Iron Man Sequels Tone for the third film...

[FaT_tONle]

I think DIAB can be smoothly incorporated into the next IM without becoming too dark or devoid of humor. The story lends itself perfectly once Pepper dumps Stark on a personal level. Taking on a villain like Mandarin can also create drinking problems if Mandarin is not only a threat to IM but the entire company. Maybe work Bethany Cabe in there to help him deal with it. But a 100% Mandarin vs Iron Man movie is not gonna work. You need a completely branching side plot that gives us some closure to Stark's personal life... most notably his love life. That is enough to induce a drinking problem, a major one at that.

 

[BigCityBoy]

Yes,less War Machine! I want to see more Iron Man! Iron man can carry his weight in as many sequels as they care to make. Let's see War Machine do that. Never been a War Machine fan.

Well I'm a War Machine fan and I think he should be in the third movie more than he was in the 2nd, especially since he was introduced in the 2nd movie in the first place. I agree he shouldn't over-shadow Iron Man but War Machine is just as important in the Iron Man mythos as anything else.

 

[kedrell]

I'd really rather they focus on a 'sort of' adaption of Armor Wars rather than DIAB for the 3rd film. There's just more for all to do in an AW movie. Who wants to see an Iron Man movie in which Iron Man is largely absent from the screen for most of the film because Tony's drunk, lost his company and is living homeless on the street? And yes it would have to be a huge portion of the film(armorless, that is) otherwise it would undercut the dramatic weight of Tony's addiction to just see him get over it real quick like. That may work for a bull**** afterschool special, but only because kids who watch that crap are clueless anyway. That's why I said a TV series would be best suited for a DIAB storyline. You CAN draw stuff out to allow the necessary time for such a story to work in a TV series. But I don't think it can be pulled off in a movie without

A)Being incredi-boring(think Superman Returns, AngHulk level boring) or

B)Being so dramatically lightweight/rushed in it's treatment of such a serious subject that nobody would believe it could be resolved so quickly. Then suspension of disbelief epically fails and so does the film(in a sense I'm reminded of Superman IV here and not for reasons of crappy production value).

 

[Son of Coul]

They did DIAB with IM2, just replaced the alcoholism with palladium poisoning. All the stuff with War Machine's creation, distancing himself from his friends and hitting an all-time low was lifted from that story according to Favs, just modified for the movie and it worked pretty great if you ask me. Doing it in the third would be rehashing. He's had blood toxicity problems in one way or another, so as Rhodey says, "Deal with it. Let's move on."

I think the central them should definitely be Iron Man vs. Mandarin. The big questions are where to go with the character. Iron Man is unique in that his alter ego is arguably more interesting and fun to watch than his superhero identity. He's already hit his lowest as a person, now what? What about his relationship with Pepper? Rhodey and Stark are pretty much solid at this point, despite their differences in the first two. That's the biggest thing if you ask me. With any of these movies for that matter. Is his arc done? Or does he still have one more thing to learn? One thing's for sure, he'd better stay an egomaniac. That's been a huge part of his character since his inception and is, in my opinion, his best quality in terms of being entertaining to watch.

As for tone, it should stay fairly consistent with the first two, lighthearted with humor but some good serious character beats throughout. However, since this will likely be the last Iron Man solo film in the MCU (unless they recast - and holy **** DON'T recast, just wait 25 years when you reboot the MCU for v.2 or whatever), they should up the ante and make it a little more epic. We've seen Stark defend other countries, defend himself, now let's see him bust this underground terrorist organization that's haunted him for the first two and defend the world. Not an Avengers-type epic, smaller scale but still a worldwide threat.

And one more thing- I really really don't like the "mini-arc reactors" idea everyone keeps throwing around. We saw it in the second and to a lesser extent, the first. So let's try being a little more creative than that. If Thor/Dr. Strange/Avengers are successful, they can very well pull off alien rings even if their alien origin is modified. Who knows where they'll go. Justin Hammer's coming back, right?

 

[Danalys]

Tony Stark in the films isn't an alcoholic, much as Tony Stark in the early comics wasn't an alcoholic. he's a heavy drinker/partier in the first film until he talks about the next mission being all that matters. he'll excuse himself from parties early so he doesn't get too drunk. In Ironman 2 the drinking is just a symptom of his fear of his own death. He blames much of his unlikeable behaviour on his poisoning to Nick Fury. On some level he's being irresponsible so Rodney will become War Machine. his comment of "people seem to think I don't know what I'm doing" alludes to this.

 

[kedrell]

Fair enough. But I still think it's as close as we're going to get in these films to DIAB, and I for one am satisfied with that. The basic elements are all there, after all. Tony + armor + alcohol = trouble; and that's what we got.

 

[Danalys]

yeah demon in a bottle is a story that can only be really done in the comics or a tv show as a small part of his life. the films are too busy establishing his life and likeability and even tony stark reacting to his impeding death wasn't as likeable. some stories no matter how great can't be done on film just because of the nature of the beast when making a franchise. i agree that was as close as we could have expected.