Iron Man Three
So, IRON MAN THREE! I saw it at the premiere the other night and wow, no words can describe how happy it made me. Iron Man is back with the A+ humor and fantastic special effects! This would mostly be a fangirling post, as I wrote this at 2 am this morning.
First off, the premise of this movie is that Tony Stark is having anxiety attacks and sleeping problems because of what happened in New York, back in the Avengers movie. Moreover, brewing in the distance is a new terrorist figure, Mandarin, who is said to be behind nine bombings and a cyber-hacking of American communications.
Let's have some general Tony meta first:
I, as a fan and as a general human being, am very protective of Tony Stark. “You know who I am,” Tony insists, but do we really? Because for all his confidence and bluster, his penchant for grand entrances and last words, he remains a mysterious idol figure, cast in iron and ablaze in red. Nobody gets close - he would rather lock himself up inside the lab and make 34 Iron Man variations nonstop than deal with the uncertainties he feels after the alien attack on New York. He has to make the world safe for the one thing that matters, Pepper.
For the majority of the movie, Tony suffers sudden anxiety attacks, triggered by nightmares and children’s drawings of him flying into the wormhole. A boy suggests PTSD and he falls down breathing heavily again. We haven’t seen how the other Avengers reacted after the whole Loki scenario, and that would be something to look forward to, but here we see just how much that incident affected Tony. While his problems before were small-scale, power-hungry business guys and revenge-driven sons targeting him and what is his, the aliens were not just about him - it was massive, a world-wide threat. And it scares him.
Being Tony, he reacts to this by tinkering with his toys, as he cannot sleep. When we first meet him in the present day, he’s testing out Mark 42, which answers to hand/arm gestures due to something he injected on himself. It looks a bit like metalbending. He was using Mark 8(?) back in the Avengers, so that’s a lot of Marks keeping him occupied right there. At first he’s content to let Rhodey (War Machine, rechristened Iron Patriot) deal with the Mandarin threat, but after Happy nearly died because of a bombing, he challenges the Mandarin and gives out his home address, a reckless move that leads to tragic consequences.
Tony starts healing when the boy Harley asks him, "You're a mechanic, right? Then why don't you just make something?". I thought at first that he would make something akin to the arc reactor, a prosthesis to help him get over these anxiety attacks, which doesn't seem like a very plausible thing to do, as his problems are of a psychological nature. But no, this is Tony Stark - his whole life revolved around him making things, and perhaps it's when he creates that he is truly himself. So he makes extraordinary stuff out of ordinary things to help him find the Mandarin. He stops having anxiety attacks after this.
Tony Stark's recovery could have been fleshed out because it just happens like that, but it's a two-hour movie and we can't have everything.
The Iron Man movies, and Tony's recovery, culminate with his "clean slate" protocol - destroying all the suits in a blaze of fireworks, and afterwards, undergoing a procedure to remove the shrapnel endangering his heart. He no longer needs the arc reactor and he’s finally able to move on. Move on from the shadow of his father, from his guilt and his fears, and maybe start a new life with Pepper. He throws the reactor out to sea. He leaves the ruins of his home with only the badly-damaged Dummy in tow (perhaps he hasn’t moved on that completely). He leaves everything behind, presumably never to return as Iron Man again, but his last words are still: “There’s one thing they can’t take away from me. I am Iron Man.”
It closes the Iron Man franchise, but I wonder what this bodes for The Avengers? Will we be seeing them again? Will Don Cheadle ever be back as War Machine, because there isn’t enough of him? Gwyneth was fantastic and I hope we get to see more of Rescue. RDJ brings the perfect vulnerability and arrogance to Tony Stark and he inhabits the role so perfectly, he must be Tony Stark. Where will I see him again?
ON TOWARDS MORE FANGIRLING OK:
- The movie starts with a flashback to 1999, a conference in Switzerland. And what is really sweet about this is HO YINSEN’S CAMEO. Remember in Iron Man, Yinsen tells Tony they met once before, well guys, it was here.
- Before the stills of Pepper in the suit, I was hoping for a sentient!suit, and in a way it still happened! Tony controls the suit from outside, REMOTELY, like when you’re playing Wii, only the video game is real?
- TONY FREAKING DOCTOR MANHATTANS PEPPER WOW WHAT AN ASSHOLE
- EXPLODING HUMAN BEINGS AS BOMBS NEED I SAY MORE
- Happy watches Downton Abbey and I’m not sure how to react to that. (He’s watching S2, Sibyl’s still alive!)
- Tony does this stupid thing again, giving out his address in a challenge to the Mandarin, and challenge accepted, they proceed to destroy his Malibu dreamhouse.
- INCLUDING DUMMY
- Including all the suits on display, except the experimental Mark 42, which answers to hand/arm gestures due to something he injected on himself.
- AND THEN HE USES IT ON PEPPER TO SAVE HER FROM FALLING DEBRIS
- AND THEN PEPPER IN THE SUIT SAVES HIM FROM FALLING DEBRIS
- SOMEONE TAKE ME AWAY FROM THESE EMOTIONS
- The most amazing thing from this action sequence was when Tony was trapped underwater and HIS GLOVE SEPARATES FROM THE SUIT TO PULL HIM UP FROM THE WRECKAGE HOW COOL WAS THAT.
- SENTIENT ARMOR FTW
- Paul Bettany malfunctions and now Tony’s all alone: “Don’t leave me, buddy.”
- JARVIS FEELS
- Tony, all alone, Mark 42 wrecked, Jarvis gone, seeks refuge in a garage-cum-science-lab, where he is found by a boy.
- Say it with me: ROBIN
- But his name is actually Harley. He suggests a stealth mode! Dude, you two are gonna get along well.
- And now we see just how awesome Tony Stark is, even without the suit, but with the powers of science on his side.
- It’s pretty interesting to note that he’s fighting metas now, whereas his previous enemies were human beings with lots of money and tech stuff.
- War Machine is renamed into the more politically correct Iron Patriot, but Rhodey’spassword is still WARMACHINEROX.
- Gosh, Tony’s anxiety attacks are hurting me.
- Super fan Gary with the tattoo and stuff.
- AND THE PLOT TWIST COMETH although I saw it quite a while ago. Really, the trailers are immensely misleading; Ben Kingsley isn’t even the main villain.
- Interesting inversion of the last Iron Man II movie, wherein the CEO is used by the “terrorist”. Iron Man Three is more like the first movie, where the CEO/business guy is just using the terrorist for his own ends. More accurately, Killian was just using an actor.
- “Mandarin” offers Tony a beer and he doesn’t take it! (I’m not sure but wasn’t he characterized as an alcoholic back then? I have to review stuff.)
- “Honestly, I hate working here. They are so weird.” BEST LINE FROM A THUG EVER
- The plane save sequence was all kinds of awesome. Just. Watch it. WATCH IT.
- Boss battle, buddy cop movie with Tony and Rhodey, if it’s Mark 42 then there must be 41 others!!!1!
- I was clawing my eyes out of frustration that Pepper was a damsel in distress again after that awesome stint in the suit, but then SHE COMES BACK MORE BADASS THAN EVER AND SHE’S ACTUALLY THE ONE TO FINISH OFF THE BAD GUY?? I thought when she fell, a suit caught her or something. I really thought she’ll be back in one of those sentient Jarvis-controlled suits.
- THAT POST-CREDITS SCENE WITH THE THERAPY SESSION WITH BRUCE BANNER OMG
- “YOU KNOW I’M NOT THAT KIND OF DOCTOR”
- TONY STILL BLABBING ON AND BRUCE SLEEPING
- SCIENCE BROS
- PERFECT
- Now then.
- ALL SHIPS READY TO SAIL FOR THOR THE DARK WORLD HOOT HOOT
First off, the premise of this movie is that Tony Stark is having anxiety attacks and sleeping problems because of what happened in New York, back in the Avengers movie. Moreover, brewing in the distance is a new terrorist figure, Mandarin, who is said to be behind nine bombings and a cyber-hacking of American communications.
Let's have some general Tony meta first:
I, as a fan and as a general human being, am very protective of Tony Stark. “You know who I am,” Tony insists, but do we really? Because for all his confidence and bluster, his penchant for grand entrances and last words, he remains a mysterious idol figure, cast in iron and ablaze in red. Nobody gets close - he would rather lock himself up inside the lab and make 34 Iron Man variations nonstop than deal with the uncertainties he feels after the alien attack on New York. He has to make the world safe for the one thing that matters, Pepper.
For the majority of the movie, Tony suffers sudden anxiety attacks, triggered by nightmares and children’s drawings of him flying into the wormhole. A boy suggests PTSD and he falls down breathing heavily again. We haven’t seen how the other Avengers reacted after the whole Loki scenario, and that would be something to look forward to, but here we see just how much that incident affected Tony. While his problems before were small-scale, power-hungry business guys and revenge-driven sons targeting him and what is his, the aliens were not just about him - it was massive, a world-wide threat. And it scares him.
Being Tony, he reacts to this by tinkering with his toys, as he cannot sleep. When we first meet him in the present day, he’s testing out Mark 42, which answers to hand/arm gestures due to something he injected on himself. It looks a bit like metalbending. He was using Mark 8(?) back in the Avengers, so that’s a lot of Marks keeping him occupied right there. At first he’s content to let Rhodey (War Machine, rechristened Iron Patriot) deal with the Mandarin threat, but after Happy nearly died because of a bombing, he challenges the Mandarin and gives out his home address, a reckless move that leads to tragic consequences.
Tony starts healing when the boy Harley asks him, "You're a mechanic, right? Then why don't you just make something?". I thought at first that he would make something akin to the arc reactor, a prosthesis to help him get over these anxiety attacks, which doesn't seem like a very plausible thing to do, as his problems are of a psychological nature. But no, this is Tony Stark - his whole life revolved around him making things, and perhaps it's when he creates that he is truly himself. So he makes extraordinary stuff out of ordinary things to help him find the Mandarin. He stops having anxiety attacks after this.
Tony Stark's recovery could have been fleshed out because it just happens like that, but it's a two-hour movie and we can't have everything.
The Iron Man movies, and Tony's recovery, culminate with his "clean slate" protocol - destroying all the suits in a blaze of fireworks, and afterwards, undergoing a procedure to remove the shrapnel endangering his heart. He no longer needs the arc reactor and he’s finally able to move on. Move on from the shadow of his father, from his guilt and his fears, and maybe start a new life with Pepper. He throws the reactor out to sea. He leaves the ruins of his home with only the badly-damaged Dummy in tow (perhaps he hasn’t moved on that completely). He leaves everything behind, presumably never to return as Iron Man again, but his last words are still: “There’s one thing they can’t take away from me. I am Iron Man.”
It closes the Iron Man franchise, but I wonder what this bodes for The Avengers? Will we be seeing them again? Will Don Cheadle ever be back as War Machine, because there isn’t enough of him? Gwyneth was fantastic and I hope we get to see more of Rescue. RDJ brings the perfect vulnerability and arrogance to Tony Stark and he inhabits the role so perfectly, he must be Tony Stark. Where will I see him again?
ON TOWARDS MORE FANGIRLING OK:
- The movie starts with a flashback to 1999, a conference in Switzerland. And what is really sweet about this is HO YINSEN’S CAMEO. Remember in Iron Man, Yinsen tells Tony they met once before, well guys, it was here.
- Before the stills of Pepper in the suit, I was hoping for a sentient!suit, and in a way it still happened! Tony controls the suit from outside, REMOTELY, like when you’re playing Wii, only the video game is real?
- TONY FREAKING DOCTOR MANHATTANS PEPPER WOW WHAT AN ASSHOLE
- EXPLODING HUMAN BEINGS AS BOMBS NEED I SAY MORE
- Happy watches Downton Abbey and I’m not sure how to react to that. (He’s watching S2, Sibyl’s still alive!)
- Tony does this stupid thing again, giving out his address in a challenge to the Mandarin, and challenge accepted, they proceed to destroy his Malibu dreamhouse.
- INCLUDING DUMMY
- Including all the suits on display, except the experimental Mark 42, which answers to hand/arm gestures due to something he injected on himself.
- AND THEN HE USES IT ON PEPPER TO SAVE HER FROM FALLING DEBRIS
- AND THEN PEPPER IN THE SUIT SAVES HIM FROM FALLING DEBRIS
- SOMEONE TAKE ME AWAY FROM THESE EMOTIONS
- The most amazing thing from this action sequence was when Tony was trapped underwater and HIS GLOVE SEPARATES FROM THE SUIT TO PULL HIM UP FROM THE WRECKAGE HOW COOL WAS THAT.
- SENTIENT ARMOR FTW
- Paul Bettany malfunctions and now Tony’s all alone: “Don’t leave me, buddy.”
- JARVIS FEELS
- Tony, all alone, Mark 42 wrecked, Jarvis gone, seeks refuge in a garage-cum-science-lab, where he is found by a boy.
- Say it with me: ROBIN
- But his name is actually Harley. He suggests a stealth mode! Dude, you two are gonna get along well.
- And now we see just how awesome Tony Stark is, even without the suit, but with the powers of science on his side.
- It’s pretty interesting to note that he’s fighting metas now, whereas his previous enemies were human beings with lots of money and tech stuff.
- War Machine is renamed into the more politically correct Iron Patriot, but Rhodey’spassword is still WARMACHINEROX.
- Gosh, Tony’s anxiety attacks are hurting me.
- Super fan Gary with the tattoo and stuff.
- AND THE PLOT TWIST COMETH although I saw it quite a while ago. Really, the trailers are immensely misleading; Ben Kingsley isn’t even the main villain.
- Interesting inversion of the last Iron Man II movie, wherein the CEO is used by the “terrorist”. Iron Man Three is more like the first movie, where the CEO/business guy is just using the terrorist for his own ends. More accurately, Killian was just using an actor.
- “Mandarin” offers Tony a beer and he doesn’t take it! (I’m not sure but wasn’t he characterized as an alcoholic back then? I have to review stuff.)
- “Honestly, I hate working here. They are so weird.” BEST LINE FROM A THUG EVER
- The plane save sequence was all kinds of awesome. Just. Watch it. WATCH IT.
- Boss battle, buddy cop movie with Tony and Rhodey, if it’s Mark 42 then there must be 41 others!!!1!
- I was clawing my eyes out of frustration that Pepper was a damsel in distress again after that awesome stint in the suit, but then SHE COMES BACK MORE BADASS THAN EVER AND SHE’S ACTUALLY THE ONE TO FINISH OFF THE BAD GUY?? I thought when she fell, a suit caught her or something. I really thought she’ll be back in one of those sentient Jarvis-controlled suits.
- THAT POST-CREDITS SCENE WITH THE THERAPY SESSION WITH BRUCE BANNER OMG
- “YOU KNOW I’M NOT THAT KIND OF DOCTOR”
- TONY STILL BLABBING ON AND BRUCE SLEEPING
- SCIENCE BROS
- PERFECT
- Now then.
- ALL SHIPS READY TO SAIL FOR THOR THE DARK WORLD HOOT HOOT