, it's directly linked to the stresses of being a superhero. In the Avengers movie, he saved the world but nearly lost everything that he had in the process, like say his life, his relationship with Pepper, things like that.
And the thing is that Tony being Tony, he doesn't quite know how to deal with things finally mattering to him. So much of his life he has been running away from emotional commitment. And now he's not only emotionally committed to saving the world, but also keeping those near and dear to him safe.
So I liked the panic attacks and tickering to deal with his stress, because that's what both Tony and Iron Man does. And when he even uses the suit to interact with Pepper, that hit me right in the feels.
And the SUIT being a danger to both him and Pepper is a nice nod to comic book stuff as well~~
Which will lead me to another point that I was worrying about. Perhaps it was because I was watching Iron Man with a bunch of minorities, including a few Pakistan guys, but we were really worried about the villain. The Mandarin is supposed to be this terrible Chinese dude with a stereotypical goatee and all that jazz. Even though he is powerful and credible as a threat, I didn't like the fact that he had to be from my ethnicity. Especially when what he was doing had so many Islamic extremists overtones.
So I was really happy when it turned out that the Mandarin was a creation. There was too much wrong with the character that needs to be divorced from the character's background. Perhaps we will miss some of the awesome stories that involve the Mandarin, but I think it is a good trade off. Plus, there's a possibility of bringing in a Mandarin like character, inspired by the vision of this Mandarin, but perhaps divorced more from the racial elements. Or the Ten Rings ;)
This movie, Tony got to be badass without the suit, and puts his knowledge of science to great use. At the same time, Rhodney gets to be a badass military guy as well. Watching the different way they stormed compounds makes me want to write a superspy AU where Rhodney is the crack shooter. He gets paired with a mad scientist who can't aim a gun to save his life, but is badass at flying machines and using shockers to storm compounds =)
Plus Tony and a kid bonding over SCIENCE~~~ I like it when people bond over SCIENCE~~~ Plus the kid was more believable than the usual kid, while being smart too.
The other thing I liked about the movie was how it both used the tropes of the superhero girlfriend, and subverted it too. I've been a huge fan of Tony/Pepper since the first movie, and was glad that they got together. When Tony said that she was the one thing that he couldn't live without, I got worried. I mean, see how well that worked for Lois Lane right?
The thing is the movie didn't just have the superhero say it, they also showed it. When Tony Stark's mansion gets blown up, guess what he does? He puts the suit on Pepper instead of himself. The gut reaction of what he needed to protect was Pepper.
FEEEEEEEEEEEEELS.
AND THEN it gets even better!
Another thing I don't like about superhero movies is that it relegates the girlfriend to the weepy woman role. Yes, we do get that the woman will be underpowered compared to her superpowered boyfriend. But Pepper has happily managed to avoid this problem in the first two movies, by being super competent and all that.
So when Tony put the suit on her and the house is about to fall on him, and SHE SAVES HIM BACK...
FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELS.
Plus the banter! "I got you," she says. "I got you first," he replies, because this is Tony Stark but argh FEEEEEEEEEEELS.
Having said that, I'm not sure what to feel about Pepper in the last fight. A Spiderman villain once said that, "You never know when someone will come up with a sadistic choice." Iron Man 3 had such a sadistic choice.
And Tony Stark failed.
While I applaud them for taking the lesser choice it looked like another fridging, until Pepper came back with SUPERPOWERS due to the experimentation that the villain had done on her! On one hand, an AMAZING TWIST that I really like, because Pepper got to save Tony this time, especially since she is more powerful now. But I don't know how this will wwork out in the long run. Does she want to become a superhero too? How will this new dynamic turn out for them?
All in all, A+++++++++++ movie would watch again! It couldn't unseat Iron Man 1 because I like a good 'donning the mantle' story, but it comes pretty close! If I had to rank the three Iron Man movies from best to... let's not go there, it would be Iron Man 1, 3, 2.
Also FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELS.
There will be fic. I feel it.