Iron Man 3 review

Iron Man 3 is freaking awesome.  Yes, it looks like the first Marvel movie after the hit ‘The Avengers’ and the third installment of Marvel studios flagship movie series, is actually pretty damn great.

And you know what I’m most glad about?

 The third movie curse has finally been broken. And don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about.

Basically Hollywood has figured out how to make the first two movies work for the superhero genre but hasn’t understood what to do after the sequel. So for the first movie they basically just follow the comic book and introduce the characters, fine. The second movie features “the denial of the hero” as seen in Spiderman 2, Dark Night Rises, etc… where the hero wrestles with whether or not they want to be a hero now that they have experienced what that entails. And then the third one comes along and just fucks everything up.

                In Spiderman 3 they fucked it up by introducing too many villains to actually give interesting character arcs. Then, they didn’t follow through on the threads hinted at in the second movie. So Harry, who realized Spider-man’s true identity in the last movie, is forced into the usual plot spackle of “amnesia” because they didn’t want to finish the story they already started. Plus not following through on their fan service by finally putting Venom in a movie but only for like twenty seconds.

The third x-men movie had more problems in development than my cousin with three x chromosomes. They tried to combine two different story lines and three different directors, killed off main characters off-screen, had characters act totally out of character because certain actors left and generally couldn’t have missed the point harder if they were trying to turn the whole thing into a romantic comedy.

 And Dark Night Rises tried to kill Batman without killing Batman which just ended up being terrible and hokey. It had Batman not being Batman so that other characters could develop, which could be fine, but none of them were doing anything interesting. And finally, had not one, but two villains turned into lackeys for some other already-very-dead-guys dream when each one on their own could have been an interesting character.

So basically the third movie in each sucks. If not just generally speaking then certainly in comparison to the other movies in the Trilogy. (I’m not even going to bring up how bad Return of the Jedi for fear someone feels the need to turn that into a prequel debate even though it sucks on its own right).

                Iron man went a different route, and I for one am rather surprised. I came in expecting to see more crossover Avengers 2 setup. I assumed there would be more cameos from S.H.I.E.L.D., other Avengers making appearances, and maybe even an introduction to another hero in order to set up any characters they are going to use in the next avengers movie. I at least expected some mention of Thanos who was hinted at in the Avengers movie (for those good girls and boys who know to stay and watch after the credits).

 But instead we get none of that. Almost no shared continuity.

The movie is ostensibly about Tony Stark and the world after the Avengers battle with aliens in New York, but focuses on Stark’s world exclusively. I think this does three things effectively. One it allows a great character piece and growth from a wonderful actor. Two, it allows potential viewers to not get bogged up in the same problem that comic books have, where you have to have seen every movie previous, plus the other guys movies to know what’s going on.

I think you can almost use this as a lesson plan to studio execs for what to do after the sequel. First, let the writers do what they want to do. If you force them to do other crap it will come off like an unenthused hand job and no one wants that.  

Second, if you are going to have the main character lose his powers, (I’m looking at you Batman 3) he should still be doing the thing he is popular for. You want to take Iron Man’s armor away for half the movie? Sure, as long as he walks talks and acts like Iron Man then we can enjoy it. But don’t sell me a batman ticket, cut him out of half the damn movie, and then have him distinctly NOT be batman for the other two fifths.

Third, if you have a large cast of characters built up around the character, use them. I like that Rhodes came back and had a nice arc and story line. He wasn't central to the plot but he wasn't peripheral. Good job. Ben Kingsly is an awesome new addition to the universe and I hope he comes back. And Pepper Pots actually carry’s a lot of weight throughout the film.  

And another thing, wait just a sec…

SPOILER WARNING

There we go, And another thing, the main bad guy is a political terrorist who uses media to gain power. Since that’s what joker did and now Bain did it so let’s just ride that train. But if you are going to reveal that he has been a puppet the whole time, make him MORE interesting after that reveal, not less. And please for the love of god make sure that the puppet master behind the man is actually someone we give two shits about and isn’t going to be killed in an unsatisfying way.

Are there problems with the movie? Sure. A lot of the plot points make less sense the more you think about them (why are they pulling shrapnel out of his heart now? Couldn't he have done that forever ago, especially when it was killing him last movie?) And Iron man kills a couple people which I kind of don’t really dig in someone who is supposed to be a hero (but maybe I’m just being old fashioned). And of course the climax of the move is almost scientifically designed to make a toy line that will sell off the shelves but kind of makes the final fight seem to make a little less sense because the swarm of Iron Men should really be able to take out the main boss first.

But all in all it works and you should go see it. Anyway, this is officially my first blog post and I hope to be here each Wednesday to help you get into comics. Ciao.