Iron Man 3 Official rate & review IRON MAN 3 thread! - Part 3

[A Necessary Evil]

Yeah, i'm not really noticing anything outwardly stupid from IM3....except Happy not knowing how to use an iPad.

 

[InternetPeople]

Giving Pepper Extremis. That was stupid.

A suit that comes in pieces. Pointless.

Rhodey was criminally underused.

 

[A Necessary Evil]

Not really

You realize in the comics Tony's Extremis armor comes in pieces, yes?

Rhodey had more to do in IM3 than in the other two.

 

[Victarion]

Giving Pepper Extremis. That was stupid.

A suit that comes in pieces. Pointless.

Rhodey was criminally underused.

Remind me of why the Mandarin gave Pepper Extremis. Its been a while since I saw the movie. I don't think Tony knew the suit in pieces was pointless. Rhodey's screen time had far more quality in this one than in the prior two. Quality > quantity.

 

[A Necessary Evil]

To repay Tony for the gift he gave Aldrich, which was desperation...and also to basically hurt Tony by having the love of his life blow up.

 

[InternetPeople]

Not really

You realize in the comics Tony's Extremis armor comes in pieces, yes?

Rhodey had more to do in IM3 than in the other two.

Rhodey didn't do **** in IM3. He showed up, got captured, gave up the armor, got knocked out, did some impossible gymnastics to rescue the President and flew away. He was pointless. His armor was worthless. If they cut out Rhodey from the entire film he wouldn't be missed.

Just because something happens in the comics does not mean it should be adapted to the screen. Explain how having your armor coming in pieces is more effective than having the whole armor show up. The only time in the film the armor being in pieces worked was when Tony was dragged underwater, which only the gauntlet needed to detach. The other time Tony needed his armor to show up he only got a gauntlet and a boot. He's lucky it wasn't the shoulder and crotch piece that showed up. There is no reason for the body to come apart other than to look cool. The armor being in multiple pieces is illogical and unnecessary. (All that doesn't even begin to address the actual design of each individual piece needing it's own GPS, rocket boost and power source.)

Killian could give Pepper Extremis for whatever reason he wants but the end result would be Pepper dies or Pepper gets superpowers. Neither of those outcomes are good for Killian so I didn't get the point. This also led to the awful scene of Pepper doing flying karate chops and needing to blowup Killian's face because he didn't die the first time only for her to exclaim "That was really violent!" while I exclaimed "That was really dumb!" Then the voiceover of Tony saying something like "It took some tinkering but I got Pepper straightened out." Yep, just like that. All fixed. Easy .

To me, the film really fell apart after Tony's house got destroyed. His suit ran out of batteries (even though it can't because arc reactor). The file from the soldier's mother in the bar was too convenient. The fight between Tony and the Extremis chick should have been Tony v. Savin. The Air Force One fight needed to last a bit longer (really, Savin was cool but was killed off too easily. One shot through the chest and done.) Rhodey really needed his own baddie to fight to give him something to do.

The thing that was well executed that gets the most hate was the "Mandarin Twist" though when you actually think about it, Killian pulled it off perfectly. He essentially made Osama Bin Laden and was trying to sell the weapons to go fight him. It was perfect. If you want to control both sides of the war, which was Killian's goal, this is how you would do it.

I own and have watched each MCU film many, many times and while I have both small and large critiques to all of them, I have more problems with the story of IM3 than any other film and I am surprised people don't have more problems with this film and yet skewer others. While I don't think the film is bad I think it is in the bottom third with Incredible Hulk and The Dark World.

 

[giveyourself12%]

Can you be more specific? Everything made sense in the context of the script.

Yep. Sorry for taking so long, I kept meaning to get back to you.

Tip of the iceberg:


A piece of Tony’s weak, faulty Mark 42 armor took the head off of the Mark 4 armor simply by flying around the room and then crashing into it. That suit was an upgrade of the Mark 3 which withstood a direct hit from a tank...but a flying piece of armor decapitates it.


Tony’s has a wound on his face from the flying armor during the Mark 42 testing scene which magically disappears when he and Rhodes meet at the restaurant but then reappears and stays for almost the entire duration of the movie.


The kids at the restaurant where Tony meets Rhodes look younger than Harley but they know who Stark/Iron Man is. However, Harley is all, “Duhh…what’s that on your chest? You take care of Iron Man? Like a mechanic?”

We’ve seen that Tony is able to suit up in the Mark 7 very quickly. He even uses it earlier in the movie to go meet Rhodes…why does he opt for the unreliable and fragile Mark 42 when he’s concerned about a stranger seeking entry into his home? It’s not like he made any major improvements in the suit since we first saw it, that thing breaks down throughout the entire movie. Any one of his classic seven armors (except perhaps the Mark 1) would have been able to take care of those helicopters, thus saving his home, his tech, and his giant bunny.

Tony’s classic seven suits explode in perfect sequence yet we are supposed to believe that it’s the result of a missile strike.

It’s established that Tony doesn’t remember meeting Yinsen, yet the movie opens with a flashback of Tony remembering and narrating said meeting. Also, when Happy asks, “Where were we in ’99? Switzerland?” Tony answers in the affirmative like he suddenly remembers all about it.

The Extremis-powered villains shut down Tony and Rhodes’ entire suits simply by touching them with extremely (no pun intended) hot hands/fists. Why? I can buy that AIM jiggerybuggered Rhodes’ suit to react that way when they were spray painting it or whatever, but what’s with that happening to each suit Tony brings against them?

There's more. Do you need more? lol

I can accept anything in a movie if it's explained well, but this movie has huge glaring continuity/logic issues within its own universe as well as within the universe of the other movies which feature Iron Man which make some people including myself scratch their heads and go, "Who wrote this?"

 

[Havok83]

If the poll was still open, Id give it a 6. I decided to watch bc its the only MCU I havent seen since Avengers and am not impressed. In fact none of the IM films have been great. This just happened to be the worse

 

[Spock]

The first IM was awesome! The second one was decent. Third? Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Yeah, i'm not really noticing anything outwardly stupid from IM3....except Happy not knowing how to use an iPad.

I thought he did good.

Something stupid in Iron Man 3....
Nothing comes to mind.

 

[Ironfan72]

I get way people were not fond of IM3, was it a great movie, no, kind of felt Shane Black tried to hard to make a lethal weapon sequel using Tony and Rhodey, but I enjoyed it, up till the twist, Mandarin was bada$$, and when it shows up on FX I watch it, it just was not much of a satisfactory end to a franchise, with no real pay off on his arch nemesis.

 

[Flint Marko]

My girl doesn't care for superheroes, Iron Man in particular, but says this is one of her favorite superhero movies. I've since introduced her to more Shane Black films and now she's a huge fan. Not sure where I'd personally rank it (mid-tier to upper-mid tier MCU), but she says its in her top 5 favorite superhero films.

 

[Lantern Venom]

Outside of Mandarin being utterly wasted, this movie hit the mark. I just watched it again recently, and it featured more genuinely emotional subplots and moments that most CBMs. It compensated well for being light in action with strong character development.

There's one glaring plot hole as the movie builds to a crescendo. I still firmly believe that Captain America should have emerged in an effort to save President Ellis. I realize that Marvel can't use the Deus Ex Machina approach with their team in individual movies, but with "Mandarin" threatening the POTUS multiple times on TV, it's hard to imagine the Sentinel of Liberty having more pressing business.

 

[-JKR-]

My girl doesn't care for superheroes, Iron Man in particular, but says this is one of her favorite superhero movies. I've since introduced her to more Shane Black films and now she's a huge fan. Not sure where I'd personally rank it (mid-tier to upper-mid tier MCU), but she says its in her top 5 favorite superhero films.

She's a keeper, man!!

Iron Man 3 is my absolute favorite Marvel Studios movie, and one of my favorite comic book adaptations. And Shane Black is one of my favorite writer-directors. Such a great and unique voice in the business. He just has a knack for storytelling and characters.

I get way people were not fond of IM3, was it a great movie

Oh hell yeah, it is!

 

[Havok83]

I just rewatched it and I have to say my opinion has changed bc its not that bad. I once ranked the films, 2, 1, 3 but now its 1, 3, 2

 

[spideyboy_1111]

I just watched it last night for the first time in a long while...

people love to pound on IM2 but i think it feels like most marvel films.. and i really adore it.

IM3 however.... felt like way to many plot points were too "convenient" for my liking. and the movie dragged. the final battle was the best part and it's saving grace.

honestly.. if Mandarin had to be Trevor... (which i know they'd never have pulled off classic mandarin) i would have preferred Killian just being a lacky... with him really working for Maya... who is really Madame Masque. if they needed a bigger bad pulling the strings.. the real "mandarin" could have been her father. Count Nefaria that would have been an acceptable merge

I honestly don't like the extremis virus at all conceptually either.. it feels way out of place with the other IM films and movie appearances. so id have preferred they continued the Armor Wars plot from IM2... instead of military personel with extremis, id have given them armors.. and rather than it feeling like "armor vs armor" id have propelled it into more of a focal on their abilities.

these villains likely would have never been main villains anyway.. so id of been find if some were expendable. Blizzard, Crimson Dynamo, Titanium Man, Radioactive Man, Melter or Scorcher (either, Firebrand, Backlash, etc...

and it would have been much more epic to see that team go up against the "house party protocol"

the rest of the film could have pretty much stayed in tact narratively as well.

 

[samsnee]

There is only slightly better than 2. Rhodes was pointless. No cool scenes of him as War Machine or Iron Patriot. Mandarin turned into a punchline. Potts giving powers and then they just kind of disappear? There were good ideas in there but they just didn’t execute them well.

 

[Mr. Peanut]

I don't understand why more people in this topic aren't/weren't bothered by the fact that this whole movie could have been mostly avoided if Tony had just not let the villains blow up his mansion for no reason whatsoever. Why does he invite them to his mansion and then do nothing to prepare for them? He has an army of Iron Man suits, he could have set up anti-aircraft weapons or drones or whatever. But he does nothing despite literally giving them the address to his house.

I'm usually very generous when it comes to movies. I'm a guy who enjoys Thor: The Dark World and X-men: Origins Wolverine. But that moment with Iron Man letting the villains blow up his house for no reason...it takes me so out of the conflict and I'm just desperately looking for a valid reason for why it happened that way other than "if it didn't there'd be no movie".


The only reason I can think of for why more people aren't bothered by it is because they are too distracted by the Mandarin plot twist, which is what most people complain about instead. Personally, the twist never bothered me. It makes internal sense in the movie and achieved what it was going for. What I can't stand is when a movie's major struggle only happens because of plot induced stupidity on the part of the main protagonist, which is IM3's true sin.

 

[terry78]

He wasn't in his right mind after Happy got injured. In the books he's a genius but he's not some military level tactician, he leaps before he looks even when he's got a plan in place.

 

[C. Lee]

It's called - hubris - he considered the Mandarin a coward who only attacked innocent defenseless people....he figured that daring him to come to his house (and in his mind absolutely believing the Mandarin was a coward who would never come there) would prove that he was a gutless jerk. So he didn't prepare for it....because he absolutely didn't believe Mandarin would attack.....because he was the invincible Iron Man....and no one would attack Iron Man.

 

[fan4stic]

It's called - hubris - he considered the Mandarin a coward who only attacked innocent defenseless people....he figured that daring him to come to his house (and in his mind absolutely believing the Mandarin was a coward who would never come there) would prove that he was a gutless jerk. So he didn't prepare for it....because he absolutely didn't believe Mandarin would attack.....because he was the invincible Iron Man....and no one would attack Iron Man.

Then he's stupid, because he's been attacked before.

 

[C. Lee]

Then he's stupid, because he's been attacked before.

I never said he wasn't.

 

[TheWallCrawler]

I think I like the movie now more than when it came out, but I still think that the Mandarin twist really deflates the experience. I really loved the whole vibe of Ben Kingsley's Mandarin and was excited to see the rest of that story. So when it was revealed that it's actually Guy Pierce's boring character who was the master mind, it was disheartening. For me personally, this has nothing to do with "Mandarin should've been like the comics"

 

[Filmfan93]

Man, this film definitely won't age well now that Shang-Chi is out lol

Not only the Mandarin stuff is now irrelevant after Shang-Chi, but Tony's decision to quit being Iron Man as well (as it doesn't cary over future films as a character decision).

IM3 is now almost obsolete within the bigger MCU picture.