Iron Man 3 Official Iron Man 3 rate/review thread. - Part 1

[Superhero 101]

Saw it last night but was too tired to write a review overall I liked it the acting was great all around the directing from black was good the story was good but I felt u really had to pay attention to what was going on. I thought the first act felt a little slow but the movie picks up after that I didn't really care about the twist I thought it served its purpose but it is sad that we didn't get what so many fans wanted. But the third act of the movie made up for that it was as good as the avengers. I loved the score in the film it felt really heroic when the theme would be playing in the background. I hope this is kind of the last iron man movie because the movie ends in a real fitting way I think Downey will only return for avengers 2 and not do a im4. iron man 3 is a good entertaining movie it was a hell of a lot better than im2 but still not as great as im1. I give it a 8.5/10

 

[Incredible Hans]

 

[Flemm]

A chinese robe? Samurai haircut? Captain America tatto? They are all iconic elements from different cultures and maybe stereotypical - but racist???

The Mandarin, as originally portrayed in the comics, is a racist caricature. Obviously, the movie would want to avoid reproducing that. There were basically two options: just eliminate it, or portray the character in a way that uses and recognizes the racist/xenophobic element of the character as originally presented.

Spoiler tagging the rest of this, just in case...

Spoiler

IM3 chose option #2. The Mandarin "façade" may not itself be racist, but the reason it works as a distraction for Killian is that it plays on everyone's expectations for what the "villain" should look like, and how the villain should behave.

That is a more interesting choice, imo, than simply presenting a version of the character that avoids the original racist caricature. They could have done that, but instead they created a version of the character that comments on how racist stereotypes evolve in the first place. That doesn't make it the most brilliant-est thing ever, but it is clever at the very least.

 

[arveg2]

saw this last night. seriously, marvel...wth happened?!!

imho, terrible way to start phase 2. sincerely hoping the thor and cap sequel would be much better than this. which shouldn't really be that much work considering....

 

[DaRkVeNgeanCe]

Shane Black talks about the reasoning of changing Mandarian in my deleted scenes thread, saying that it was done from the beginning to have this type of twist in the film and do something different.

Well it didn't translate well and was a bad decision from the start.

 

[Incredible Hans]

The Mandarin, as originally portrayed in the comics, is a racist caricature. Obviously, the movie would want to avoid reproducing that. There were basically two options: just eliminate it, or portray the character in a way that uses and recognizes the racist/xenophobic element of the character as originally presented.

Spoiler tagging the rest of this, just in case...

Spoiler

IM3 chose option #2. The Mandarin "façade" may not itself be racist, but the reason it works as a distraction for Killian is that it plays on everyone's expectations for what the "villain" should look like, and how the villain should behave.

That is a more interesting choice, imo, than simply presenting a version of the character that avoids the original racist caricature. They could have done that, but instead they created a version of the character that comments on how racist stereotypes evolve in the first place.

Sorry, but this doesn't make any sense.

[BLACKOUT]
You say they chose the option to "portray the character in a way that uses and recognizes the racist/xenophobic element of the character as originally presented"...
And then, at the same time, you say "The Mandarin 'façade' may not itself be racist..."

Not only the facade isn't racist, nothing about Ben Kingsley's character is racist. And if nothing is racist, then there isn't any using or recognizing the "racist/xenophobic element of the character" either.
[/BLACKOUT]

 

[JerseyJoker]

Well for comic book fans it doesnt, but everyone else it does. Nobody in the common movie going public knows who the Mandarin is...everyone in my audience poped big for the reveal and laughed hard at the Trevor jokes. It did translate.

 

[Incredible Hans]

Well for comic book fans it doesnt, but everyone else it does. Nobody in the common movie going public knows who the Mandarin is...everyone in my audience poped big for the reveal and laughed hard at the Trevor jokes. It did translate.

Nobody in the common movie going public knows who Galactus. So it's okay that Fox made him a big cloud.

Nobody in the common movie going public knows who Deadpool is. So it's okay that Fox made him a speechless psycho-zombie.

 

[DorneyDave]

Saw it last night in Imax. Let's do pros and cons.

Con's

-At rare points, especially during Rhodey's Iron Patriot scenes the humor became a little TOO much and took away from the scene rather than adding to it.

-Would have liked one more scene with Tony in the full suit doing some action, felt like it needed just one more dash of Tony as Iron Man somewhere in the movie. He should have been in the suit during the Air Force One sequence, I know logically it's much safer for him not to be there...but eh. It lost some of its' impact when it was revealed he wasn't in it.

-Would have liked to delve even further into the back-story of Mandarin/Killian and how the whole situation came about.

-The whole President/Vice President angle was unneeded and felt out of place. Every time the movie switched to a scene involving the executive branch it just felt out of place to me.

Pro's

- RDJ. Obivously, he is a mega mega mega star and continues to dominate this role.

- The movie is very funny. The humor mostly all hits its mark as well. "I don't even like working here, these guys are all really weird." That had me in stitches.

- Awesome action scenes, my favorite being the brawl in the small TN town.

- The "kid" in the movie isn't annoying! He actually adds very much to the story and his arc is completed so nicely. I loved the addition and RDJ's chemistry with the kid. The little boy actually held his own in the scenes, very impressive.

- The Mandarin/Killian threat was very well done. I thought he and all of his Extremis soldiers were terrifying and menacing. They needed to be a legitimate threat following the Avenger's alien invasion and they were. They were just different enough from that threat as well. Nicely done.

Overall, an awesome movie that I would give an 8/10 on my scale.

MCU Rank
1. Avengers.
2. Iron Man.
3. Iron Man 3.
4. Thor
5. TIH

 

[DaRkVeNgeanCe]

I honestly felt that most of the jokes in this film fell flat.

 

[spider-neil]

Well for comic book fans it doesnt, but everyone else it does. Nobody in the common movie going public knows who the Mandarin is...everyone in my audience poped big for the reveal and laughed hard at the Trevor jokes. It did translate.

I can definately seperate my comic knowledge from a movie character and what they did with the character (Mandarin) was frankly rubbish. This is based on the character THEY set up in the movie.

 

[Rock Sexton]

The Mandarin, as originally portrayed in the comics, is a racist caricature. Obviously, the movie would want to avoid reproducing that. There were basically two options: just eliminate it, or portray the character in a way that uses and recognizes the racist/xenophobic element of the character as originally presented.

Spoiler tagging the rest of this, just in case...

Spoiler

IM3 chose option #2. The Mandarin "façade" may not itself be racist, but the reason it works as a distraction for Killian is that it plays on everyone's expectations for what the "villain" should look like, and how the villain should behave.

That is a more interesting choice, imo, than simply presenting a version of the character that avoids the original racist caricature. They could have done that, but instead they created a version of the character that comments on how racist stereotypes evolve in the first place. That doesn't make it the most brilliant-est thing ever, but it is clever at the very least.

What was racist though? If it was a speech thing, they could've changed that.

 

[Flemm]

Spoiler

Not only the facade isn't racist, nothing about Ben Kingsley's character is racist. And if nothing is racist, then there isn't any using or recognizing the "racist/xenophobic element of the character" either.

Sure it does.

Spoiler

He's a kind of amalgam of what we've come to expect from both media-generated foreign bogeymen and "updated" genre villains. And therefore an effective distraction.

When I say the façade "may not itself be racist," what I mean is: it takes a while before a certain type of caricature really becomes a racist stereotype. The Yellow Peril stereotype that defines the original Mandarin in the comics only became very clearly a racist stereotype because it was used over and over again in a certain way.

It doesn't have to *be* an already established racist stereotype to play around with the fear of difference that *produces* racist stereotypes.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

When did stereotypical become synonymous with racist?

People are gonna crap bricks when/if they introduce Luke Cage into the movieverse.

 

[JerseyJoker]

Shane Black speaks about why the Mandarin is who he is. He spoke that he is a think tanks idea of what a terrorist should be and sound like.

 

[Incredible Hans]

Sure it does.

Spoiler

He's a kind of amalgam of what we've come to expect from both media-generated foreign bogeymen and "updated" genre villains. And therefore an effective distraction.

When I say the façade "may not itself be racist," what I mean is: it takes a while before a certain type of caricature really becomes a racist stereotype. The Yellow Peril stereotype that defines the original Mandarin in the comics only became very clearly a racist stereotype because it was used over and over again in a certain way.

Come on, this is ridiculous.

Again, what is racist about Kingsley's look? Samurai style? Is Silver Samurai in the Wolverine movie racist? Captain America tattoo? Is Cap's look racist? Come on, I don't see it. There is nothing racist about Ben Kingsley's look.

 

[Juicy J]

I honestly felt that most of the jokes in this film fell flat.

First you say the action was unimpressive; next you say the humor fell flat? You're definitely in the minority on that one there pal.
I'd say this was the best humor in any superhero film ever, no doubt in my mind.

 

[Incredible Hans]

When did stereotypical become synonymous with racist?

People are gonna crap bricks when/if they introduce Luke Cage into the movieverse.

Thank you.

Of course, stereotypical isn't synonymous with racist. That's what some people don't understand.

Red Skull's look and behavior is stereotypical Nazi, but not racist (but of course, Red Skull is a racist...).

Second Sherlock Holmes movie had stereotypical gypsies (but nothing racist).

In many movies, Dracula is stereotypical eastern european (but not racist).

The Telmarians in Narnia 2 were stereotypical Spanish, but not racist.

 

[peterparker0077]

1) yes they could have delved in more about the 10 rings and i think this kinda matches up with the plot twist.
2)Didn't Loki make himself easy to find, and that even took 24hrs. Also the president was missing for just a few hours.
3) We have limbs being regenerated, and now we are questioning hairs?

Notice the lol, for number 3, meaning i thought it was funny, not a serious complaint... But, you do know the difference between hair and limbs right?

After all the live news and such, including tony, you would think shield would be right on that. Hell, they are shield, but they should of had leads well before that.

 

[Incredible Hans]

First you say the action was unimpressive; next you say the humor fell flat? You're definitely in the minority on that one there pal.
I'd say this was the best humor in any superhero film ever, no doubt in my mind.

There were some good jokes. I really liked some of the scenes with the kid.

But it wasn't the best humor in any superhero film ever.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

Thank you.

Of course, stereotypical isn't synonymous with racist. That's what some people don't understand.

Red Skull's look and behavior is stereotypical Nazi, but not racist (but of course, Red Skull is a racist...).

Second Sherlock Holmes movie had stereotypical gypsies (but nothing racist).

In many movies, Dracula is stereotypical eastern european (but not racist).

The Telmarians in Narnia 2 were stereotypical Spanish, but not racist.

At no point during Ben Kingsley's performance or even reading the comic book version did I feel that Asians were being ridiculed nor discriminated against.

 

[Flemm]

Again, what is racist about Kingsley's look?

Nobody said it was, at least not in this conversation. That is not the point.

Spoiler

The point is: the Mandarin façade is an effective distraction because he is the villain you are expecting. He conforms to what both the audience and the characters in the story are expecting the villain to look like, and he behaves like everyone is expecting him to behave.

That type of expectation is how something like the Yellow Peril stereotype evolves in the first place: people get used to the villain looking and behaving a certain way, so a certain image is reproduced over and over.

In that sense, IM3 comments on the xenophobic/racist element of the original comic character in an interesting way.

And of course, racism and stereotype are not synonymous. But a stereotype can be racist, and the original comic book Mandarin conforms to a widely recognized racist stereotype.

 

[DorneyDave]

I thought Kingsley's Mandarin was

Spoiler

a great potrayal of what the American public would have in their mind when the word terrorist is mentioned. It's exactly the kind of persona that would terrify people and that's what Killian used to his advantage. As he said "subtlety was out the window" It was a cookie cutter Bin Laden. Not racist or demeaning at all to me.

 

[def28]

Nobody in the common movie going public knows who Galactus. So it's okay that Fox made him a big cloud.

Nobody in the common movie going public knows who Deadpool is. So it's okay that Fox made him a speechless psycho-zombie.

Nope, some dig it some don't. I think the difference here is this was a much better film then XMOW and FF. Make an entertaining movie and the changes won't be as harsh for some. Also, Galactus and Deadpool are extremely more popular then the Mandarin. The Mandarin didn't get any attention till now.

 

[GremlinZilla89]

I love how before the main complaint was that the movies were relying to much on connecting continuity instead of focusing on their own stories. And now, people are *****ing the films aren't expanding the Universe enough. No pleasing some people.