Current Events > So, Iron Man 3. Just watched and...I am conflicted. *spoilers*

(+) Yeah! (+)

Like, Tony having PTSD over the New York incident in the Avengers movie felt jarring, but thinking about it kinda made sense. He doesn't like to work with others, has this hero complex, so seeing something far beyond what he alone is capable of makes him nervous, anxious, and wants to combat it himself. But just...seeing him so vulnerable was weird to me.

The Mandarin being nothing but some eccentric actor was kinda lame but...it's actually a decent plot twist considering how formulaic these things can get. But other than that the villains didn't feel all that fleshed out to me. The real villain just being this unkempt fan of Stark who felt neglected because his biggest idol didn't meet him personally? Wow, alright. And he somehow became super handsome and the owner of some big company developing some super chemical that unlocks the brain's hidden potential in a few short years.

The rest of the movie I thought was pretty good though, and the action scenes were terrifically done. I overall enjoyed it but there was some things that were weird about it. I see why most consider it the weakest of the trilogy. The whole thing with the kid was weird though, I heard somewhere that he was retconned to be Peter Parker? Or some kid he ended up saving in his movies? Might've been unsubstantiated rumor though.
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I couldn't even finish Iron Man 2

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definitely not peter parker, just a random ass kid

the mandarin stuff was so bad

I liked it aside from the villain.
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Almost all the solo MCU movies suffer from that.
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The Mandarin sort of works as a meta commentary but was a really crappy way to use the character. >_>

Its a shame because Ben Kingsley killed it in the role.
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AlisLandale posted...

The Mandarin sort of works as a meta commentary but was a really crappy way to use the character. >_>

Its a shame because Ben Kingsley killed it in the role.

Yeah, I can tell he had fun with it.

...But still though, when I saw that the Mandarin was some goofy, eccentric actor I literally paused the movie and had this bewildered look on my face for a good minute before continuing. Like...what.
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I understand those with an attachment to the character cared a lot. I do not so the twist was funny to me at the time. The biggest issue being that the real villain was pretty weak. Not that the Mandarin got much characterization, but he was more fun and menacing than Killian ever got to be.

But hey, the real thing is coming back for those that like him. Just not with Stark.

As for the PTSD, made sense to me. And was handled better than his self-destructiveness in IM2. Destroying the suits at the end was dumb and pointless though.
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It was dumb.

Sir Will posted...

I understand those with an attachment to the character cared a lot. I do not so the twist was funny to me at the time. The biggest issue being that the real villain was pretty weak. Not that the Mandarin got much characterization, but he was more fun and menacing than Killian ever got to be.

But hey, the real thing is coming back for those that like him. Just not with Stark.

As for the PTSD, made sense to me.

Oh yeah, it was funny. I ended up smiling as the scene went on. It just came out of nowhere for me and I don't even have any history with Iron Man in general (always been a Spidey boy).
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au_gold posted...

I liked it aside from the villain.

This.

The kid isn't Peter Parker, that was confirmed at a later time.

I've watched the movie a few times though, I don't think it's as bad as people make it out to be. I just have no interest in Pepper or her character and she was involved too much for my taste. And the villian was dogshit, the overall story and motive was shitty.

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I have no knowledge of comic Mandarin besides "Iron Man villain" and the twist still pissed me off

Ben Kingsley Mandarin was just so much more intimidating and interesting than lame glowy Guy Pearce

MorbidFaithless posted...

I couldn't even finish Iron Man 2

Both have their flaws and strengths but they arent even the same movies. Like at all. Making the statement makes about as much sense as saying this about Cars 2 and Cars 3. Sure dis like them if you want, but their so vastly different movies from each other the sequel number means jack diddly nothing.
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There is a short movie as a bonus feature on one of the blue-ray's that shows Kingsley in prison being interviewed for his roll in the terrorist attacks. Turns out, the interview is a ruse to break Slattery out of prison because the real Mandarin is somewhat annoyed at having his name misused.
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008Zulu posted...

There is a short movie as a bonus feature on one of the blue-ray's that shows Kingsley in prison being interviewed for his roll in the terrorist attacks. Turns out, the interview is a ruse to break Slattery out of prison because the real Mandarin is somewhat annoyed at having his name misused.

Oooh, interesting. I only rented it on Youtube so it didn't have any bonus features.
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008Zulu posted...

There is a short movie as a bonus feature on one of the blue-ray's that shows Kingsley in prison being interviewed for his roll in the terrorist attacks. Turns out, the interview is a ruse to break Slattery out of prison because the real Mandarin is somewhat annoyed at having his name misused.

yeah going off this, the real Mandarin is going to be the villain of Shang-Chi

That kid is definitely not Peter Parker. He shows up at the end for a brief scene in Endgame in the same scene with Peter.
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I liked all three

Banjo2553 posted...

it's actually a decent plot twist considering how formulaic these things can get.

"You'll never see me coming".

pretty much all part of the plan given that you could see the villains from a mile away in 1 while 2 had it as part of the intro.

Banjo2553 posted...

And he somehow became super handsome and the owner of some big company developing some super chemical that unlocks the brain's hidden potential in a few short years.

think the idea was that he teamed up with maya hansen when tony left his notes after their one night stand way back when. he probably experimented on himself successfully before deciding to take it big by promising the vice president a cure for his daughter, which solved the problems with funding and becoming owner of a company etc.
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OKIE DOKEY

To get it straight, the kid that was supposedly Peter Parker was the little kid in the middle of a crowd with an Iron Man mask on who confronts a bad guy. Not the completely seperate character in Iron Man 3 who shows up at the saddy scene at the end of Endgame.
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Jerry_Hellyeah posted...

OKIE DOKEY

To get it straight, the kid that was supposedly Peter Parker was the little kid in the middle of a crowd with an Iron Man mask on who confronts a bad guy. Not the completely seperate character in Iron Man 3 who shows up at the saddy scene at the end of Endgame.

I was wondering. That kid with the Iron Man mask didn't have a name so he could easily be retconned.
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One thing that always annoyed me.

Iron Man 2's entire plot is that the arc reactor is killing Tony. He ruins relationships, gives away his company, gives away a suit, all of that. And then at the end of Iron Man 3, it turns out it's just not a problem for him to get some heart surgery and have it removed.
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Banjo2553 posted...

Like, Tony having PTSD over the New York incident in the Avengers movie felt jarring, but thinking about it kinda made sense. He doesn't like to work with others, has this hero complex, so seeing something far beyond what he alone is capable of makes him nervous, anxious, and wants to combat it himself. But just...seeing him so vulnerable was weird to me.

The Mandarin being nothing but some eccentric actor was kinda lame but...it's actually a decent plot twist considering how formulaic these things can get. But other than that the villains didn't feel all that fleshed out to me. The real villain just being this unkempt fan of Stark who felt neglected because his biggest idol didn't meet him personally? Wow, alright. And he somehow became super handsome and the owner of some big company developing some super chemical that unlocks the brain's hidden potential in a few short years.

The rest of the movie I thought was pretty good though, and the action scenes were terrifically done. I overall enjoyed it but there was some things that were weird about it. I see why most consider it the weakest of the trilogy. The whole thing with the kid was weird though, I heard somewhere that he was retconned to be Peter Parker? Or some kid he ended up saving in his movies? Might've been unsubstantiated rumor though.

The kid in Iron Man 2 who was wearing an iron man mask and pointing his toy repuslor at a Hammer Drone was Peter Parker
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pegusus123456 posted...

One thing that always annoyed me.

Iron Man 2's entire plot is that the arc reactor is killing Tony. He ruins relationships, gives away his company, gives away a suit, all of that. And then at the end of Iron Man 3, it turns out it's just not a problem for him to get some heart surgery and have it removed.

Yeah that...was weird. It would've been better to just keep the shrapnel in his heart and explain that it can't be removed safely. I thought that whole bit of the Arc Reactor killing Tony was resolved anyway thanks to Nick Fury and Tony designing a brand new one with a new power source.
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Banjo2553 posted...

pegusus123456 posted...

One thing that always annoyed me.

Iron Man 2's entire plot is that the arc reactor is killing Tony. He ruins relationships, gives away his company, gives away a suit, all of that. And then at the end of Iron Man 3, it turns out it's just not a problem for him to get some heart surgery and have it removed.

Yeah that...was weird. It would've been better to just keep the shrapnel in his heart and explain that it can't be removed safely. I thought that whole bit of the Arc Reactor killing Tony was resolved anyway thanks to Nick Fury and Tony designing a brand new one with a new power source.

The surgery was in China.

Tonys a genius but hes not a doctor. Maybe he was too arrogant to seek out help which is pretty evident by keeping his illness secret to everyone close to him while still actively engaging in what was slowly killing him(he needed the arc reactor to continue being iron man).

The whole idea of iron man 3 is that he grows beyond his own hubris and starts letting people in as well as detaching himself from his armor(clean slate project) and what better way than to finally attempt to remove the shrapnel which didnt really seem like easy surgery.
China played a bigger part in some versions of the movie for some weird reason I dont know about.
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AsucaHayashi posted...

China played a bigger part in some versions of the movie for some weird reason I dont know about.

They were investors in the movie, the studio had to placate them.
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Banjo2553 posted...

The real villain just being this unkempt fan of Stark who felt neglected because his biggest idol didn't meet him personally? Wow, alright.

The MCU taps this well for its villains far too often.
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Shane Black should never be allowed behind a camera ever again.
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The real mandarin would have been a more surprising villain than yet another angry businessman in a suit.

The MCU is full of those.
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I really like Iron Man 3 and people definitely underrate it. The main thing I don't like is how they forced them to add Aldrich Killian as the main villain, when originally they were going to have the girl Tony hooked up with be the villain. But toy people didn't think a female villain would sell so they had to make a dude.

And I was almost really mad about the Mandarin thing, except one line completely saves it for me. When Trevor calls it movie magic. I was like hmmm that's actually a clever way to get 'magic' into a kind of gritty take on the Mandarin. Plus now that they are going to make a movie with the real Mandarin finally after they teased it with that short they released with Trevor in prison.

Plus the fact that he is going to be against Shang-Chi might help get rid of the racist aspects of the character. Instead of a token asian fun manchu villain maybe they can make it more natural in a movie with an asian protagonist.
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I can't imagine they ended up selling a lot of Aldrich Killian toys.
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au_gold posted...

I can't imagine they ended up selling a lot of Aldrich Killian toys.

Yeah probably not. Toy guys fucking shit up again.
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i like the Mandarin plot twist, but Killian was just lame.
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AsucaHayashi posted...

The surgery was in China.

Tonys a genius but hes not a doctor. Maybe he was too arrogant to seek out help which is pretty evident by keeping his illness secret to everyone close to him while still actively engaging in what was slowly killing him(he needed the arc reactor to continue being iron man).

The whole idea of iron man 3 is that he grows beyond his own hubris and starts letting people in as well as detaching himself from his armor(clean slate project) and what better way than to finally attempt to remove the shrapnel which didnt really seem like easy surgery.

If all it took was heart surgery, I feel like SHIELD would have just knocked him out in IM2 and done it. Tony also very much did not want to die, so I don't think he was so prideful that he'd have ignored a solution as simple as surgery.

I could almost buy that he was so prideful that he wouldn't ask anyone else for help and wouldn't even realize surgery was an option...but he had JARVIS who most definitely would know it was an option.
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Thought it was implied that the surgery needed extremis

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That was the best possible thing they could've done with the Mandarin.
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Banjo2553 posted...

the villains didn't feel all that fleshed out to me.

I feel like this is a problem with the entire marvel franchise. They focus so much on the heroes, the bad guys are usually just pretty uninspired generic bad guys, who are bad just because they are bad.
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SoundNetwork posted...

Thought it was implied that the surgery needed extremis

Because of Pepper? I thought she went through a series of transfusions to get extremis out of her body.
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Evening_Dragon posted...

That was the best possible thing they could've done with the Mandarin.

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