LogFAQs > #950491966

TomNook
The sequel that Iron Man deserved. Tony Stark is always charismatic, and the plot here is fun. I love the multi suit scenes.

Inviso
Its interesting just how many of Iron Mans villains seem to be the result of self-inflicted revenge as a result of Tonys actions. But yeah, as far as the Iron Man trilogy goes, I feel like Iron Man 3 did a great job of wrapping up Tonys story, even though obviously he still has a solid sixteen movies left before the end of phase 3. Its hard to talk about Iron Man 3 out of context, but its an interesting movie in terms of Tonys development over the course of the franchise. Right from the start, we see him in the past as a complete womanizer, but we cut almost immediately to his relationship with Pepper, and the struggles of dealing with PTSD in the wake of the Avengers alien invasion. Really, once Tony gets the suit, his vulnerability comes largely from human issues (palladium poisoning and now PTSD), and I think those human issues are handled well here by taking away the suit entirely, for a good chunk of the movie. It just makes his eventual triumph feel that much more earned, and I thought it made for a really solid story.

XIII Rocks
So I absolutely love the Mandarin twist and because of that the movie goes a long way with me. The reason for that is simple and I guess a bit more personal. Basically I went in expecting Ben Kingsley, who I like a lot, to deliver an all-time great villain performance. I was so ready for classic menacing British villain stuff. But what I got instead, in the first act/two acts of the movie, was a fairly generic performance that left me slightly disappointed. Then the twist happened and it turned out that THAT WAS THE POINT. I was completely on board with the movie as a result because they *got* me. I thought the handling of Tony's PTSD was a little heavy-handed at times (though the "piping hot mess" scene is heartfelt and one of RDJ's best in the franchise), but the way it stripped him down and separated him from all his tricks, forcing him to rely on his other skills, was a good call. A more light-hearted - and slightly worse - The Dark Knight Rises in that regard. It also makes the best use yet of his quips and has what I would call the good kind of cheesiness. Nice job getting Shane Black to direct it, I think he is better than Favreau on the whole and elevates this. I like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang a lot. I should rewatch it.

Mega Mana
First Scene That Comes to Mind: The kid getting him to switch his focus from things out of his control to things he can do

Iron Man 3 is a lot of things. It's a film about coping with trauma. It's a look at a man who thinks he can do or buy anything to make the world better, but suddenly aliens and gods and his father's idol suddenly exist and make him feel like an utter blip. His entire world is rocked even more than the time he got blasted with his own weapons and is always almost dying if not for the electromagnet in his chest. He's a man on the edge who reacts horribly when thinking about that day's events and spends all his free time building new prototype suits just to be able to save the world if needed. That's what I take from it when I remember it. It's first and foremost about the man inside of the suit dealing with a huge paradigm shift.

I also loved the The Mandarin twist. I thought it was utterly brilliant and laughed out loud at the balls Shane Black had to do that. I loved Sir Ben Kingsley. I loved that it was a huge PR campaign using fear and the other to mask a company's explosively destructive mad science. I loved how no-nonsense the repercussions of Tony's hubris were when his home was attacked immediately after antagonizing the villain. I thoroughly enjoyed the aspect of mystery about what was happening to the soldiers and why it was happening, feeling a bit like a James Bond adventure for quite some time. There was so much to delve and dig into.

I also loved how well the humor was used throughout, and also how Harley managed to slip Tony's brain gear back into place by just reminding him of the basics. I feel like Endgame kind of does that again, with Ant-Man's return poking just the right button on Tony's brain for him to refocus and build forward. I didn't like how Age of Ultron undoes all of what Tony does in Iron Man 3 (getting rid of the suits, promising not to rabbit hole), but in retrospect, Iron Man 3 was just a band-aid for Tony to keep functioning through the likes of Age of Ultron and Civil War, but only time and family and living in failure allowed him to reset.

Aldritch Killian is the weak link with weak backstory and dull villainy, but I really liked his goon squad and, again, I thought everything with the Mandarin propaganda was brilliant. Even better that he's not the actual Mandarin and is also just usurping that title for himself because he's that kind of ass.

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Touch fuzzy. Get fuzzier.
Inviso