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Just got out of Iron Man 3 on IMAX.
Below you will find my “raw” thoughts on the movie with SPOILERS.
Spoiler Warning.
First off, credit to Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios for keeping the rumor mill churning.
As in all the rumors that have come out surrounding the film were complete BS.
Sorry:
No Guardians of the Galaxy.
No Rescue armor.
No cosmic Mandarin rings.
No Rings of Power.
No Fin Fang Foom.
No spaceship.
No Doctor Strange.
No 42 Iron Man suits fighting the Mandarin’s army.
No Tony Stark Extremis armor.
There weren’t even really any Easter Eggs (that I saw).
And guess what?
No bleepin‘ Mandarin!
Wow. What a twist Marvel and Shane Black gave us. Quite a gamble, too. Did it pay off, eh…
Going into Iron Man 3 I knew there was a “twist” that the fanboys were ticked about. My guess was that the Mandarin was an American terrorist. Really, I wasn’t far off, but only when I started to listen to the Mandarin speak, did I know what the real twist was. I believe, if you listen closely to Ben Kingsley talking as the Mandarin, that you can see through the “disguise” as bits of the accent slip through.
It certainly took the movie to a whole and different level.
Iron Man 3 was definitely not as dark as the trailer made it out to be. No where near The Dark Knight Rises, which many compared the trailers to. Again, credit to Marvel Studios for throwing us for a loop.
I felt the movie didn’t get really going until the 45 minute mark. Starts off with a Tony Stark narration remembering New Year’s Eve 1999 where he has a one night stand with Maya Hansen. Goofball Aldrich Killian is there trying to pitch his idea with Hansen and Stark blowing him off. They show Hansen and her Extremis project with Stark really caring less.
We are taken to the present with Stark testing out his new remote control armor; scene with Pepper, they get into a fight etc. etc.
I felt you could skip the first 45 minutes of the movie and not miss a beat.
One of the Extremis soldiers blows up and Happy Hogan is half-dead which sets Stark off and he publically challenges the Mandarin.
Hansen ends up at the Stark mansion, with Pepper and Stark arguing again — when the Mandarin attacks!
The mansion getting blown up was a cool scene. Actually, all the action scenes were well done. Tony saves Pepper by putting the Remote Control Mark 42 armor on her; she saves Tony and Maya Hansen, Tony then calls for the armor and eventually saves himself.
Now, a part of the movie that I was real weary about was the part with the 11-year-old kid, but actually, this was really well done. Stark tracked the heat signatures of the Extremis soldiers to Tennessee where he encounters the kid. Stark is thought dead by everyone etc. etc. Similar to the exploding Extremis “soldier” that blew up Happy, another occurred here. Tony goes to find the soldier’s mom, and as luck (?) would have it, she happens to be meeting with someone to give them a file. Well, this is where Brandt comes in as she is an Extremis soldier, and she just happened to be there at the exact same time as Tony Stark.
I didn’t like that. Way too convenient. Savin was there, too.
Well, there is a fight with Stark using his brains over brawn etc. etc.
The kid is helping Jarvis to power the Mark 42, and Stark makes his way to find the location of the Mandarin.
Meanwhile, James Rhodes in the Iron Patriot has been sent after the Mandarin as well. He is taken to various fake locations, but one of them turns out to have an Extremis soldier and Iron Patriot is captured.
Remember the set pics with James Badge Dale in the IP armor? Yep, that was him. Marvel tried telling us all that it was a stuntman,, as Don Cheadle took the day off (lol). Nobody was buying that.
Well, Savin takes control of the Iron Patriot and he goes to kill the president by being a trojan horse of sorts as the president is expecting Rhodey. Remember the scene with the Iron Patriot landing and saluting the pres? Yep, that’s Savin.
Stark’s Mark 42 armor has been blown to bits a million times in the movie (convenient plot point as it’s considered experimental), so Tony heads to the hardware store to design some gadgets on the advice of the kid. Tony has anxiety attacks because of the events from The Avengers etc., with the kid telling him to fix it, he’s a mechanic etc.
Stark heads to Miami, because that is where the Mandarin’s signal is located, and Tony takes down a bunch of guards and infiltrates the compound using his hardware sore tech. He discovers the Mandarin — who turns out to be nothing more than a ruse; he’s an actor pretending to be a terrorist to cover up the failed Extremis experiments which resulted in the people exploding. Kingsley is really funny hear and pulls off a “drug dependent” British stage actor rather nicely.
Now, this revelation is either going to kill the movie completely for you, or you might be happy by the surprise twist. So, yes, Killian is behind it all.
Oh, yeah, Pepper Potts has been captured by Killian, who is in league with Hansen — and she is given the Extremis!
Turns out that Hansen hasn’t given up her 14(?!) year crush on Stark and sort of wanted revenge, but at the same time wanted him to join her. Kinda lame, but she turns on Killian who just kills her. She was sort of an unneeded character, really, I felt.
Let’s see; Stark and Rhodey call the Vice President to warn him about the Iron Patriot’s impending attack. He says he’ll get right on it, and then tell a Secret Service Agent everything is alright, as the VP kisses his little daughter who is missing a leg. Extremis heals limbs (and almost everything else).
Savin then goes onboard Air Force One with the President (their security is real lax as not only do they not check the identity in IP, but the president also previously called “The Mandarin,” potentially giving up his position).
Anyway, Savin takes out some guards onboard the plane etc. and gets ahold of the President. Stark and Rhodes are told that something happened on Air Force One, with Tony in hot pursuit. Savin is then shown out of his armor and briefly battles Iron Man, with IM blasting Savin through the chest with a full-form repulsor chest blast. IM then goes to make the save that we seen in the trailer. Really well done.
We see what became of the Iron Patriot as the president is hand delivered to Killian — inside the armor.
I forget, but something again happened to the Mark 42 armor to blow it to bits or power it down (had to happen at least a half dozen times), but Rhodey and Stark end up at RoxXon oil minus any suits with a batch of Extremis soldiers on their tail. No worries as Tony has Jarvis initiate something or other with a bunch of suits en route.
This was a really cool scene with all the armors; Tony jumping from suit to suit etc.
The president has been hoisted up inside the IP armor and is going to get killed etc., with Rhodey making the save. He can’t wear any of the armors because they are all tuned to Tony.
Pepper Potts is there and ends up falling 200 feet down into burning oil/explosion; she’s thought dead.
Tony goes after Killian for a while, and they battle back and forth. Tony ends up putting on the Mark 42 suit on to Killian and exploding it.
Killian’s not done yet, though, and comes after Tony — with an Extremis-powered Pepper making the save! Think She-Hulk!
The end sees Tony telling Jarvis to blow up all the armors.
Tony tells Pepper he can fix her, because he could have easily fixed the Extremis back in 1999.
Speaking of fixing things, he sees Dr. Wu and gets the metal taken out of his heart.
And that’s about it except for the post-credit scene which reveals Stark talking (i.e. the narration) to Banner, who says he is not that kind of doctor as he doesn’t have the temperament for it.
Flashed on the screen it then says: Tony Stark will be back.
Final Thoughts
Sightly disappointed by the lack of Easter Eggs or teasers for something to come; though Feige said all along this is a Tony Stark standalone.
Remember Whedon stating how he doesn’t know what he is going to do with The Avengers 2? Tony not being Iron Man is the reason. Now we know.
Looks like no Iron Man in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie, as nothing was even remotely set up in IM3. Of course that might not matter.
I’m sorta glad that Kingsley wasn’t the Mandarin. Actually leaves it open for the real deal.
Oh yeah, Killian had dragon tattoos over his body — sort of a Fing Fang Foom Easter Egg.
There were references and even flashbacks to The Avengers as well as indirect mention of Thor.
So with the big reveal that Killian was “The Mandarin,” does that mean the terrorist group from the first Iron Man movie was Killian all along? Ehh…not really digging that at all.
Likes
Don Cheade/Iron Patriot. Definitely do a War Machine spinoff.
James Badge Dale. He was a cold Extremis soldier. Sorry no cyborgs.
Ty Simpkins; great cast choice worked well with Robert Downey Jr.
Action scenes were great.
Dislikes
I’m going to put the Mandarin twist here.
Maya Hansen.
Brandt.
Mark 42 armor (this movie was totally missing that cool sleek feel from IM and The Avengers).
On The Fence
Killian; doesn’t come off as a “big enough” Tony Stark Iron Man villain.
This is what I would call a good popcorn movie. Not bad, but didn’t knock my socks off. Update: Those who are stating this is the best of the bunch gotta return their exclusive Marvel Studios freebies.
Share your thoughts below.