Iron Man 3 - The Review!
Holy crap, this movie was F. U. N!
I went to the Iron Man movie marathon on May 2 to get myself in the proper frame of mind for the insanity. Iron Man, Iron Man 2, The Avengers (3D) and Iron Man 3 (3D). Epic does not even begin to describe it. Though I have to say, don't bother with the 3D; after just seeing Avengers in 3D, Iron Man 3's 3D conversion looked pretty lackluster.
The movie's been out for just shy of a week here in the US, but I'm going to keep up the spoiler tags for anyone who still hasn't been able to see it yet...
(ETA 5-13-2013 with a few more insights and new info I've since learned...)
[Spoilers Ahoy!]
THE GOOD:
Killian is the REAL Mandarin.
First off, I find this twist hilarious from the perspective of screwing with the rabid comic book purists who bitch and whine about every little deviation from the comics, like how Tony's not a playboy anymore, Iron Patriot is supposed to be Norman Osborn, blah blah blah. Kevin Feige's (president of Marvel Studios and therefore The Man, as far as all Marvel films are concerned) been saying for YEARS that the MCU wasn't going to be copying the comics panel for panel, that they'd be exploring different possibilities, turning some of the things that comic fans think they know on their heads, etc. And I for one appreciate how the MCU has truly become it's own continuity where you don't need to have read the comics to understand what’s going on. With over 50 years of comic storylines for the various characters in the MCU films, reading all those comics can be pretty intimidating to new fans. And as I mentioned in one discussion on Tumblr, when you strip out the tacky cultural tropes associated with the Mandarin of the comic books, what you’re left with is a genius madman who uses wealth and technology to gain power over an unsuspecting populace, revenge against his enemies, etc. Sounds just like IM3's Aldrich Killian.
Sure, the whole "hero creates the villain and the villain creates the hero" cliche has been done in other films/TV shows/books, but there's a reason why some story ideas are used over and over again: Because they work. And in this case, the implications are diabolically delicious. Everything Killian has done (creating the Ten Rings, developing Extremis, winning all those military contracts including the upgrades/maintenance on the Iron Patriot suit) has been part of a long-term revenge plot against Tony for blowing off Killian at the Bern conference, "stealing" Pepper, and otherwise denying Killian everything that he thinks he deserves, and all this on the way to making himself the world's puppet master.
Making Killian the Mandarin and thus the real founder/leader of the Ten Rings puts a very different perspective on the Ten Rings's involvement in events of the first two Iron Man films, but admittedly, this is also where the lack of long-term planning in constructing the MCU (at least, in the early years) shows the most. The idea of using the Mandarin in the previous films had been considered and discarded, but had they planned this particular twist from the beginning with the first Iron Man film, they could've done some remarkably wicked foreshadowing of the reveal. As it is, we're left to speculate on just how much Killian knew, and when he knew it. Did Killian know about Stane and his deal with Raza to assassinate Tony in Afghanistan, or about the forged documents that got Ivan Vanko into the Historic Grand Prix of Monaco? The speculation makes for good fanfic fodder, but sometimes, we do like for canon to just lay it all out for us.
(ETA 5-13-2013: Welp, it seems that Killian didn't start the Ten Rings after all. A tweet posted by screenwriter Drew Pearce reveals that Killian had AIM co-opt the Ten Rings' iconography, name, MO, etc. to create the persona of the Mandarin for his "scare the public" media blitz. Pearce doesn't say when this happened, but if it was after the events of IM1, I can see Killian deliberately picking the Ten Rings because they were the ones who kidnapped Tony.)
In addition, that's why it's kind of a shame that Killian appeared to be killed off at the end of IM3 just as we were learning that he'd been the mastermind all along. Pepper really deserved the chance for some revenge after what that sick fucker did to her (and oh boy, was that poetic justice for her to do it with Extremis!), but at the same time, there's quite a bit of storytelling potential in continuing this jealousy-fueled rivalry between Killian and Tony in the future. Such an idea goes right back to Feige & Co.'s goal of turning those comic staples on their heads; Mandarin is Tony's greatest nemesis in the comics, after all, and this could've been a fun way to reinvent that rivalry for a different universe. Of course, Killian was an Extremis user, and we never did see his body (or whatever was left of it after Pepper blew him to bits) carted away in a coroner's van or anything (and the same is true of Maya Hansen). And you know what they say about death in science fiction (or comic books, or soap operas): If you don't see a body, don't assume they're dead. *cue evil laugh*
Pepper is a BAMF. Of course, we already knew this. But now she's on fire. LITERALLY.
I always thought how the comics gave Pepper a carbon copy of Tony's injury (shrapnel around the heart requiring an electromagnet to survive) was pretty stupid. I mean, they really couldn’t come up with something more original? So I'm glad the movies went in a different direction when it came to finally getting Pepper into an Iron Man suit, which turned out to be awesome and hilarious at the same time (saving Tony? WIN! Slapstick via misfiring repulsors? Gotta love it!). And then Pepper is subjected to Extremis, which ends up saving her from a fiery death aboard the Roxxon Norco and giving her the ability to save Tony's ass (again!) and kill Killian (but as I suggested before, is he really dead? Muahahah...). Though I do wish we could have seen her saying something like, "I am no one's trophy" right after she blows Killian away. Oh yeah, I wants me some snark.
The question going forward is, does Pepper still have Extremis? Shane Black and Drew Pearce played this pretty close to their vests, as not once is it ever explicitly stated or shown that Pepper no longer has it. After Pepper wastes Killian and reunites with Tony, she never asks him to take Extremis out of her, she merely asks, "Will I be okay/normal? Can you fix it?" In his voiceover during the closing montage, Tony says that he got Pepper "sorted out" though it apparently took some "tinkering." But just what does that mean? As we've seen, Extremis rewrites a person's DNA in an excruciatingly painful and dangerous process, and it stands to reason that the process of rewriting Pepper's DNA back to its original pre-Extremis state would be just as gruesomely perilous for her. It's very difficult to imagine that either Tony or Pepper would want to take that kind of risk unless there was no other choice, and there clearly was another choice. The whole point behind Maya's attempts to convince Killian that they needed Tony's help with Extremis was to unlock the equations Tony came up with back in Bern all those years ago to solve the overheating/explosive side effects, and Tony again refers back to how he'd come up with this solution years ago when Pepper asks him if he can fix her. So when Tony says that he got Pepper's Extremis problem "sorted out" it seems like the logical conclusion we're supposed to make is that he's not talking about taking Extremis out of her completely, he's talking about implementing the Bern solution.
That's why I believe that Pepper does still have Extremis, with the accelerated healing and all the other beneficial traits, but now stabilized with Tony's modifications to the formula to keep her from going kaboom. I guess this also means her strawberry allergy has just been eliminated. :P The only compelling reason I can think of to attempt to completely remove Extremis would be out of concern that someone might go after her to either gain or eliminate the secrets of Extremis. Even then, taking it out of her entirely still appears to be the greater risk, and frankly, if someone were to go after her, she'd actually be in a better position to escape unscathed if she had Extremis. Beyond that, could such a development lead to a different path for her to become Rescue (or a Rescue-like superhero) in future films? Only time will tell.
(ETA 5-13-2013: Pepper doesn't have Extremis any more, after all. Another tweet from Drew Pearce clarified that. Kind of a bummer that we don't get the shiny to play with, but on the other hand, Pepper not keeping Extremis does balance out with Tony blowing up the suits and getting his shrapnel/RT removed, so that they and their relationship remain on an equal footing. And it's very understandable that Pepper would not want the reminder of what Killian did to her, despite the potential good that Extremis can do. Plus, it's like Tony said: She was already perfect.)
Speaking of going in different directions, I also approve of the fact that Tony DOESN'T use Extremis, unlike the comics, where he does use it and it's a major game changer for him. Another very clever bit of misdirection via playing on what we think we know.
Tony gives up Iron Man to focus on his relationship with Pepper. Well, kinda sorta.
I suggested this possibility on Tumblr back in March, and I'm very happily surprised with how close I got to the truth. He's blown up all the suits, had surgery to remove the shrapnel around his heart as well as the arc reactor (since he obviously no longer needs it), all as a pledge to Pepper that he is giving up his obsession with and dependence on the suits, and that he's putting her and their relationship first. But at the end, he states that he’s still Iron Man, and this goes right back to the question posed in the official film synopsis, "does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?" Tony equates "Iron Man" not with the suit, but rather with himself, with the better man he’s become since Afghanistan. He refers to the suits as a cocoon that he used in his transformation from the careless playboy he used to be into a good man who cares about others and is worthy of love, and he no longer needs the suit to be that good man, no longer needs the arc to hide his heart behind. Now that’s one helluva butterfly.
So where does Tony go from here? There are some big hints in the screwdriver he picks up in the mansion ruins and in that final line shown after the post credits scene saying, "Tony Stark will return." Tony Stark...not Iron Man. Could be that they're setting up for Tony to go back into consultant mode, being "The Mechanic" and building gadgets for the Avengers and SHIELD. Maybe even looking towards a possible "Tony Stark: Director of SHIELD"-type scenario at some point in a future MCU film, which could be a helluva lot of fun to see play out. That said, I also do think we'll see Tony in a suit again.
THE BAD (aka WHERE’S THE CONTINUITY?):
Location Fail, Part 1
Stark Industries headquarters looks pretty damn different from the way it was depicted in the first two films. The interior locations in the first film were shot at a building in Irvine, California (for the second film, only Tony's-turned-Pepper's office made a return appearance and it's possible they simply recreated it on a soundstage), but the interiors in IM3, while still having a wood-stone-chrome look, are definitely not the same building. When you've watched these films that many times, it's pretty obvious. Pepper's new office is totally different (on the ground floor), though she still has the old desk; there's always the possibility that she decided to move her office as just one of those things to distinguish her tenure as CEO from Tony's.
The establishing shots showing the layout of the SI HQ campus are really, really different. On the other hand, the exterior shots of the campus layout in the first film seemed to keep changing from one scene to the next (first they've got some refinery-like structures at the other end of the campus beyond the arc reactor building, but they're gone in the night battle scene with Stane/Iron Monger, to say nothing of how suddenly SI appears to be located much closer to the ocean in that night scene), so I'm just going to have to blow this one off. It's also possible that after the big Iron Monger fight, the campus underwent some major renovations/expansion. Still annoying having to retcon this just because Marvel can't get their shit together.
Location Fail, Part 2
So, the Stark mansion in Malibu is located at 10880 Malibu Point, 90265. Well, they got the ZIP code right, at least. But the real street at the real world location where the mansion was placed (Point Dume State Beach in Malibu) is actually Cliffside Drive, and a quick check on Google Maps at street level reveals that the street number should be somewhere around 29380 - 29390. I can't imagine why they would've changed it; it's a state park with regular public traffic going through there already...oh well.
Timeline Fail
Killian and Maya both say it's been thirteen years since that fateful New Year's Eve in Bern. There's just one problem. According to computer displays in Iron Man 2, the events of that film (as well as The Incredible Hulk and Thor, as hinted at in IM2 and revealed in more depth in the Fury's Big Week tie-in comic) take place in 2010. In The Avengers, the events of Thor are referred to as being "a year ago" which would place The Avengers in 2011; Iron Man 3 takes place right at Christmas, and has been said to be months after The Avengers. But "thirteen years" would put Iron Man 3 in 2012, more than a year after The Avengers. That just seems far too long for Tony's downward spiral following the events of The Avengers to have gone on without Pepper, Happy and Rhodey taking more drastic steps to intervene. I mean, sure, Tony's gone and created nearly three dozen new suits in the interim and that takes a while, but it actually makes more sense for it all to be crammed into a shorter span of time, as it helps to illustrate just how manic-obsessive he's become since New York.
Of course, along with the constantly changing layout of Stark Industries HQ, this isn't the first time Marvel's screwed up the MCU timeline, either. Didn't they hire someone to manage the MCU timeline? Looks like he's not doing his job.
THE UGLY (BUT MORE LIKE MISUNDERSTOOD):
But but but! Tony and Pepper never kiss at any point in the film! WAAAAH!
(except for Tony kissing her cheek briefly during the Clean Sweep fireworks show)
From a shipping standpoint, yeah, it's disappointing after all the buildup from cast and crew about how the film was all about Pepper and Tony's relationship, how it's such a cornerstone of the entire franchise, etc. But from the perspective of the film's overall theme...maybe it's not as disappointing as we think. RDJ, Goop, Feige & Co. have all been saying all along that this is the most emotional outing yet, that this film has tremendous heart at it's core. Translation: It's not all about sex, or even overt PDAs in general. It goes deeper than that.
A few weeks before the film's release, Marvel posted an interview with Gwyneth Paltrow where she talks a little about Tony's vulnerability this time around:
"I think the reason why Tony Stark is such a popular cinematic hero is because of his vulnerability. I think in the second movie he was at his least vulnerable. In the first movie, he goes into his vulnerability and he finds it, and he sort of finds his humanity. And in this movie you really see his cracks. You really see the psychology behind why he is going through this metamorphosis that he needs to go through. He went through a dark period in his life, but I think in this movie he's really trying to reconcile what's what and who he wants to be and the direction that he wants to go in. Robert plays that kind of thing so beautifully. He's an actor that can play so many notes at once, and it's wonderful to see. The scene where he sends a fake Iron Man to Pepper and pretends it's him could be that classic man thing of, "I just don't want to deal with my girlfriend," but I think it's really Tony not wanting to be intimate. It's a barrier between Pepper and Tony that he doesn't necessarily want to cross. I think it's painful for him to fully commit to her with his whole heart, because there's a lot in there and he's still reckoning with how to deal with it."
When they're reunited at the end of the final battle, well, Tony's just spent the last few minutes believing Pepper, the love of his life, had just DIED in front of his eyes. As for Pepper, she's just survived that brush with a fiery death after being used as a lab rat by a megalomaniac mad scientist who had a totally sick and twisted fatal attraction to her, all to force Tony to finish that same serum that was used on her (cue the obvious parallels to the last time Tony was forced to create something for a villain), then she killed that same sick fucker when he tried to kill Tony. What do people who love each other do when they are torn apart and then miraculously reunited? They grab hold of each other and hang on for dear life. Tony wants to hold onto Pepper and never let her go, wrap his arms around her and feel her in his embrace, the only place where he knows she’s safe, and Pepper feels the same damn way. By contrast, a mere kiss seems far too shallow and insufficient a gesture to adequately convey their feelings in that moment.
Even afterward, once things have calmed down, the situation between them isn't going to go back to "normal" like a switch, they're going to need some time to get some solid ground under their feet again and get a feel for the new normal. But I'd say it's a safe bet they will.
And is it just me, or was anyone else going into a total joygasm at the sight of that ruby necklace Tony gave Pepper, with a chain made from the shrapnel taken from his chest? That's as good as an engagement ring, folks!
and THE RANDOM:
OMFG Yinsen in the flashback! That made me SO HAPPY!
Speaking of happiness, Happy is a fan of Downton Abbey! That absolutely slayed me! And is it just me, or was anyone else totally shipping Happy/Nurse after that scene in the closing montage? LOL!
SO MUCH TONY WITHOUT THE SUIT. I loved loved LOVED this. Ties right into his transformation into someone who doesn't need to rely on the suits to get the job done. Like when he takes a trip to Home Depot for supplies to MacGyver a shitload of spy gear for his raid on Killian's mansion. That was PRICELESS. And the raid itself was hilarious, with the 70s-esque spy movie music putting it over the top in a good way. Gee, you think he's been taking some lessons from Natasha and Clint? LOL!
And then there's Tony. And kids. The hilarious (and also very sad) bit at Neptune's Net where he's having lunch with Rhodey and the kids come up to him to ask for an autograph, and he's so sweet with them (before he totally freaks out in a panic attack; well done on how that played out through the rest of the film). There's all the fanmail from kids sitting on the coffee table in the living room that Pepper's looking through and smiling at while the Mark 42 is giving her a massage...Tony kept all those letters. He gets how kids are looking up to Iron Man. And then, of course, there's Harley. I think a lot of people had doubts about how well this would work, giving Tony Stark of all people a kid sidekick, but it totally works. Harley, I think, is meant to show us a little bit how Tony might have been like at that age...and while Harley's dad may have skipped out on the family, Tony remembers his debts and pays them back a hundredfold.
Ben Kingsley was a fucking HOOT as Trevor/faux-Mandarin. I damn near busted a gut laughing at his antics! OLE OLE OLE, LOL!
Maya. I have to say, I'm conflicted about her. On the one hand, I'm very very glad that we didn't get any Pepper vs. Maya catfighting about Tony. Hell, they were practically going BFF with each other on what a train wreck he is even under normal circumstances. But I can't quite like her, either. In retrospect, it feels to me that her whole motivation in trying to get Tony and Pepper away from the house, and then after the attack to get Pepper holed up at that hotel, was basically to hand her over to Killian. The only time I really felt sympathy for her was during her conversation with Tony down in her lab at Killian's mansion, where it's finally really sunk in that she's damned herself no matter what she tries to do to fix the mess she's made. (ETA 5-13-2013: I think it’s going to take me a few more viewings of the movie before I can come to a final conclusion on her. And now that I’m thinking about it again, I think I like that. I like that she’s cast more in shades of gray with regards to her loyalties and motivations, because it makes her a more compelling character, no matter what we may end up feeling about her.)
RHODEY!!!! Finally we get to see Tony's BFF getting a lot more fun action of his own, more friendship moments with Tony, more, just...everything!
The bots. OMG, I damn near bawled my head off when the bots went down with the mansion. And then again when Tony drives away from the ruins at the end of the film...with a trailer hooked up to the Audi carrying the bots. Still think you're not nostalgic, Tony?
That's about all my head and my feels can handle at the moment. So what did all of you think about the movie? :D
I went to the Iron Man movie marathon on May 2 to get myself in the proper frame of mind for the insanity. Iron Man, Iron Man 2, The Avengers (3D) and Iron Man 3 (3D). Epic does not even begin to describe it. Though I have to say, don't bother with the 3D; after just seeing Avengers in 3D, Iron Man 3's 3D conversion looked pretty lackluster.
The movie's been out for just shy of a week here in the US, but I'm going to keep up the spoiler tags for anyone who still hasn't been able to see it yet...
(ETA 5-13-2013 with a few more insights and new info I've since learned...)
[Spoilers Ahoy!]
THE GOOD:
Killian is the REAL Mandarin.
First off, I find this twist hilarious from the perspective of screwing with the rabid comic book purists who bitch and whine about every little deviation from the comics, like how Tony's not a playboy anymore, Iron Patriot is supposed to be Norman Osborn, blah blah blah. Kevin Feige's (president of Marvel Studios and therefore The Man, as far as all Marvel films are concerned) been saying for YEARS that the MCU wasn't going to be copying the comics panel for panel, that they'd be exploring different possibilities, turning some of the things that comic fans think they know on their heads, etc. And I for one appreciate how the MCU has truly become it's own continuity where you don't need to have read the comics to understand what’s going on. With over 50 years of comic storylines for the various characters in the MCU films, reading all those comics can be pretty intimidating to new fans. And as I mentioned in one discussion on Tumblr, when you strip out the tacky cultural tropes associated with the Mandarin of the comic books, what you’re left with is a genius madman who uses wealth and technology to gain power over an unsuspecting populace, revenge against his enemies, etc. Sounds just like IM3's Aldrich Killian.
Sure, the whole "hero creates the villain and the villain creates the hero" cliche has been done in other films/TV shows/books, but there's a reason why some story ideas are used over and over again: Because they work. And in this case, the implications are diabolically delicious. Everything Killian has done (creating the Ten Rings, developing Extremis, winning all those military contracts including the upgrades/maintenance on the Iron Patriot suit) has been part of a long-term revenge plot against Tony for blowing off Killian at the Bern conference, "stealing" Pepper, and otherwise denying Killian everything that he thinks he deserves, and all this on the way to making himself the world's puppet master.
Making Killian the Mandarin and thus the real founder/leader of the Ten Rings puts a very different perspective on the Ten Rings's involvement in events of the first two Iron Man films, but admittedly, this is also where the lack of long-term planning in constructing the MCU (at least, in the early years) shows the most. The idea of using the Mandarin in the previous films had been considered and discarded, but had they planned this particular twist from the beginning with the first Iron Man film, they could've done some remarkably wicked foreshadowing of the reveal. As it is, we're left to speculate on just how much Killian knew, and when he knew it. Did Killian know about Stane and his deal with Raza to assassinate Tony in Afghanistan, or about the forged documents that got Ivan Vanko into the Historic Grand Prix of Monaco? The speculation makes for good fanfic fodder, but sometimes, we do like for canon to just lay it all out for us.
(ETA 5-13-2013: Welp, it seems that Killian didn't start the Ten Rings after all. A tweet posted by screenwriter Drew Pearce reveals that Killian had AIM co-opt the Ten Rings' iconography, name, MO, etc. to create the persona of the Mandarin for his "scare the public" media blitz. Pearce doesn't say when this happened, but if it was after the events of IM1, I can see Killian deliberately picking the Ten Rings because they were the ones who kidnapped Tony.)
In addition, that's why it's kind of a shame that Killian appeared to be killed off at the end of IM3 just as we were learning that he'd been the mastermind all along. Pepper really deserved the chance for some revenge after what that sick fucker did to her (and oh boy, was that poetic justice for her to do it with Extremis!), but at the same time, there's quite a bit of storytelling potential in continuing this jealousy-fueled rivalry between Killian and Tony in the future. Such an idea goes right back to Feige & Co.'s goal of turning those comic staples on their heads; Mandarin is Tony's greatest nemesis in the comics, after all, and this could've been a fun way to reinvent that rivalry for a different universe. Of course, Killian was an Extremis user, and we never did see his body (or whatever was left of it after Pepper blew him to bits) carted away in a coroner's van or anything (and the same is true of Maya Hansen). And you know what they say about death in science fiction (or comic books, or soap operas): If you don't see a body, don't assume they're dead. *cue evil laugh*
Pepper is a BAMF. Of course, we already knew this. But now she's on fire. LITERALLY.
I always thought how the comics gave Pepper a carbon copy of Tony's injury (shrapnel around the heart requiring an electromagnet to survive) was pretty stupid. I mean, they really couldn’t come up with something more original? So I'm glad the movies went in a different direction when it came to finally getting Pepper into an Iron Man suit, which turned out to be awesome and hilarious at the same time (saving Tony? WIN! Slapstick via misfiring repulsors? Gotta love it!). And then Pepper is subjected to Extremis, which ends up saving her from a fiery death aboard the Roxxon Norco and giving her the ability to save Tony's ass (again!) and kill Killian (but as I suggested before, is he really dead? Muahahah...). Though I do wish we could have seen her saying something like, "I am no one's trophy" right after she blows Killian away. Oh yeah, I wants me some snark.
The question going forward is, does Pepper still have Extremis? Shane Black and Drew Pearce played this pretty close to their vests, as not once is it ever explicitly stated or shown that Pepper no longer has it. After Pepper wastes Killian and reunites with Tony, she never asks him to take Extremis out of her, she merely asks, "Will I be okay/normal? Can you fix it?" In his voiceover during the closing montage, Tony says that he got Pepper "sorted out" though it apparently took some "tinkering." But just what does that mean? As we've seen, Extremis rewrites a person's DNA in an excruciatingly painful and dangerous process, and it stands to reason that the process of rewriting Pepper's DNA back to its original pre-Extremis state would be just as gruesomely perilous for her. It's very difficult to imagine that either Tony or Pepper would want to take that kind of risk unless there was no other choice, and there clearly was another choice. The whole point behind Maya's attempts to convince Killian that they needed Tony's help with Extremis was to unlock the equations Tony came up with back in Bern all those years ago to solve the overheating/explosive side effects, and Tony again refers back to how he'd come up with this solution years ago when Pepper asks him if he can fix her. So when Tony says that he got Pepper's Extremis problem "sorted out" it seems like the logical conclusion we're supposed to make is that he's not talking about taking Extremis out of her completely, he's talking about implementing the Bern solution.
That's why I believe that Pepper does still have Extremis, with the accelerated healing and all the other beneficial traits, but now stabilized with Tony's modifications to the formula to keep her from going kaboom. I guess this also means her strawberry allergy has just been eliminated. :P The only compelling reason I can think of to attempt to completely remove Extremis would be out of concern that someone might go after her to either gain or eliminate the secrets of Extremis. Even then, taking it out of her entirely still appears to be the greater risk, and frankly, if someone were to go after her, she'd actually be in a better position to escape unscathed if she had Extremis. Beyond that, could such a development lead to a different path for her to become Rescue (or a Rescue-like superhero) in future films? Only time will tell.
(ETA 5-13-2013: Pepper doesn't have Extremis any more, after all. Another tweet from Drew Pearce clarified that. Kind of a bummer that we don't get the shiny to play with, but on the other hand, Pepper not keeping Extremis does balance out with Tony blowing up the suits and getting his shrapnel/RT removed, so that they and their relationship remain on an equal footing. And it's very understandable that Pepper would not want the reminder of what Killian did to her, despite the potential good that Extremis can do. Plus, it's like Tony said: She was already perfect.)
Speaking of going in different directions, I also approve of the fact that Tony DOESN'T use Extremis, unlike the comics, where he does use it and it's a major game changer for him. Another very clever bit of misdirection via playing on what we think we know.
Tony gives up Iron Man to focus on his relationship with Pepper. Well, kinda sorta.
I suggested this possibility on Tumblr back in March, and I'm very happily surprised with how close I got to the truth. He's blown up all the suits, had surgery to remove the shrapnel around his heart as well as the arc reactor (since he obviously no longer needs it), all as a pledge to Pepper that he is giving up his obsession with and dependence on the suits, and that he's putting her and their relationship first. But at the end, he states that he’s still Iron Man, and this goes right back to the question posed in the official film synopsis, "does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?" Tony equates "Iron Man" not with the suit, but rather with himself, with the better man he’s become since Afghanistan. He refers to the suits as a cocoon that he used in his transformation from the careless playboy he used to be into a good man who cares about others and is worthy of love, and he no longer needs the suit to be that good man, no longer needs the arc to hide his heart behind. Now that’s one helluva butterfly.
So where does Tony go from here? There are some big hints in the screwdriver he picks up in the mansion ruins and in that final line shown after the post credits scene saying, "Tony Stark will return." Tony Stark...not Iron Man. Could be that they're setting up for Tony to go back into consultant mode, being "The Mechanic" and building gadgets for the Avengers and SHIELD. Maybe even looking towards a possible "Tony Stark: Director of SHIELD"-type scenario at some point in a future MCU film, which could be a helluva lot of fun to see play out. That said, I also do think we'll see Tony in a suit again.
THE BAD (aka WHERE’S THE CONTINUITY?):
Location Fail, Part 1
Stark Industries headquarters looks pretty damn different from the way it was depicted in the first two films. The interior locations in the first film were shot at a building in Irvine, California (for the second film, only Tony's-turned-Pepper's office made a return appearance and it's possible they simply recreated it on a soundstage), but the interiors in IM3, while still having a wood-stone-chrome look, are definitely not the same building. When you've watched these films that many times, it's pretty obvious. Pepper's new office is totally different (on the ground floor), though she still has the old desk; there's always the possibility that she decided to move her office as just one of those things to distinguish her tenure as CEO from Tony's.
The establishing shots showing the layout of the SI HQ campus are really, really different. On the other hand, the exterior shots of the campus layout in the first film seemed to keep changing from one scene to the next (first they've got some refinery-like structures at the other end of the campus beyond the arc reactor building, but they're gone in the night battle scene with Stane/Iron Monger, to say nothing of how suddenly SI appears to be located much closer to the ocean in that night scene), so I'm just going to have to blow this one off. It's also possible that after the big Iron Monger fight, the campus underwent some major renovations/expansion. Still annoying having to retcon this just because Marvel can't get their shit together.
Location Fail, Part 2
So, the Stark mansion in Malibu is located at 10880 Malibu Point, 90265. Well, they got the ZIP code right, at least. But the real street at the real world location where the mansion was placed (Point Dume State Beach in Malibu) is actually Cliffside Drive, and a quick check on Google Maps at street level reveals that the street number should be somewhere around 29380 - 29390. I can't imagine why they would've changed it; it's a state park with regular public traffic going through there already...oh well.
Timeline Fail
Killian and Maya both say it's been thirteen years since that fateful New Year's Eve in Bern. There's just one problem. According to computer displays in Iron Man 2, the events of that film (as well as The Incredible Hulk and Thor, as hinted at in IM2 and revealed in more depth in the Fury's Big Week tie-in comic) take place in 2010. In The Avengers, the events of Thor are referred to as being "a year ago" which would place The Avengers in 2011; Iron Man 3 takes place right at Christmas, and has been said to be months after The Avengers. But "thirteen years" would put Iron Man 3 in 2012, more than a year after The Avengers. That just seems far too long for Tony's downward spiral following the events of The Avengers to have gone on without Pepper, Happy and Rhodey taking more drastic steps to intervene. I mean, sure, Tony's gone and created nearly three dozen new suits in the interim and that takes a while, but it actually makes more sense for it all to be crammed into a shorter span of time, as it helps to illustrate just how manic-obsessive he's become since New York.
Of course, along with the constantly changing layout of Stark Industries HQ, this isn't the first time Marvel's screwed up the MCU timeline, either. Didn't they hire someone to manage the MCU timeline? Looks like he's not doing his job.
THE UGLY (BUT MORE LIKE MISUNDERSTOOD):
But but but! Tony and Pepper never kiss at any point in the film! WAAAAH!
(except for Tony kissing her cheek briefly during the Clean Sweep fireworks show)
From a shipping standpoint, yeah, it's disappointing after all the buildup from cast and crew about how the film was all about Pepper and Tony's relationship, how it's such a cornerstone of the entire franchise, etc. But from the perspective of the film's overall theme...maybe it's not as disappointing as we think. RDJ, Goop, Feige & Co. have all been saying all along that this is the most emotional outing yet, that this film has tremendous heart at it's core. Translation: It's not all about sex, or even overt PDAs in general. It goes deeper than that.
A few weeks before the film's release, Marvel posted an interview with Gwyneth Paltrow where she talks a little about Tony's vulnerability this time around:
"I think the reason why Tony Stark is such a popular cinematic hero is because of his vulnerability. I think in the second movie he was at his least vulnerable. In the first movie, he goes into his vulnerability and he finds it, and he sort of finds his humanity. And in this movie you really see his cracks. You really see the psychology behind why he is going through this metamorphosis that he needs to go through. He went through a dark period in his life, but I think in this movie he's really trying to reconcile what's what and who he wants to be and the direction that he wants to go in. Robert plays that kind of thing so beautifully. He's an actor that can play so many notes at once, and it's wonderful to see. The scene where he sends a fake Iron Man to Pepper and pretends it's him could be that classic man thing of, "I just don't want to deal with my girlfriend," but I think it's really Tony not wanting to be intimate. It's a barrier between Pepper and Tony that he doesn't necessarily want to cross. I think it's painful for him to fully commit to her with his whole heart, because there's a lot in there and he's still reckoning with how to deal with it."
When they're reunited at the end of the final battle, well, Tony's just spent the last few minutes believing Pepper, the love of his life, had just DIED in front of his eyes. As for Pepper, she's just survived that brush with a fiery death after being used as a lab rat by a megalomaniac mad scientist who had a totally sick and twisted fatal attraction to her, all to force Tony to finish that same serum that was used on her (cue the obvious parallels to the last time Tony was forced to create something for a villain), then she killed that same sick fucker when he tried to kill Tony. What do people who love each other do when they are torn apart and then miraculously reunited? They grab hold of each other and hang on for dear life. Tony wants to hold onto Pepper and never let her go, wrap his arms around her and feel her in his embrace, the only place where he knows she’s safe, and Pepper feels the same damn way. By contrast, a mere kiss seems far too shallow and insufficient a gesture to adequately convey their feelings in that moment.
Even afterward, once things have calmed down, the situation between them isn't going to go back to "normal" like a switch, they're going to need some time to get some solid ground under their feet again and get a feel for the new normal. But I'd say it's a safe bet they will.
And is it just me, or was anyone else going into a total joygasm at the sight of that ruby necklace Tony gave Pepper, with a chain made from the shrapnel taken from his chest? That's as good as an engagement ring, folks!
and THE RANDOM:
OMFG Yinsen in the flashback! That made me SO HAPPY!
Speaking of happiness, Happy is a fan of Downton Abbey! That absolutely slayed me! And is it just me, or was anyone else totally shipping Happy/Nurse after that scene in the closing montage? LOL!
SO MUCH TONY WITHOUT THE SUIT. I loved loved LOVED this. Ties right into his transformation into someone who doesn't need to rely on the suits to get the job done. Like when he takes a trip to Home Depot for supplies to MacGyver a shitload of spy gear for his raid on Killian's mansion. That was PRICELESS. And the raid itself was hilarious, with the 70s-esque spy movie music putting it over the top in a good way. Gee, you think he's been taking some lessons from Natasha and Clint? LOL!
And then there's Tony. And kids. The hilarious (and also very sad) bit at Neptune's Net where he's having lunch with Rhodey and the kids come up to him to ask for an autograph, and he's so sweet with them (before he totally freaks out in a panic attack; well done on how that played out through the rest of the film). There's all the fanmail from kids sitting on the coffee table in the living room that Pepper's looking through and smiling at while the Mark 42 is giving her a massage...Tony kept all those letters. He gets how kids are looking up to Iron Man. And then, of course, there's Harley. I think a lot of people had doubts about how well this would work, giving Tony Stark of all people a kid sidekick, but it totally works. Harley, I think, is meant to show us a little bit how Tony might have been like at that age...and while Harley's dad may have skipped out on the family, Tony remembers his debts and pays them back a hundredfold.
Ben Kingsley was a fucking HOOT as Trevor/faux-Mandarin. I damn near busted a gut laughing at his antics! OLE OLE OLE, LOL!
Maya. I have to say, I'm conflicted about her. On the one hand, I'm very very glad that we didn't get any Pepper vs. Maya catfighting about Tony. Hell, they were practically going BFF with each other on what a train wreck he is even under normal circumstances. But I can't quite like her, either. In retrospect, it feels to me that her whole motivation in trying to get Tony and Pepper away from the house, and then after the attack to get Pepper holed up at that hotel, was basically to hand her over to Killian. The only time I really felt sympathy for her was during her conversation with Tony down in her lab at Killian's mansion, where it's finally really sunk in that she's damned herself no matter what she tries to do to fix the mess she's made. (ETA 5-13-2013: I think it’s going to take me a few more viewings of the movie before I can come to a final conclusion on her. And now that I’m thinking about it again, I think I like that. I like that she’s cast more in shades of gray with regards to her loyalties and motivations, because it makes her a more compelling character, no matter what we may end up feeling about her.)
RHODEY!!!! Finally we get to see Tony's BFF getting a lot more fun action of his own, more friendship moments with Tony, more, just...everything!
The bots. OMG, I damn near bawled my head off when the bots went down with the mansion. And then again when Tony drives away from the ruins at the end of the film...with a trailer hooked up to the Audi carrying the bots. Still think you're not nostalgic, Tony?
That's about all my head and my feels can handle at the moment. So what did all of you think about the movie? :D