Ironman 3 - Your thoughts

[rayne008]

My rating 7/10

Highlights
- RDJ still does a great job with this character
- Pretty funny movie with lots of light moments
- Gweneth is a yummy mommy.
- Post credits were quite funny


Irritations:
- Everybody and their dog seems to be able to operate these suits within 5 seconds
- If 2 or 3 big explosions don't kill the baddie, how does the 4th one take care of him
- Just not a big fan of 3D


Overall a fun movie night with the kids, and left me wanting more.

[VANFLAMESFAN]

6/10. Was never engaged by this one. It slightly above average.

Not really much of a spoiler, but you might not want to read this if you haven't seen it yet.

Spoiler!

My main gripe is how they handled the post Avengers story line or lack there of. If Iron Man and the US was in such peril, why not call one of his friends? I'm pretty sure the Hulk could have helped. Why not call Capt America? They created this cool universe with these movies, but now that we've seen them kick ass together, I don't think solo movies work anymore. It just doesn't make a ton of sense.

This one is a spoiler

Spoiler!

The Ben Kingsley twist was weak. Really let down by that. I liked Guy Pearce though.

[trackercowe]

I thought it was a step up over the 2nd movie, but still not as good as the first, or The Avengers for that matter. I did like how they seem to accept it as part of the post-Avengers universe and used the basis of that movie for how Stark acts in this one. So while it might be a stand-alone, they didn't completely ignore prior events.

I also quite liked the villains, and didn't really mind using Kingley as a fraudulent Mandarin. I know some Iron Man fanboys are pissed that they "ruined" The Mandarin, but it was something different than the usual Osama Bin Ladin type terrorist threat. It didn't work flawlessly, but they needed to find a way to make Pearce and his Extremis the real threat, so they couldn't focus too much on Mandarin.

Downey Jr, was great as usual, as was everyone else in the movie. Sort of disappointed that there wasn't a single cameo from one of the other Avengers (until the after credit sequence), but I guess they didn't want that to bog down the movie. Although I do home they give us a Hulk/Iron Man movie eventually as RDJ and Ruffalo have a ton of chemistry, and would definitely make for a fun movie.

I agree with you that people being able to use the suit within 5 seconds was quite frustrating. I thought Stark only creates them so only he (and Potts) can use them, but for this it seems like everyone and their mother can easily suit up in them. On that note I also don't like them making Potts into a badass for no real reason. I get that they wanted her to play a larger role, but her saving Iron Man is a tad silly.

Finally I know a lot of people didn't like Dark Knight Rises, but at least that movie raised the stakes, and I felt the characters were actually threatened. In Iron Man everyone ended up better off than in the beginning, so things were more light in tone then darker as I had hoped. Stark really didn't suffer like Mandarin said he would, unless suffering is spending time in Tennessee for a couple days.

Oh and other other thing, regarding the Tennessee scenes how is Stark able to walk around the town (and other places) with complete amnimity? He has to be the most well known person in the world, so how was he able to get around without being noticed? Putting on a hat isn't the best way to camouflage yourself either.

[Ark2]

I think the film suffered from having a lame villain. We all love RDJ as Tony Stark, but all three villains in the Iron Man movies have been pretty lousy. Also, if Tony had the ability to call on 25 different suits for back-up, why didn't he just do that from the beginning? Seems kind of silly for him to infiltrate a heavily guarded safe house with some home made weapons when he could have seemingly just called the cavalry at any time.

Oh, and did the Mandarin kill that guy on live television or not? He said that it was all an act but they never clarified if that execution was also staged.

[trackercowe]

Yeah, him not calling in the suits is something I didn't understand either. Same with him needing to desperately repair Mark 42 (or was it 43?) instead of just wearing one of those other suits instead. Like in the Tennessee scene, or when he broke into Mandarin's headquarters; Stark went in without the suits, but I have no real idea why.

Oh and that must have been staged, Mandarin said it was all an act. I also thought one of the guards Stark took down may have been the accountant Mandarin "shot", but I could be mistaken on that.

[jhunt223]

A ridiculous movie. Meeting the kid when he crashes is a stupid story line and somehow we're supposed to believe that some kid is able to fix his suit for him. The villain was terrible. Iron Man just took on crazy aliens from another dimension in The Avengers and he can't beat the living **** out of Mr. Hot Hands? Destroying his army of suits after they just saved his ass was ridiculous. Stark cracking jokes just moments after he thought Gwenyth paltrow has died. The Mandarin is actually an alcoholic drug addict. Soooooooo so stupid. I wish The Dark Knight never happened. I don't think a superhero movie will impress me again.

[Ark2]

Originally Posted by jhunt223

A ridiculous movie. Meeting the kid when he crashes is a stupid story line and somehow we're supposed to believe that some kid is able to fix his suit for him. The villain was terrible. Iron Man just took on crazy aliens from another dimension in The Avengers and he can't beat the living **** out of Mr. Hot Hands? Destroying his army of suits after they just saved his ass was ridiculous. Stark cracking jokes just moments after he thought Gwenyth paltrow has died. The Mandarin is actually an alcoholic drug addict. Soooooooo so stupid. I wish The Dark Knight never happened. I don't think a superhero movie will impress me again.

That also really bothered me. What was the point of that? Those suits must have cost hundreds of millions of dollars and he just destroyed them without any explanation. Did he do it because Pepper would think that the explosions were pretty? Beats me.

[trackercowe]

Originally Posted by Ark2

That also really bothered me. What was the point of that? Those suits must have cost hundreds of millions of dollars and he just destroyed them without any explanation. Did he do it because Pepper would think that the explosions were pretty? Beats me.

Because he's Tony Stark, and he's not really a logical thinker like most of us. Just a drop in the bucket for him, and now he can create new suits again. He's a tinker after all, so now he can build and upgrade more suits again.

Billionaires in comics love to do crazy ####. Why did Bruce buy that hotel in Batman Begins? Or why did he purposely help in burning down his own mansion? Neither really served that much of a purpose, but it was just Bruce being Bruce. Burning down the mansion did clear out the guests from his party, but still a tad extreme don't you think?

That and he wanted to set off some fireworks for Pepper, which also replicated the fireworks from the beginning of the movie.

[sa226]

Ummm, not the point I know, but Bruce didn't burn down his own mansion. The league of shadows did.

[trackercowe]

Originally Posted by sa226

Ummm, not the point I know, but Bruce didn't burn down his own mansion. The league of shadows did.

Yes, but he didn't really try and stop them from burning down the mansion. I know they took him out eventually, but prior to that he made no effort to stop the League. Maybe not the best example, but he didn't really object to it.

[Inglewood Jack]

spoilers are ok now right? k, so as a fun summer popcorn ride, 8/10. as a cohesive and complete treatment of the Iron Man character and his story? maybe 5 or 6/10. warning, this is TLDR territory.

good

- RDJ continues to happily devour every scene as Stark, and despite the issues (described later) it never gets boring or awkward watching him in this role

- the sequence where he's fighting with just a suit arm and leg was a nice variation in the action

- the part in Tennessee where he's fighting off the lava assassins with quick thinking and everyday objects. it's nice to be reminded once in a while that even without the suit he's still a dangerous super genius

- Don Cheadle is good, brings the right amount of energy to Rhodes. I never sit there wishing that it was Terrence Howard instead

- Guy Pearce was effective even if his character got a little silly by the end. weirdly reminds me of Kevin Bacon in X-Men First Class

- Rebecca Hall = nice to look at, kind of a weird mix of Jennifer Garner and Liv Tyler

bad

- the story feels like it was either written once without some needed revisions, or rewritten too many times. there's a whole bunch of things that happen that just don't lead anywhere significant. for example Tony's PTSD, when that first happens I'm like, oh that's gonna cause him trouble later on and he'll have to do something to resolve that at the last minute...nope he just cures himself after the kid gives him a pep talk. and then his PTSD starts affecting his relationship with Pepper...that's ok, they'll get separated soon after for the rest of the movie and ruinite at the end without any problems. hey that botantist girl from his past, look Pepper is jealous, and now it turns out she's bad, but having a change of heart...dead. other than inventing the extremis tech for Killian, she has absolutely no effect on the outcome and how the good guys win. there's more, maybe it's cause they tried to do something complex and profound, but in the end it would have just been easier to have one clear bad guy for Tony to focus on without all the weird plot tendrils.

- the tone has these weird fluctuations that don't seem right. dark violent stuff happens like an explosion on a public street, a live TV execution, both Stark and Pepper being presumed dead by the other. and then you have fake Mandarin stinking up his bathroom and falling asleep while talking...stuff straight from the Hangover series or something. some of the dialogue of other characters was oddly slapstick that way too. the other Iron Man movies were funny, but it was a lot of quick witted stuff that felt like it belonged more.

- there's not a whole lot of Iron Man for an Iron Man movie. he spends most of his time struggling to get Mark 42 working properly, and not enough time kicking ass in his super high tech gear. I'd argue Avengers is actually a better Iron Man movie than this one was. I get that they want to give him a different challenge, but would have killed anyone to at least once have him do something cool like shoot a laser or other new weaponry from a shiny prototype? in fact the only substantial sequence where Iron Man is doing stuff in full gear is falling out of the plane, which we saw almost all of in the trailer anyways...and it turned out not even to be him inside.

- Stark in his own words is a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist...action stuntmaster? there's some sequences where he does stuff that feels more Jason Statham than a rich smart guy who likes to build stuff. Like when he breaks into the Mandarin's mansion with his homebrew weapons, against a dozen armed guards. I feel that I should have liked that sequence more but I just don't know if I believed he's that quick and agile with the out of suit combat. and then there's a lot more wild jumping and sprinting and balancing during the finale. I haven't read a lot of Iron Man comics so I dunno, maybe he has the training, but it was strange to me anyhow.

- I didn't like the finale of Iron Man 2 because it was at night and so fast and frantic it just looked like a bunch of lights and sparks zipping across a black background. they did that same thing again with the end of this one, except added even more sparky things and made them faster. the best action sequences in the trilogy were the ones from the first, shot in broad daylight with not too many objects to focus on. plus there were real people involved in those fights...what was that last battle about in this one? bunch of unmanned robots against a bunch of nameless lava drones. makes for a nice theme park ride, but not much else.

- other small plot oddities. there's 9 terrorist bombings on US soil but everyone seems to be just living their lives as if nothing bad's going on. given today's sensitivity to that stuff, you'd think there would be soldiers enforcing curfew on every street corner and fighter jets (or SHIELD!) patrolling the skies 24/7. but no, bad choppers can casually fly up to Tony's house on live TV and blow it up without any outside intervention. I guess everyone in this world is now totally helpless and dependent on superheroes. and was Killian trying to kill Stark in his house, even though he was needed to fix Extremis? oh and his rickety Mark 42 armor can only carry 4 people according to Jarvis, but he successfully breaks the fall for 13...Jarvis must be super conservative? and wasn't the power source for his suit originally the chestpiece? maybe he's got arc reactors inside all the suits now but they can be charged up by plugging them into an outlet in a Tennessee shed, or a speedboat battery?

I still think this movie is required summer viewing, because it's the kind of thing we do when it warms up outside. I just wish I wasn't expecting a fine-tuned Marvel masterpiece.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by trackercowe

I agree with you that people being able to use the suit within 5 seconds was quite frustrating. I thought Stark only creates them so only he (and Potts) can use them, but for this it seems like everyone and their mother can easily suit up in them. On that note I also don't like them making Potts into a badass for no real reason. I get that they wanted her to play a larger role, but her saving Iron Man is a tad silly.

I understand why this part may have seemed corny but really all the people in the suits made sense. AIM did the redesign of Iron Patriot, so it makes sense that Killian would make it able to fit himself. And he more trapped the president in it, he wasn't actually able to use it. As for Potts saving Iron Man, I don't look at it that way. It was the suit. The suit latched onto the nearest capable body and took action. I don't think about it like Pepper is controlling the suit. She's just along for the ride.

I wasn't a an of the Mandarin twist, but liked the idea behind it. And Pearce emerging as a good villain part way through softened my opinion on that.

[The Goon]

I didn't even want a drink, but I had to get this damn cup.

[OutOfTheCube]

Why do movies always think its a good idea to have an extended part with a little kid? It's lame, and it doesn't make any sense.

And the invincible lava people stuff was pretty ######ed too. Blah.

[Pizza]

Agreed on most of the points above, but I also have to point out another that really bothered me...

At the end when Stark decided he wanted to settle down and actually get the surgery to remove the shrapnel in his chest and get rid of the reactor? if it was that easy to get it removed, why didnt he do it in first Iron man movie? or even the 2nd one where he was dying?

And with Bruce Banner at the end of the movie, if you're going to include him in the movie, you'd have to include him in the storyline cause it doesn't make any sense with Tony Stark going through all of this and Hulk not helping out

Wasnt Stark so worked up in creating all of those iron man armors because he was worried another alien invasion was inevitable? So why in the blue hell does he blow them all up in his "clean slate" order?

[Jing]

Originally Posted by Pizza

Agreed on most of the points above, but I also have to point out another that really bothered me...

At the end when Stark decided he wanted to settle down and actually get the surgery to remove the shrapnel in his chest and get rid of the reactor? if it was that easy to get it removed, why didnt he do it in first Iron man movie? or even the 2nd one where he was dying?

And with Bruce Banner at the end of the movie, if you're going to include him in the movie, you'd have to include him in the storyline cause it doesn't make any sense with Tony Stark going through all of this and Hulk not helping out

Wasnt Stark so worked up in creating all of those iron man armors because he was worried another alien invasion was inevitable? So why in the blue hell does he blow them all up in his "clean slate" order?

I think he mentioned that he cured Pepper and utilized that as a new beginning for himself as well or something along those lines (implying that he injected himself with extremis?).

[trackercowe]

The ending was just lazy writing, no doubt. Marvel probably demanded they include him removing the core and shrapnel, and Shane Black (the director/writer) didn't get around to it until the end of the movie.

I hate when major events occur during rushed exposition in movies.

Although I don't see why Banner/Hulk needed to help him out. Their conversation didn't occur until after the events had taken place, so it's not like those events were happening during that time. That and as helpful as Hulk may be at times, he's kind of the last guy you want to go to for help with all the baggage he carries around.

I didn't like how they set it up so Iron Man had to save both the President and his girlfriend. Talk about your cornball, obvious problems. Not only do you set him up to save Potts, but the President as well? Come on! They couldn't set it up so he could save some girl scouts and orphans as well? Then they also include a throwaway scene about how the Vice President is involved because his daughter is missing a leg or whatever? Too many writing, and staging issues in this one.

[GreenLantern]

4/10

#1 is still by far the best, Marvel is butchering their franchise through sequels. I guess as long as they are making money it doesn't really matter, but I haven't been happy with IronMan since the first movie.

The only Marvel comic sequel that has been better than the original wasn't even made by Marvel, X-2.

Pray for Avengers 2.

[rayne008]

To add on the last few thoughts ...

To me the problem is that it is unnecessary writing, much like TDKR.
Do they have to include several different plot lines to keep audiences interested?
Seems very gumpled up to me.


One other annoyance (which speaks to the fact that I think about this too much) is the Ironman tech. In the avengers, I was fine with the suitcase and flying coffin suits, but in this last movie having each piece have its own propulsion and navigation, and boatloads of AI seems unrealistic.

I do get how stupid that sounds since I am watching a comic book movie, but it bugs me none the less.

[trackercowe]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern

4/10

#1 is still by far the best, Marvel is butchering their franchise through sequels. I guess as long as they are making money it doesn't really matter, but I haven't been happy with IronMan since the first movie.

The only Marvel comic sequel that has been better than the original wasn't even made by Marvel, X-2.

Pray for Avengers 2.

Not sure about that: Spider-Man 2 was better than Spider-Man, Blade 2 was better than Blade, Fantastic Four 2 was less terrible than Fantastic Four. And the only Marvel actual Marvel sequels have been Iron Man 2 & 3, when it's considerably difficult to top the first movie. You actually could consider The Avengers to be a sequel in its own right, and obviously it's one of the better comic book movies yet.

I trust Joss Whedon though, so as long as Marvel/Disney doesn't try to take control of the film I think it'll be inline with the first movie.