Here's my review of Iron Man 3
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And here again if you guys don't want to watch my video.
Regarding the boy.
The kid wasn't that bad but to be honest, the only good thing about the kid was Robert Downey Jr, it was like he just had to deal with the situation he was put in, the best RDJ could and the responses were the best part but then again RDJ's responses are usually the only really good comedy in all of this film. It just seemed forced and obvious that Disney were trying to appeal to the kiddies really badly.
The message behind the twist
I know the message I got that, it was obvious and just wasn't worth it. When a story has to suffer just to get a political message across then it's not worth it and to be honest there were a thousand different ways they could've got the political message across but they just HAD to go the comedic route with it, like I said before it wasn't necessarily the twist itself that bothered me, it was the fact that they made it a complete joke, took me out of the movie and made everything seem less serious which in turn made me care a lot less. Want to see a twist done right look at Batman Begins, Rhas Al Ghul was greatly done but the fake Rhas wasn't the but end of a joke, same with Bane in TDKR, he wasn't the mastermind but he was still done justice and wasn't a joke either. He was a legit threat.
I don't need to see political comedy to get a political message across in a super hero action flick. The first half of the movie was so good, the tone was brilliant and The Mandarin up until his reveal was actually pretty threatening and amazingly acted by Ben Kingsly though his costume design could've been toned down if he was going to keep up that persona, so it wouldn't be too cliche but other than that he would've been an amazing villain if they had kept him going.
The Mandarin and Killian
So many fans, people that didn't even read a single page of the comics voiced their disappointment at The Madarin twist, people were sold on a villain that challenged Tony Stark and put him up against the wall, in interviews they said The Mandarin takes everything from Tony and really makes Tony desperate in this film, I know Killian is the "spiritual Mandarin" but honestly I don't think anyone found him the least bit threatening."OMG you left me on the roof now I must make this OTT elaborate plan to have my revenge!" Every hero has that opposite spectrum, that one guy that they play off of, the one guy who's a huge threat and really challenges them emotionally, physically and intellectually, Tony Stark in this film series has not had that, he's not had a villain come and smack that smile right off his face and made him say "wow I need wake the **** up this isn't a joke anymore." Mandarin had that damn potential to be Iron Man's Joker but they threw that potential in the sea. Killian was cracking jokes, the interrupted broadcast Mandarin was serious as **** and that's what really appealed to me.
Source Material
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^^Extremis motion comic, the comic the film was based on. How is it the comic is thrice darker than the ****ing movies? Not to mention more realistic to boot. Iron Man had every ability to be a down to earth drama, it was for the first act of the film, the best part of the film IMO then at some point after the kid showed up, it was like they just stopped caring or some *****e started trying to add stupid ideas.
Ok our enemies are a fake front, so now we have to represent that in our fantasy super hero flicks? Why don't they just do a similar twist with the Joker? That would be fun right? The Joker is just a front to cause fear, it's not that he's this psychopath that has this devils advocate, anarchic view of society that has to be stopped and proven wrong. He's just an actor named Trevor hired by some dude who couldn't get laid back in high school and holds a grudge. So he makes this Joker front to hide behind while he works, that's so interesting, I love the commentary on terrorism and life.
When you have to get your political message out to the point it detracts from the story, especially if executed horribly like it was in IM3 then you will have problems.
I don't mind changes from source material but if you change too much to the point the character is unrecognizable, why bother calling it an adaptation in the first place? Just go ahead make your own original story. The whole point of adaptations is to see the same character come to life in a different medium, if the character is nothing like in his source material then you lose that character. If Tony Stark was called Michael Benson and he created Audi R8 transformers instead of red and gold Iron Man suits it wouldn't be Iron Man anymore.
Humor & seriousness
It was silly the way he kept switching to making jokes, and PTSD panic attacks, just seemed fake and made me care less about his problems. Like I said I don't mind the comedy usually when it's only RDJ (like it was in The Avengers) but it seemed like everyone in this was in a Saturday Night Live skit about terrorism and superheroes, DID NOT WANT.
Popularity (Avengers vs Iron Man 3)
If you compare the general audience reactions of this to that of The Avengers, you'll find that this is a lot more mixed. Iron Man 3 is like marmite, you either love it or hate it. I don't actually hate it, I'm just disappointed. Watching it today, the second time had me thinking; just imagine what this could've been if they kept the same tone from the first act onwards, it had potential to be a mind blowing dramatic action in-depth conclusion to Tony Stark's story and his dealing with the aftermath of Avengers and a new threat but somewhere in-between it just decided to nudge the funny bone of audiences instead.
The final fight (could Ben Kingsley have gotten physical with Iron Man?)
I didn't like some of the final fight because of the comedy elements, the poking the little turtle soup **** Killian was doing, wtf was that ****? And Tony making light of Pepper's supposed death, he was more angry when Happy got injured, unless he truly believes in bro's before ho's then that was some bull!
I enjoyed the action and Rhodys scenes but again most of the finale was ruined by the annoying urge the powers that be had to put a one liner after every action set piece. I really hated how the suits were just ripped up like paper so easily by Killian, it was just a Dues Ex Machina in order to give Tony a reason to jump from suit to suit, it was weak. And finally Pepper delivering the final blow to Killian was kinda ********, the film was about Tony's battle, it's called Iron Man not Iron Pepper. I see they were trying to do some female empowerment ******** and stop Pepper being a damsel for once but it was so obvious and forced. She didn't need to deliver the final blow in order to be a strong woman. Again other ways it could've been done.
Iron Man 3 was fun but it could've been epic if they had just kept the same tone from the first act. It's like the first act and the middle onwards was directed by a completely different person.