Iron Man 3 Official Iron Man 3 rate/review thread.

[cabjvitu]

I'm a film fan first, comic book fan second.


The genre-politics of this film are genius. People feeling cheated by the Mandarin flip are an essential part of this, which is why its so ballsy. The film makers inserted a giant 'kink' in the fabric of the genre at the absolute prime moment - it hits you like the gunshot in LA Confidential. It does to the movie what the I am your father scene does to Star Wars - or what the reveal of Kaiser Soze does to The Usual Suspects. It changes everything.

Fans who are discomforted by that should search for a smarter articulation of what that effect says about the phenomena of comic book movies. The marketing, the execution, the creation of the Mandarin was so perfect - in terms of how we have come to understand film adaptions of difficult comic book villains. It does exactly what the genre has come to do. They take a silly/difficult character and give him a fan-boy's wet dream of a Nolan interpretation. The Mandarin is a commentary on that process firstly. But it also does something more meaningful in the context of the film. It takes off the mask of the villain you want to see, dousing their mystique in cold water, showing them to be simply a creation - another special effect to sell us the movie. We were totally fooled. And we should enjoy that and learn from it.

Its about time a superhero movie deconstructed the idea of villainy in the same way that it has tried to deconstruct the idea of heroism. The villains of our modern world are marketing constructs - Bin Laden, Assad, Kim Jung Il. We do not find them terrifying or even truly abhorrent - but they instill a talismatic sense of excitement within the catastrophe of modern events. Their persona obscures the real war which our governments are waging around them. Our villains are brought to us through the media without even the slightest attempt at empathy - objectivity - or counter-factual. They are almost what we want them to be.

Isn't it unnervingly true, that the face of our enemy, that excites us - is disappointing and crass, and only a personification of the greater threat and challenge to our ideas? Think of Bin Laden taken out in his hide-away with his wives in the dead of night. Perhaps if we had seen that scene it might have been as disappointing and crass as the Mandarin?

It was obvious he was staged, as you were only ¨knowing¨ the character by his threats on tv, that were completely feeling fakey, but for a couple of them i was like, ok.. but then you see that scene were he gets off the car and is going to start shooting and i was sure he was just an actor and is was going to be all a bluff. I mean if you have a villain, you kinda parallel the story of the hero with him, this was not happening, but it was with guy pierce´s story, so this was not coming out of the blue kinda surprise for me really. Probably the idea behind this was good, and you are right that the enemies of the governament are this type of staged thing, but i felt the movie was too weak overall.

 

[cabjvitu]

Damn it, can't really argue with this comment. This twist is killing me...

yeah and what´s with they attacked his house after he revelad his address, I mean he is the most famous guy in the planet... so silly.

 

[v.waltzer]

I enjoyed Rhodie in this immensely.

 

[The Joker]

I enjoyed Rhodie in this immensely.

So did I. I love Don Cheadle. Great actor. He was one of my highlights in this movie.

 

[Blade X]

Honestly i was utterly disappointed by the movie, I was not expecting the greatest film but the reviews were great so I was waiting at least something better than 2. Thought it was stupid, boring, characters like Rhodey misused, the enemies were silly, and what is with the touch of one hand they disabled war machine?!, at the end there were like 200 of those enemies but they were not able of this anymore. then Ironman does not do anything in the hole movie, and super pepper resolves this, what???. Ninja Tony Stark takes on trained security making funny faces for the camera, come on, i went to watch ironman!. RDJ has his charisma intact and this is what makes it watchable, but the conflicting of scenes were apparently the director did not know if this was a mexican soap opera, a romantic comedy or a buddy movie, or even a kid bonding movie, and please do not tell me that he mixed this fantastically because the movie feels broken.

Marvel should have called this movie "TONY STARK AND HIS BUTT KICKING FRIENDS".

 

[JKKS085]

I hate the idea that you should like the twist simply because it plays with your expectations.

Or simply because it gets across some political message.

Sure, why should we like a twist only because it has that has depth and meaning.
Let's enjoy things only when they are shallow, meaningless but true to source material and most of all true to the marketing campaign.

 

[The Batman]

Sure, why should we like a twist only because it has that has depth and meaning.
Let's enjoy things only when they are shallow, meaningless but true to source material and most of all true to the marketing campaign.

Not what I was saying, but if twisting arguments makes it easier for you to respond to them, go ahead.

 

[jmc]

Sure, why should we like a twist only because it has that has depth and meaning.
Let's enjoy things only when they are shallow, meaningless but true to source material and most of all true to the marketing campaign.

Have you even seen the movie?

 

[cabjvitu]

edit: duplicated post.

 

[cabjvitu]

Marvel should have called this movie "TONY STARK AND HIS BUTT KICKING FRIENDS".

haha indeed!

 

[Shikamaru]

Sure, why should we like a twist only because it has that has depth and meaning.
Let's enjoy things only when they are shallow, meaningless but true to source material and most of all true to the marketing campaign.

I'm just going to repost this:

Are you also saying that there is no way to have such political messages in a movie and execute it well? Look at The Dark Knight. It is full of political messages about terrorism. However, it is also the classic Batman vs. Joker story in many ways. It involves Joker trying to prove to Batman that they're both "freaks", Joker trying to prove that everyone is just as insane as he is, him believing that he is the only one who embraces insanity, him wanting to spread madness in Gotham, him trying to push Batman to the limits so that Batman would break his one rule even if it means that the Joker would die at the hands of Batman doing so, and the list goes on. The political messages in the film didn't make the film any less of a Batman vs Joker story and still had the dynamic between them there. I refuse to believe that there was no way for Black to have this political message in the movie without sacrificing huge amounts of potential.

 

[The Ironstar]

Check this out:

[YT]7qplKlsIaIA[/YT]

 

[JKKS085]

Have you even seen the movie?

Twice actually. The first time on opening day Wed Apr 24 at the 10.30 AM showing in 2D, the other on Sat Apr 27 at the 9.45 AM showing in 3D.
I saw the movie at the UGC Ciné Cité Bercy in the picturesque Bercy Village in Paris.

Now do you wanna know what I was wearing these days ? Maybe what I ate for breakfast ?

t:

 

[ElMariachi]

When you are arguing with people on a forum like this one, you never want to bring up TDKR in order to win an argument. TDKR is by far the most controversial comic book movie to date (I don't count IM3 because it hasn't been released globally yet and it's still very new) and saying "It can work just like in TDKR" OR "It won't work just like how it didn't work in TDKR" will get you nowhere in an argument on a comic book message board. You would just turn the whole thread into one big TDKR argument because it won't be too long before someone comes along and tries to argue that the stuff in bold is wrong.

Why?

TDKR was a controversial movie but the criticisms of the movie never got in the way of people actually enjoying it. Nobody ever dwelled on the changes that Nolan made to the characters, plotholes, and minor missteps. I never heard anybody say they hated the movie because in the end, Bane was just a well spoken minion of the League of Shadows. Nobody said they hated TDK because of the lack of permawhite and Harvey dying in the end. Nobody said they hated XMFC because the laughable lack of continuity and making Xavier/Erik friends only during the span of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

This criticism of IM3 comes across as fake and biased. An easy reason for people to hate a movie that they otherwise would have nothing to criticize. All over a rather unimportant villain in the grande scheme of things. A character that critics have been raving about. I've been here long enough to see the target Marvel Studios has on it's back. Unlike almost every other franchise, they have to make an almost perfect movie (IM/Avengers) to avoid heavy criticism. Heavy is the head that wears the crown, I suppose.

 

[strikezone89]

For the people who have seen the movie- how does this rank out of the 3 IM movies?

 

[JKKS085]

I'm just going to repost this:

While I understand what you're saying, I don't think taking TDK as a comparision is fair to most of the other comic book movies.
But I also think that Black pushed the limits even further, it's not a political message is a philosophical one about the shiffting nature of evil, the perceptions we have of evil and the stands we make in our lives based on said perceptions. And how interesting it would be for us to but them in perspective a tad more.

Now that doesn't make the twist completely work (mostly in its execution) for me either, I too mourn what they ultimately did with this "iconic" figure but I respect him as an author who twisted a classic figure and added meaning and depth to it. That's mainly what I thought was missing from phase 1, bold stands, daring point of views on how a character should be adaptated for the big screen. So I don't feel like complaining now that I got a director who showed boldness and personnality. Even if the other side of the coin is something as unexpected and questionnable as this twist.

Sure they may have been some other ways around, but I still think there is a lot to be satisfied with in this new take.

 

[jmc]

Twice actually. The first time on opening day Wed Apr 24 at the 10.30 AM showing in 2D, the other on Sat Apr 27 at the 9.45 AM showing in 3D.
I saw the movie at the UGC Ciné Cité Bercy in the picturesque Bercy Village in Paris.

Now do you wanna know what I was wearing these days ? Maybe what I ate for breakfast ?

t:

Forgive me, I've heard so many people defending a film they haven't seen and your comments sounded eerily similar in tone. So my apologies.

 

[The Joker]

For the people who have seen the movie- how does this rank out of the 3 IM movies?

For me it goes:

Iron Man
Iron Man 3
Iron Man 2

 

[cabjvitu]

For the people who have seen the movie- how does this rank out of the 3 IM movies?

The worst one, and i thought 2 was not good :/ while 1 was excellent

 

[JKKS085]

For the people who have seen the movie- how does this rank out of the 3 IM movies?

I would say it's on par with the first movie (but I personnaly have a thing for origin stories).
Totally different flicks though but Black goes back to what makes Stark a great, engaging character. Overall I think it's a rare thing to have the third opus in a franchise feeling as fresh and new as the first one.

 

[ElMariachi]

The issue is the marketing of the film is misleading to a fault. How about you actually watch the movie and then make up your mind about it instead of being 'confused' of the outrage. You might then be able to understand what people's issues are.

I don't need to see the film to see how ridiculous the criticisms are. I've read quite a few professional review and this entire thread. I know most of the plot points of this movie. The only issue people have with this movie is the handling of the Mandarin. A cheesy character whose only claim to fame is being the biggest villain for a major character known to have the worst rouges gallery in comics. They tried something different with him. Does this one issue truly ruin a movie for a person? If it does than I think people need to leave the basement and try meeting a woman.

The other criticism of the movie seems to be the level of comedy. That's a personal preference but it is a hallmark of the franchise. Actually of the entire MCU. This entire universe was built on the snark and jokes of Tony Stark. If you didn't like it in this movie, how could you possibly enjoy ANY of the other MCU movies? Or any of the Spider-Man movies for that matter? Iron Man 1 and the Avengers was filled with this.

 

[JKKS085]

Forgive me, I've heard so many people defending a film they haven't seen and your comments sounded eerily similar in tone. So my apologies.

No apology necessary

 

[Shikamaru]

Why?

TDKR was a controversial movie but the criticisms of the movie never got in the way of people actually enjoying it. Nobody ever dwelled on the changes that Nolan made to the characters, plotholes, and minor missteps. I never heard anybody say they hated the movie because in the end, Bane was just a well spoken minion of the League of Shadows.

You are bringing up things that a lot of people criticized in TDKR though. And a lot of people did dwell on characters, plot holes, and all that other stuff. You should visit the TDKR boards more often.

Nobody said they hated TDK because of the lack of permawhite and Harvey dying in the end. Nobody said they hated XMFC because the laughable lack of continuity and making Xavier/Erik friends only during the span of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Joker is still the same character and is not undermined in any way despite the lack of permawhite. That's what matters. Harvey dying in the end was something a lot of people didn't accept till TDKR and even the people that that did didn't mind as much because he was used well and he payed off. That isn't anything like what they did with the Mandarin. [BLACKOUT]He isn't even a villain in the movie (I don't count Killian).[/BLACKOUT] You also ignored JMC's arguments. This whole movie was marketed as IRON MAN VS. MANDARIN and was something that was hyped since 2008. That was not the case with Two-Face. A similar hype was the case with the Joker but that actually delivered.

A lot of people do hate FC because of the continuity errors.

This criticism of IM3 comes across as fake and biased. An easy reason for people to hate a movie that they otherwise would have nothing to criticize. All over a rather unimportant villain in the grande scheme of things. A character that critics have been raving about. I've been here long enough to see the target Marvel Studios has on it's back. Unlike almost every other franchise, they have to make an almost perfect movie (IM/Avengers) to avoid heavy criticism. Heavy is the head that wears the crown, I suppose.

Of course. It's not like the Mandarin is Iron Man's archenemy or anything.

The major criticism I see people list is the stupid twist. I see most people say that it was a good/great movie but that the twist itself was stupid and robbed the movie of a lot of potential.

I wonder how people would've reacted to the twist if this wasn't a film made by Marvel Studios. Imagine if Fox, Sony or someone at WB other than Nolan (because Nolan has his own share of fanboys too) did this. I guarantee you that everyone would've snapped. Heck, if they did this to Joker or Green Goblin, everyone would be pissed regardless of how well executed it would be.

 

[Flemm]

With all due respect, that is a philosophy that I always hated - the belief that a great story with a great & interesting villain and a great performance should be sacrificed in favor of spreading a political message.

There is a "message" either way, really. Doing the Mandarin this way just makes that more apparent.

Doing the Mandarin some other way would just change the message. But there would always be one. Certainly there was originally, in the comic. To an extent, that's probably true of all villains. But certainly a villain like the Mandarin.

 

[Shikamaru]

While I understand what you're saying, I don't think taking TDK as a comparision is fair to most of the other comic book movies.
But I also think that Black pushed the limits even further, it's not a political message is a philosophical one about the shiffting nature of evil, the perceptions we have of evil and the stands we make in our lives based on said perceptions. And how interesting it would be for us to but them in perspective a tad more.

Now that doesn't make the twist completely work (mostly in its execution) for me either, I too mourn what they ultimately did with this "iconic" figure but I respect him as an author who twisted a classic figure and added meaning and depth to it. That's mainly what I thought was missing from phase 1, bold stands, daring point of views on how a character should be adaptated for the big screen. So I don't feel like complaining now that I got a director who showed boldness and personnality. Even if the other side of the coin is something as unexpected and questionnable as this twist.

Sure they may have been some other ways around, but I still think there is a lot to be satisfied with in this new take.

Your post makes me feel pleasantly optimistic. I'll try to be as open minded to the idea as possible when I see the film but deep down inside, it will always be a downer.

Everyone is saying that they did it to spread some political message on terrorism. If that is indeed the case, then I still stand by what I said.

I'm also glad that the MCU has a bit of boldness now especially if the directors have it but this there are ways to show some boldness without doing this IMO. However, I do think this shows that the future MCU's boldness is high which means we might get better quality solo films in the future .