First, a tiny bit of background on me-because this is my first article in a loooooong while-so you have some context. I am 18 and from Western Australia, and I currently attend university studying Physics. The 'nerdy' culture is something I've grown up with my entire life -'Star Wars', 'Dragonball Z', 'Transformers' and 'Spider-Man' were my childhood-but something I have only really come to understand in the last five years. My knowledge about characters and stories and lore has grown exponentially-it was in 2010 that I actually started reading the comics, and now I make weekly trips to multiple stores to get my fix. I like both Marvel and DC a lot and watch all the films coming from either company (besides 'Jonah Hex' obviously).
So moving on now. 'Iron Man 3' has proven to be a very controversial film among the fans. Some seemingly love to trash it and call it 'the worst MCU film so far', while others (quite surprisingly including most critics) are very positive about the film. I most definitely fall into the latter category. I truly love the film-I believe it to not only be a fitting resolution to the story of Tony Stark (well...I suppose not really a 'resolution'...) but also a great all-round film altogether, with excellent effects, great humour and a very personal storyline. I can positively give the film an 8.5/10 and say it is the best film of the MCU so far...for ME-just making this clear, film (like many other aspects of life) is a subjective experience in terms of whether we like it or not, because every person is different and brings different contexts to their viewing of the film.
But see before actually going to see the movie (on opening day mind you) I would be very surprised to learn that those above words would be my reaction. You see I (in the extreme, controversial minority here, but I don't care) did not like 'The Avengers'. Really. I won't get into my reasonings here (okay, I'll give you one of them, and his name is RUFFALO), but I just find the film very overhyped and don't just blindly love the film because of the 'all your favourite superheroes in one movie!' aspect, which for Marvel Studios would be a clear attractive factor. I wanted a film that had heart, reason and STORY, not just a billion-dollar free-for-all. Anyway. The film left a sour taste in my mouth and lead me to question what would be coming in future films-namely the first film of Phase 2, 'Iron Man 3'.
Now I am one of these guys that loves spoilers. I scour the internet for them. I can't help it. I LOVE to know information, and having become so entrenched into this 'comic book culture' I simply want to know, well, what is going to happen. The internet makes things so easy...anyway. Basically, a week or two before 'Iron Man 3' came out in theatres I came across an article on WhatCulture.com-I cannot recall the name right now, but it was a '10 Things...' or '10 Reasons...' article that essentially spoiled some big points of 'Iron Man 3'. I remember getting to the last page of the countdown...and then there it was. The BIG spoiler. What has now become known as 'the Mandarin twist'.
The writer explained the fact that who we thought was the Mandarin was actually an actor called Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley) and Guy Pearce's Aldrich Killian was the real villain of the film, the 'real' Mandarin. They even had a Photoshop picture (which I cannot currently find) of Guy Pearce's head on Kingsley's Mandarin body, if only for emphasis. And so after reading this...I was horrified. I hated it. I hated what they had done to this character. I even think I despised it. I felt like...Marvel had taken TWO characters from the comic books and completely butchered them for the sake of their story. I felt like Killian would merely be a copy of what we had seen in the first two films-just another 'businessman antagonist' like Obadiah Stane and Justin Hammer.
On the whole, I was pissed off. I felt like 'The Avengers' was merely the starting point for the MCU to go off course and crash, and 'Iron Man 3' would continue the trend for me. It pretty much killed all excitement for the film. I was now going to see the film out of obligation, because it was a comic book movie and it would be 'weird' if I didn't see it.
Then opening day came. 15 minutes or so of pre-movie ads, and then we were into the movie. Two and a bit hours later hours later, and it was finished. I walked out loving it. I absolutely loved the film. The scene in which the twist was revealed was played completely for laughs-the film's humour which occurred throughout was a very positive attribute for me, and I enjoyed it. The effects were excellent, and I actually found myself really liking Pearce's portrayal of Killian-he wasn't just another 'guy in a suit', but a threatening adversary with a personal emnity against both Stark and Pepper that extended back years, AND they gave him powers. The final battle raised the stakes with the President himself being on the line (I don't usually like it when films do this but in this case it made sense).
I enjoyed the film's certain similarities to 'The Dark Knight Rises' from the previous year, in terms of deconstructing the hero mentally, emotionally and physically to his bare bones, stripping him of all (well...most) allies and resources and forcing him to gruellingly fight his way back to the top. The film reached a slightly darker tone than the others before it and made this confident, brilliant individual who we hadn't really seen in a vulnerable position before fragile for the first time, as a result of his panic attacks (props to Marvel for not willing to 'go there'-i.e. 'Demon in a Bottle'-for 'Iron Man 2') . Sure, I had a few issues ("S.H.I.E.L.D. where you at son? The goddamn President's in danger!") but no film is perfect. By the end I didn't even mind Ruffalo's post-credits scene cameo.
So at the end of the day, why is 'Iron Man 3' so special to me? What does all of this mean? The film was singlehandedly able to change my view on something-I went in believing I was going to hate the film and came out loving it, and that had never happened to me before. Has that happened to any of you before? Have you had an experience like that? I'm sure to some of you this is fairly irrelevant and unimportant, but to ME the uniqueness of this event really means something to me. One film was able to completely change my attitude and revive a hope for this film universe that had been lessened by my experience with 'The Avengers'. And that deserves a bloody lot of praise and a special area in my heart in my opinion.
Thanks for reading guys, have a good one.