I was eagerly anticipating the release of Iron Man 3. I was a big fan of the first two, as well as The Avengers, and I could not wait to see the continuing adventures of Iron Man.
When I left the theater, I was tremendously disappointed.
However, I viewed the film for a second time this past week, and I found it much more enjoyable than I did when I saw it in theaters. If you have not seen the movie, and you want to avoid spoilers, stop reading now. Of course, if you clicked on this article, you have probably already seen it, so read on.
What makes Tony Stark so compelling? After all, he has a massive ego, and a history of stupid, selfish choices.
The thing is, both of those things are probably the reason he is so interesting. There are few things more fascinating in fiction than a character that has realized the error of his ways, and is slowly trying to make up for them. On a completely different note, characters that are extremely cocky are also fun to watch, because everyone, at some point in their lives, has wanted to act as confident as these characters usually do.
Tony trying to redeem himself for his past wrongs was a major theme in the original Iron Man, and it is revisited in Iron Man 3. As for his confidence, there are scenes in this movie where Tony acts just like he does in the previous films, and there are others where Tony has panic attacks.
A big part of my problem with Tony’s panic attacks was that this was a version of Tony that I never wanted to see. Sure, I want to see him face conflict, I want him to face enemies that will test him. However, I never wanted to see this man break down, and become this emotionally vulnerable. Tony’s confidence is a big part of what makes him such an entertaining character. Even when he briefly lost hope in the caves of Afghanistan, it did not take long for him to decide exactly how he was going to break out.
Upon re-viewing, this still was irritating, but not as much as when I first saw it. I will explain why in a moment, but first I will move on to another complaint I had with Iron Man 3- a lack of Iron Man.
It may sound silly to your average moviegoer, but I am sure that as fellow comic book fans you will understand when I say that I was expecting to see Tony spend a significant amount of time in the suit. Of course, he does not. Any time he is in the suit, it is almost always in pieces.
The second time I viewed it, this did not bother me at all. The easiest way to explain this is to use the example of Batman in The Dark Knight Rises. Many people complained that Bruce Wayne is only Batman for a few minutes in the film. At the time, I did not understand this complaint, because I saw Batman and Bruce Wayne as one and the same. We were still watching Batman’s story, no matter what he was wearing at the time.
I now realize it is the same way with Iron Man in Iron Man 3. While many of the supporting characters leave a lot to be desired, Tony’s journey is consistently compelling. We watch him go from being a man deeply affected by the events of the Avengers, to a man who is trying to solve the mystery of who injured his best friend and tried to destroy his house, to a man who has to save his girlfriend, the President of the United States, and defeat a tremendous evil that has been plaguing his country.
I still do not like the way Tony loses so much of his confidence, but I am willing to admit it makes a lot of sense. Nearly sacrificing yourself to save New York from a nuclear attack is something that would dramatically change anyone, and the loss of your home is always painful. Even though I do not always care for the direction that the filmmakers took with Stark, I can still identify with him every step of the way.
A year ago, I would have told you that Iron Man 3 was a terrible movie, the worst Marvel Studios production yet. Today, I have changed my mind, and I believe the movie works, because of one character: Iron Man.
I have already established that I believe Tony Stark’s journey in this film was excellent. That is certainly a good thing, because upon reviewing, the supporting cast of the movie is almost laughable.
The best example is Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes, or Iron Patriot, or War Machine, or whatever the heck we’re supposed to call him in this movie. He has a new suit, modeled after Norman Osborn’s Iron Patriot armor, and I thought it actually looked pretty cool.
Apparently, the filmmakers thought it was so cool, they decided that Rhodey did not need any character development, nor did he even need to resemble the character he was in the previous movies. The change of personality between Rhodey in between Iron Man 2 and 3 is almost as jarring as the change in his physical appearance between the first and second movie.
Do you think I am being ridiculous? Then I would like you to recall Rhodey’s role in Iron Man 3. He was Tony’s ally, he was loyal and supportive, and he rarely questioned Tony. This is not inherently a bad thing, as loyal, supportive allies can be some of the greatest characters in fiction, Sam from The Lord of the Rings and Falcon from Captain America: The Winter Soldier being prime examples.
So why am I complaining? Because that is not who Rhodey is, and that is not the role he is supposed to play in Tony’s life. In both of the original movies, Rhodey was the guy who was constantly giving Tony a hard time about his choices. He kept Tony on his feet, reminded him when he was wrong, and helped him out when needed, often in a confrontational manner.
Neither Captain America or Frodo need an ally who constantly questions them, because both are fairly wise. Tony is almost the exact opposite of that. He needs someone to keep him in check, or his ego might become too big and cause him to act stupid.
While Rhodey is certainly an important figure in Tony’s life, there is another character who has even more impact than he does. This character has gone from being Tony’s loyal employee, to his frustrated boss (sort of), and finally the love of his life.
The first time I watched the film, I enjoyed what the filmmakers did with Pepper. She certainly never became an Extremis soldier in the comics, but it was an interesting new direction for the character to take in the movies. However, upon re-viewing, I was bothered by her reduction in screentime. The little screentime that she has, she does not spend it with Tony. This is a shame, as Paltrow and Downey Jr. have great chemistry, and some of the best scenes from the previous movies featured the pair together.
Of course, by far the worst elements of Iron Man 3 were the villains. This is fairly standard for Marvel Studios’ films, but as a fan of the 616 version of the Mandarin, this one was fairly painful.
I know, plenty of people have expressed their love/hatred for the Mandarin twist, so if you are tired of hearing about it, go read some other article. I had already been spoiled when I went to see the movie, I already knew that the Mandarin was just an actor. What I did not expect was how big of a joke they were going to make the character. He quickly went from being a sadistic terrorist, to a buffoon who makes potty jokes and falls asleep with a gun pointed at his head. I understand the director did not like the Mandarin- so what was the point of even using him? Why not just use a different character? What is the point of doing something that most fans of the character will hate?
Yes, Trevor Slattery was funny. He was also annoying, and made me want to cringe. The replacement for the Mandarin? Aldrich Killian, an extremely minor character from the comics. I cannot say I cared for him either, as he was very similar to Obadiah Stane and Justin Hammer. The biggest difference is that he was not played nearly as well as the two villains from the previous movies. Just like Stane and Hammer, his plot was entirely uninteresting.
I will admit, he does have a fairly cool fight scene with Tony in the end. However, Killian does something extremely moronic at the end. He repeatedly screams, “I am the Mandarin!” near the end of the fight. Thanks to the Marvel one-shot “All Hail the King,” we now know this is not true, but at the time, it appeared that he was the only Mandarin that would ever exist in the Marvel cinematic universe. This was annoying because he had almost nothing in common with the
Mandarin- he was not a Chinese warlord, he did not have any rings of power, and he was not even Iron Man’s greatest enemy.
The only thing Killian had in common with the Mandarin was the dragon tattoo on his chest, long hair at one point, and buck teeth when we first see him. These are hardly the most important aspects of his character. I could put rabbit ears on my head, carry a basket of eggs, jump up and down and scream, “I AM THE EASTER BUNNY!!” but that would not make me the Easter Bunny. It would only make me a delusional man that likes to scream like a lunatic.
Oddly enough, even though I still hated Killian and Slattery, there were two villains that worked surprisingly well during the second viewing. The first is Eric Savin, and while he lacked depth, he was definitely entertaining. Savin is one of those villains that are so despicably evil, it is fun to watch them, even when you know next to nothing about them.
Another villain that was fairly interesting was Maya Hansen, the creator of the Extremis Serum. In fact, she was probably the most interesting character in the movie. Unlike the others, she actually had an inner conflict. Her story really deserved more screen time. She starts out as an idealistic person who wants to help the world with her research. However, as time goes by, she starts to become less idealistic, and even finds herself working for a man who is pure evil. It is a shame that her tale of redemption did not last long, as she was killed off fairly quickly.
You could argue that she became the movie’s best villain by actually becoming a hero, but perhaps that is what is missing in Marvel’s villains. Perhaps they need a shot at redemption in order to be more interesting. It might sound crazy, but consider Doc Ock in Spider-Man 2, or Loki in Thor: The Dark World.
To sum things up, Iron Man was the best part of Iron Man 3. The rest of the cast ranged from mediocre to lousy. Is this film a masterpiece? Hardly, but it is definitely a worthy addition to the Marvel canon, and I cannot wait to see what happens next to Tony Stark.
What do you think of my assessment of Iron Man 3? Do you agree? Disagree? Do you think Trevor Slattery is the greatest character in the history of cinema? Let me know in the comments!