I don't think hating is the right answer to this film, especially since there are tons of excellent stuff popping every 5 minutes. Some compared IM 3 to its previous brother IM 2 claiming that Im 2 was superior, and I'm inclined to think so as well. IM2 was good by all means but a bit inferior to the first film, it seemed to me there was a lock of depth. A bit. Not deep ieough, to much action for the sake of it. Still a good movie for me.
IM3 is for me the next step : even less depth that the second, and even more action than the second... this and the Mandarin trick that seems difficult to digest.
When I see all the good stuff in IM3, it can't be a bad movie, but it certainly fails to be a great movie. In the first 30 minutes I thought this was going to be the movie of the century, stark's phobia, the love story, had to prove himself, Tony's personality and jokes, fighting the gigantic very actual terrorist Mandarin, perfect acting, perfect and magnificent FX... All this was the start for a clever action film.
But in the end, none of this is really used and they just throw action for the sake of it, oh putting right in the middle, between two fights "oh don't forget, I'm deep and fragile too".
I think the problem is in the balance. The director does not know how to balance things. Having Tony making jokes is cool, but it has always been kept to a minimum degree. In this movie he does a joke every 5 seconds, which in the end, is annoying. Focus on his pain more and less on his jokes would help the movie.
Look at this:
[BLACKOUT]He has help from a kid. Ok but why spend so much time on this, when the kid does not matter at all in the story. Would that have been shorter, it would have been OK.
Look at the fight in the bar: perfectly executed but useless to the story. It does not bring A-n-y-t-h-i-n-g. This would have been better to cut it out and just have Tony pick up the file he needed.
Same with Pepper: Why having her all extremis-ed when she dies, come back, and is then cured. What's the point?
Same with Gary, Tony's fan: Spend 10 seconds on him, ok, but have 5 minutes of the movies about him and his fan attitude is 1) boring and above all 2) useless to the story. Again it does not bring anything. Except diversion from the real stuff: Tony phobia. We could have seen Tony just fix the antenna, and understand that a technology genius could fix it alone.[/BLACKOUT]
And finally the Mandarin: [BLACKOUT]I had to wait the complete end of the movie to be sure that it was not a joke. Ben Kingsley was perfect, I'm so deceived. I don't get it, but I can somehow comprehend that it was a bold decision of the director. Ok, so ok. But in this case, like I said, what makes the whole trick undigest is the balance.
The way it was done wasbad and I felt cheated. It may be a good idea the make Killian the Mandarin, but in this case, I think the movie should have exposed ben kingsley less, and show Killian being the Mandarin more. I'm ready to accept he is the Mandarin, but then give him time on screen. Let's face it: he screams "I'm the real mandarin"and then dies... ... At least in Bat. Begins, the true Ra's al Ghul had time on screen, while we knew it was him, so the trick worked. Like I said, the idea may not be bad but the treatment is unbalanced then bad.
Ps: oh yeah the first second of Trevor going out of the toilet was maybe not the best way to explore the trick.[/BLACKOUT]
All in all I have the impression the director let the producers, Toys company, etc... just tell him how much action was important and jokes too. It makes the whole not easy to digest and kind of heavy.
too bad because there are so many excellent things.
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