LogFAQs > #950492003

GavsEvans123
This film has a more personal and intimate story than whats come before, as although there is an external villain, the real meat is Tony coping with his PTSD from going to space at the end of The Avengers. Here we see him at his lowest and most vulnerable, which is a stark (ha!) contrast to how he usually is, and on another level, its also quite different for the MCU, which tends to keep things light-hearted.

Mandarin here is a big change to how he is in the comics, but I think it works because hes so over the top when hes out of character. Its the sort of thing you couldnt have possibly seen it coming, and the unexpected nature of it makes it even funnier. I also like how, for about five years or so afterwards, every new film had someone theorising, jokingly or not, that [[character x]] wasnt really [[thing y]], but an actor pretending to be [[thing y]]. When you think about it, this is true about everyone in every film, from a certain point of view.

While the darker tone works for the character development, Im not sure if it was as successful elsewhere. While this film does want to be something more than the previous popcorn entertainment, and that is to be applauded, I think maybe having the villains be fantasy suicide bombers was a bit too much. The first Iron Man film also had terrorists as the antagonists, but there was a lightness of touch there that helped detach it from reality just enough to avoid being disturbing, yet still pose a threat.

Though it doesnt beat the original, Iron Man 3 does at least improve on Iron Man 2, since it tells its own story, as opposed to setting up the rest of the Avengers. Its still only the second-best film directed by Shane Black and starring Robert Downey Jr. though.

HanOfTheNekos
The format of the movie, being told as a story from Tony's point of view, is pretty solid, although a little weird because we haven't seen something like it before. The movies are all told from a 3rd person omniscient point of view, but this one is a 1st person omniscient... which makes it a little weird when scenes without Tony happen. But I digress. This leads to two amazing moments... one is ending the movie with the same line that the first one ends with "I am Iron Man", but with so much more meaning and completion to it. Tony's arc throughout the entire 4 movies ends really solidly here - he has his place in the world, he understands who he is, what his self and Pepper mean to him. His conclusion is really good. So of course they ruin it in Age of Ultron.

His relations with characters are great too. Well-done with connecting with Pepper, great highlighting his friendship with Rhodes, and his love for Happy is just heartwrenching.

Killian was okay. Him yelling Im the Mandarin! was unnecessary. I dont dislike them messing with the character of the Mandarin as much as other people.

Pepper totally killed a guy.

MetalmindStats
By the time Iron Man 3 came out, Tony Stark had become a thoroughly explored character, and Shane Blacks twist of partnering him with a kid in a sort of buddy-cop deal was hardly reinvigorating. I nonetheless remember Iron Man 3 more fondly than it probably deserves, perhaps because it just needed to not utterly botch Starks characterization to preserve his appeal.

Illuminatusbubu
An ok movie with a forgettable villain and a pre-teen sidekick that doesnt really need to be there unless it is to lure in more younger viewer. I dont really understand why it was as successful as it did here.

StifledSilence
This ended up being my favorite of the Tony trilogy because of RDJs emotional range shown here. Actually seeing a superhero suffer emotionally from his experiences is both jarring and beautiful. It gives a depth to Iron Man not afforded to some of the other characters. Oh and it also still has cool robot suit fights and explosions and shit so A+.

ZenOfThunder
This movie is fine. It's not great but it gets way too much hate. Hard to follow up Avengers 1. I watched this again last year to see if I liked it less and I didn't, but I was never crazy about it to begin with. No idea why people dump on it so hard.

---

Touch fuzzy. Get fuzzier.
Inviso