Iron Man 3

maxmordon said:

Just saw it on the cinema, I know it hasn't been released in lots of places. Thoughts in white, just going to say I felt it was meh-ish. Lots of rehashed ideas.

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Maxela, Maxela, you took the words right out of my mouth. I found myself curiously distanced from it instead of being more involved. In the first two, I felt I was flying alongside Ironman, due to the way Favreau filmed and edited it. This version, it was like, "sit back and watch the great CGI but don't expect to be included in the experience."

Good points...

Robert Downey IS Ironman. He owns that character inside and out. Wrestling with his demons is well played out.
Gwyneth Paltrow is also excellent as Pepper Potts.
Acting by everyone, especially Kingsley, is fine.
Good concepts raised.
Great CGI.

Bad points...

Dumb-ass, lame, by the numbers, uninteresting direction. Shane Black is supposed to be good with action...sorry, not in my book.

Ben Kingsley's character is NOT what I was expecting at all, and I figured out what was going to happen halfway through the flick. Son, I was disappoint.

Also, G. Paltrow doing the impossible? Sorry, I couldn't buy what she pulled off at the end (semi-spoiler). I'll buy the DVD when it comes out to round out my collection, but this wasn't a good wrap-up to the trilogy. There will probably be an Ironman 4 or 5, and I know he'll be back in The Avengers 2, but I wasn't very happy with this flick. Not a total write-off, but not a total success, either in my book.T
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See above, please. Buggered up the quote function, but them's my thoughts.

Iron Man, in the movies anyway, is just not a very likeable superhero. People compare him to Batman, because he's a millionaire, but he's not. Everything Iron Man does is for himself. It's all about how awesome he is.

Robert Downey Jr is entertaining as hell, and one of the greatest living actors. But I don't wanna see this?

Thoughts in good ol' white.

I like it, but I went in with low expectations, I just wanted to few hours of goofy Marvel fun and Robert Downey Jnr being awesome. I enjoyed the Mandarin scapegoat and the comedy, and while the kid was irritating I've seen kid tagalong characters being done much worse.

But there were a lot of things that bothered me. The remote control ability of the Extremis armour never got used to its full potential -- I really wanted the moment where Mark 42 attacks Pepper while Tony sleeps to lead somewhere. I was expecting* some sort of fight against the out-of-control Mark 42.

And as for what happened with Pepper... sigh. The trailer made it look like Pepper would have her own suit, be a badass, and help out Tony.

What we got was... not what I wanted. Too overpowered. Too out of character. Too convenient. (He's just figure out how to fix it, huh...).

*I only watched the teaser trailer, not the official trailer.

Max, that reference was to Cinderella Man, actually. (Think of the trainer and his origins).

As for Ironman not being likeable as Celia said, the Marvel characters were more 'angsty' than the DC ones...and Tony Stark in the comics was really a royal jerk in many ways and very flawed. Robert Downey Jr., though, does the character justice and for that, the movie is worth watching.

However, you (Max) pointed out that they (the writers) tried to juggle too many concepts and they weren't played out (IMO) well enough. A good movie, but not great, and certainly not like the first (which I thought TOTALLY rocked).

Ah, well, Thor 2 is up next year or thereabouts and also Captain America: Winter Soldier. Waiting for Avengers 2, of course, and this year's The Man of Steel.

I just want to say that while I've loved all the Ironman movies so far...I want Gwyneth gone, immediately! She has no business being in these movies...I want her banished, forevah!

It's sad to see that, in this age of Hunger Games, the female sidekicks in action films are still being relegated to damsel-in-distress.

Iron Man 3 Opens With $175 Million (Anybody See It?)

Kind of wondering why Iron Man 3, with it's $175.6 million opening week (second only to The Avengers) hasn't generated any discussion here. Throw in the international box office and it's already made over $600 million.

I saw it with my family today. We enjoyed the hell out of it and it totally wipes away the bad taste of the blah Iron Man 2 left in my mouth. I give it a solid B+. It's not as good as The Avengers and can't touch The Dark Knight, but it crushes the muddled and overstuffed The Dark Knight Rises.

That's my opinion. I'm sure somebody else has one of their own.

Iron Man 3 has indeed generated some discussion here.

I've merged the two threads to keep things neat and tidy.

I caught it last night. It was a let down, to me. It was better than Iron Man 2, but ultimately feels forgettable. And some of the plot and direction choices were just weird to me. Too much of it felt half-baked. The villain's motivation, Stark's random voice-overs, his whole relationship with Pepper, his PTSD after the events of The Avengers. It all seems like it's introduced and touched on, then abandoned, and not even for terrific spectacle necessarily. I could live with that. More like someone just thought "this seems like a decent idea, but I have no idea how to make it truly pay off, but I can't just let it go, so f*** it, throw it in and hope it has a bit of an impact."

And, alas, the trailer ruins what would have been one of the coolest moments of the movie. The climactic fight was good fun, though. The villain's final demise? Not very well staged, but que sera.

In the end. Meh. Thank goodness for Downey, at least.

I really really liked it! I especially liked the twist and the ending...I thought they were real clever.

Exir said:

It's sad to see that, in this age of Hunger Games, the female sidekicks in action films are still being relegated to damsel-in-distress.

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Hey, she was only in distress until she got her bearings and swooped in to save Tony.

The part I don't like is the throwaway "oh and then I fixed Pepper" line at the end. Why does she need fixing? So she doesn't out-awesome Tony?

I was a little disappointed. An old gamer thought ran through my mind: "More pew-pew, less QQ." I wanted a big SUMMER blockbuster and it felt more meh than anything else. That said, I loved Ben Kingsley and War Machine Iron Patriot.

Anna L. said:

The part I don't like is the throwaway "oh and then I fixed Pepper" line at the end. Why does she need fixing? So she doesn't out-awesome Tony?

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Spoiler-ino:

I think the "fix" was in stabilizing her, since everyone who underwent the extremis process seemed to be subject to physical volatility that could turn them into a human nuke.

Yeah, I choose to believe that Pepper is stabilized.

If they make another move and she's not breathing fire and shooting lasers out of her eyes, then I will be very frowny face.

Saw it yesterday and thought it was great, with a couple of exceptions: really didn't care for the ending and have never liked Gwyneth Paltrow's character. Although he didn't direct this time, was glad to see Jon Favreau still in the movie. I agree it can't touch the Avengers or the Dark Knight, but it was still a great way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon.

I wrote a very long post, but I'm going to condense. I thought the movie was entirely entertaining, there were some flaws, but not enough to be frustrated. I'll be going to see it again.

Took my 10-year-old son to see it on Saturday.

I enjoyed it. I thought Tony's characterization was strong and I liked the way he worked through his PTSD from Avengers.

I didn't come out of it with the "BOOYA" feeling I had from IM1, but it was a good, entertaining movie I will enjoy watching many times when it comes out on Blu-Ray.

Better than 2, not as good as 1, and can't even begin to match The Avengers, but a good, enjoyable movie.

I'd Rank the current crop of linked Avengers movies thusly:

Avengers
Iron Man
Captain America
Iron Man 3
Thor
The Incredible Hulk
Iron Man 2

Though, on this list, the difference between top and bottom is slight.

Jcomp said:

Spoiler-ino:

[spoilers removed]

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That makes sense. I'll go with that.

All these 'white' comments hurt my wittle eyes.

But yeah, I have to agree. The part with Pepper...I had a brain fart and then realized the filmmakers had a moment of cellulitis interruptus, which roughly translates as "We fucked up the script, let's throw some cool special effects in there, eat up five minutes of screen time, and hope everyone will forgive us."

Better than Ironman 2--barely. Mickey Rourke, like him or hate him--was really excellent in the second version. He made quite the formidable villain.

This time, I was really expecting the Mandarin to BE (SPOILER--sorry!) the Mandarin, not the tangerine or the tangello or the...

Anyway, like I said before, I'll get the DVD when it comes out. I got a really cool T-shirt as a gift from a friend so that sort of makes up for the lack of fun in the flick, but it could have been SO much better...and it wasn't. Robert Downey Jr., though, owns his personification of Tony Stark.

The movie had it's problems (the first act was kinda clunky, in my own opinion), but overall I enjoyed it.

Finally saw it this afternoon. It was better than IM2, and I liked how it wasn't all Tony flying about in his suit. He seemed to be more human, more real at times. Granted he still is a pompous ass, but I just enjoyed him more this time round.

Also, gotta admit, I saw it for the eye candy. RD, Jr is about my age, and as he has aged, well. More drool worthy to me.

And lots of thing that go BOOM. I like that. Yes, I am 12.

Celia Cyanide said:

Iron Man, in the movies anyway, is just not a very likeable superhero. People compare him to Batman, because he's a millionaire, but he's not. Everything Iron Man does is for himself. It's all about how awesome he is.

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What? Maybe you're distinguishing between Iron Man vs. "Tony Stark" vs. Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark, but...

I find Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark to be far more likable than Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne. Which isn't to say I dislike the latter by any means. But I find the former's character far more interesting and sympathetic and human.

Take away the suits, and I'd happily watch an hour and a half of Robert Downey Jr. being Tony Stark than an hour and a half of Christian Bale being Bruce Wayne.

The movie version of Tony Stark is more interesting than Iron Man. The movie version of Batman is more interesting than Bruce Wayne.

U2Girl said:

Finally saw it this afternoon. It was better than IM2, and I liked how it wasn't all Tony flying about in his suit.

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The first third or so, ending with the scene of Tony Stark dragging his powerless Mk.42 suit across the snow, was pure perfection and excellently awesome, and I had hopes for it being my favorite superhero adaptation ever.

Everything went downhill from there.

It wasn't anything in particular like the kid, or how the Mandarin played out, or what happened with Pepper, or the house party protocol, or anything like that.

I actually think it's simply that they overplayed the comedy and the action when I wanted more angst. I wanted more existential crisis. I wanted them to go further with the whole Tony = his suits over-identification dynamic they developed in the first act, that they only half-heartedly resolved in the second and third. If you're actually familiar with the character in my avatar and the anime she's in and how her character arc plays out, you might actually know what I mean with this, and what I wanted.

I wanted a conclusion that showed us why Tony Stark is Iron Man, mirroring that first arc in the cave with the Mk.1, and I wanted Tony being able to walk away from his suits to mean something.

I still liked it.

But I'm going to imagine a fan-fiction that plays out different after that scene with Tony alone in the snow.

I liked Iron Man 3 but would have enjoyed this storyline more