Completely Unasked For Review: Iron Man Three...
...as it is officially called in the funky post-credits title sequence. Get your groove on!
SPOILERS AHOY!!
Hilarious film, with many Shane Blackisms and tons of comics references (Oh hello, President Ellis and Roxxon Oil!), while managing to also twist around all expectations for the comics characters they used.
Things I liked:
- The twisting of characters. Maya started good and turned out to be working for the bad guy. Killian, who felt remorse and killed himself (basically switched with Maya), turned out to be all for being a bad guy. Happy Hogan being hospitalized (which I was waiting for), but NOT remote-killed by Tony like in the comics.
- The Mandarin being a fraud, which was the biggest shock of the film. Kinda makes all those nerds who got their panties in a bunch over his casting STFU. I was disappointed that he was not in fact the leader of the Ten Rings from the first film. Or maybe Killian was through him this whole time. Hmmm. Either way, Sir Ben made it all better by being genius and funny.
- Rhodey getting more to do. At first he seemed sidelined, but from halfway through he started kicking ass.
- Speaking of Shane Black and kicking ass...the final set piece was pure Black insanity. Wow. Other blackisms: the President must be saved! Let's storm a Miami compound! Black & White Buddy Cops!
- Miguel Ferrer being a villain. I thought he was playing against type and then...nope...bad guy.
- The PTSD from The Avengers, as well as acknowledgement from the people in the film that the world is different now that Gods and Aliens are hanging around.
- The kid. Nuff said.
- Making fun of Iron Patriot every chance they got. It was always a joke to begin with.
- Even during the downtimes in TN, they threw in enough crazy action to keep it from becoming The Dark Knight Rises (aka, 5% Batman, 95% emo-Bruce Wayne).
- More for Happy to do in this one. Without being the director, he had a lot more of a character. Although, he ballooned up a bit too much in between films, making the flashback scenes a little odd.
- Combining the Ellis run with the Fraction run (living bombs).
- Seeing the Bern conference that was referenced in the first movie, when he met Yinsen. Yay, Yinsen!
- The piano! All the action was just really well done and interesting.
- The all too human henchman, like the two guys bitching about having to guard Tony, or the guy who gave up.
Things that I did not care for so much:
- Killian's death. So, blowing him up didn't work...thus, they blew him up again. And it stuck that time? Why?
- Extremis people's weaknesses. Sometimes they survive massive explosions. Sometimes they die from falling. I guess.
- Another 'bad guy takes remote control of Tony's suit' trope. To be fair, there's not a lot IM villains can do.
- Removing the shrapnel. By the 2nd movie, I was like, "Can't you afford the best doctors to take care of that?" Also, I believe his Doctor was Dr. Wu from the beginning flashback. A character who has a MUCH larger role in the Chinese version of the film. Can't wait to see that footage.
- The Mandarin. Like I said, it was a brave choice to do what they did and Kingsley was a gas to watch...but also, it would have been cool if he was in fact the leader of the Ten Rings (even had the logo), and got to use them to kick IM's ass a little. Also, it was another trope that I was disappointed they went with.
- Jarvis's emotions. He was already pushing the boundaries of AI into full-fledged human, but that went out of control.
- Happy's overly-aggressive nature once he became head of security. Just seemed out of character for him, s'all. Though, his concern for Pepper was a cute nod, considering they were married in the comics.
- The formula on the back of the card he left for Maya. I think it was the answer to curing the Extremis, but it was not made very clear (he alluded to something he came up with while drunk, but it's hard to tell what he meant since it was a thrown-away line)
- AIM seemed a little wasted. I mean, I know they are a joke in the comics now, but it could have used a few more super scientists.
- Giving up Iron Man. Not sure what he's planning to do to save the world now. Look forward to seeing what they come up with. In an interview, Shane Bllack talked about how he brought it up to Kevin Feige and asked if it was okay. Feige said, "That's Joss's problem." Joss tweeted, "Now what am I going to do" after seeing the film. Hahahaha.
I'm sure there's more, but it's late and I'm tired after 10 hours of movies. I hope y'all stayed for the post-credits. Didn't foreshadow the next movies, but was just fun bro-time that everyone wanted to see more of after Avengers.
SPOILERS AHOY!!
Hilarious film, with many Shane Blackisms and tons of comics references (Oh hello, President Ellis and Roxxon Oil!), while managing to also twist around all expectations for the comics characters they used.
Things I liked:
- The twisting of characters. Maya started good and turned out to be working for the bad guy. Killian, who felt remorse and killed himself (basically switched with Maya), turned out to be all for being a bad guy. Happy Hogan being hospitalized (which I was waiting for), but NOT remote-killed by Tony like in the comics.
- The Mandarin being a fraud, which was the biggest shock of the film. Kinda makes all those nerds who got their panties in a bunch over his casting STFU. I was disappointed that he was not in fact the leader of the Ten Rings from the first film. Or maybe Killian was through him this whole time. Hmmm. Either way, Sir Ben made it all better by being genius and funny.
- Rhodey getting more to do. At first he seemed sidelined, but from halfway through he started kicking ass.
- Speaking of Shane Black and kicking ass...the final set piece was pure Black insanity. Wow. Other blackisms: the President must be saved! Let's storm a Miami compound! Black & White Buddy Cops!
- Miguel Ferrer being a villain. I thought he was playing against type and then...nope...bad guy.
- The PTSD from The Avengers, as well as acknowledgement from the people in the film that the world is different now that Gods and Aliens are hanging around.
- The kid. Nuff said.
- Making fun of Iron Patriot every chance they got. It was always a joke to begin with.
- Even during the downtimes in TN, they threw in enough crazy action to keep it from becoming The Dark Knight Rises (aka, 5% Batman, 95% emo-Bruce Wayne).
- More for Happy to do in this one. Without being the director, he had a lot more of a character. Although, he ballooned up a bit too much in between films, making the flashback scenes a little odd.
- Combining the Ellis run with the Fraction run (living bombs).
- Seeing the Bern conference that was referenced in the first movie, when he met Yinsen. Yay, Yinsen!
- The piano! All the action was just really well done and interesting.
- The all too human henchman, like the two guys bitching about having to guard Tony, or the guy who gave up.
Things that I did not care for so much:
- Killian's death. So, blowing him up didn't work...thus, they blew him up again. And it stuck that time? Why?
- Extremis people's weaknesses. Sometimes they survive massive explosions. Sometimes they die from falling. I guess.
- Another 'bad guy takes remote control of Tony's suit' trope. To be fair, there's not a lot IM villains can do.
- Removing the shrapnel. By the 2nd movie, I was like, "Can't you afford the best doctors to take care of that?" Also, I believe his Doctor was Dr. Wu from the beginning flashback. A character who has a MUCH larger role in the Chinese version of the film. Can't wait to see that footage.
- The Mandarin. Like I said, it was a brave choice to do what they did and Kingsley was a gas to watch...but also, it would have been cool if he was in fact the leader of the Ten Rings (even had the logo), and got to use them to kick IM's ass a little. Also, it was another trope that I was disappointed they went with.
- Jarvis's emotions. He was already pushing the boundaries of AI into full-fledged human, but that went out of control.
- Happy's overly-aggressive nature once he became head of security. Just seemed out of character for him, s'all. Though, his concern for Pepper was a cute nod, considering they were married in the comics.
- The formula on the back of the card he left for Maya. I think it was the answer to curing the Extremis, but it was not made very clear (he alluded to something he came up with while drunk, but it's hard to tell what he meant since it was a thrown-away line)
- AIM seemed a little wasted. I mean, I know they are a joke in the comics now, but it could have used a few more super scientists.
- Giving up Iron Man. Not sure what he's planning to do to save the world now. Look forward to seeing what they come up with. In an interview, Shane Bllack talked about how he brought it up to Kevin Feige and asked if it was okay. Feige said, "That's Joss's problem." Joss tweeted, "Now what am I going to do" after seeing the film. Hahahaha.
I'm sure there's more, but it's late and I'm tired after 10 hours of movies. I hope y'all stayed for the post-credits. Didn't foreshadow the next movies, but was just fun bro-time that everyone wanted to see more of after Avengers.