Topic: IRON MAN 3 review by Dorkman (mild spoilers)

IRON MAN 3 is more of a sequel to THE AVENGERS than it is to IRON MAN 2. Which is only fitting, considering IRON MAN 2 was more of a preview for THE AVENGERS than it was a sequel to IRON MAN. After kicking off the Marvel film universe with what remains one of the best films in “Phase One,” and despite his being easily the most interesting and charismatic character of the lot (thanks in no small part to Robert Downey Jr.’s own charm, of course), it seems that the creative minds at Marvel cannot for the life of them figure out what to do with Tony Stark.

Co-written and directed by Shane Black, IRON MAN 3 of course takes place at Christmastime. The events of AVENGERS have left Tony with a form of PTSD, resulting in anxiety attacks whenever someone tries to ask him about “what happened in New York,” and a mania for building more, and more elaborate, Iron Man suits. Meanwhile, a terrorist calling himself The Mandarin is setting off bombs all over the country, following them up each time with cryptic warnings about the next attack. At the same time, a technologist named Aldrich Killian — whom Tony once blew off, many years ago — comes back into the picture, having somehow cured himself of cerebral palsy and offering Stark Industries the opportunity to invest in the technology which accomplished this miracle.

When Tony’s beloved former bodyguard Happy (previous installments’ director Jon Favreau) is critically injured in a Mandarin attack — which targeted him as a result of his digging too deeply into Aldrich Killian’s associations — Stark taunts the Mandarin, challenging the Mandarin to attack him if he’s got the guts. The Mandarin obliges, destroying Tony’s cliffside home in an explosive action setpiece the trailers showed the best parts of. Tony’s A.I. butler J.A.R.V.I.S. pilots the last remaining Iron Man suit, with an unconscious Tony inside, to rural Tennessee before the suit, and J.A.R.V.I.S., malfunction and go offline, leaving Tony stranded with only his considerable wits to help him unravel the Mandarin’s evil plot, and discover how it relates to Killian’s miracle cure.

I love KISS KISS BANG BANG, Black and Downey’s previous collaboration. The two of them have the same sensibilities for character, and when they really get to shine together it can be magical. It seems clear to me that Black was less interested in making an Iron Man film than he was in doing something with RDJ, since the movie really only comes to life in the middle section, after Black has destroyed all of Tony’s suits and there’s nothing for him to do but wander around quipping at people, particularly a precocious 10 year old he befriends because fuck it. The scenes that involve the actual Mandarin plot feel obligatory, with Black making story or character choices which are occasionally awful and (I’m given to understand, as a non-reader) even downright insulting to the fandom, seemingly just to amuse himself in a world he appears to find boring.

The film seems to have learned its lesson from IRON MAN 2, not only by not including any Avengers in the story at hand but having Tony — in what I take as a nod to the audience — vehemently shut down any attempt to even mention them. But ironically, not including them post-AVENGERS feels wrong. The climax of the film involves a threat to the life of the President of the United States; Iron Man is out of commission and presumed dead. I’m pretty sure the Avengers — at the very least, I don’t know, Captain America — would’ve gotten involved, even if Iron Man seemed like he was on top of things and especially in a case where he did not. Their conscientious exclusion from the story when we know they exist in this universe feels contrived.

The villain plot is convoluted to the point of being nearly unintelligible and Tony Stark’s character journey is all shorthanded. He starts haunted by his mortality and his impotence to protect the most important things in his life (namely Pepper) and ends… not that way. I don’t know how the events of the film lead him on this internal journey to recovery and self-discovery. Quite frankly they seemed like they ought to have made his issues worse. But when the credits were about to roll, he was just suddenly okay.

There’s plenty of cool visuals and action, as can be expected, but none of it matters because the film completely ruins the character early on with the introduction of Iron Man suits that Tony can pilot remotely — or, worse still, have J.A.R.V.I.S. pilot for him.

Iron Man was cool because Tony Stark, a man with no particular combat training, saw no choice to rid the world of evil but to strap on what amounted to a set of fancy guns and put himself in harm’s way to get the job done. But when the movie reduces being Iron Man to a video game he doesn’t even have to bother playing, why should I care? As shown in the trailer, at the climax of the film Tony calls for backup, which arrives in the form of dozens of suits which escaped the destruction of his cliffside home and which are piloted by no one (i.e. J.A.R.V.I.S.). Tony hops in and out of suits to make it feel like he’s doing stuff but the majority of the spectacle is empty suits killing faceless thugs among meaningless explosions. Sci-fi action has often been accused of being empty VFX devoid of character, but this is the first time I can think of in which, in-universe, this is literally true.

Is this a deliberate, subtle dig by Black at the “blockbuster genre”? Maybe. The post-credits Avengers sting reveals that Tony has been telling this story to Bruce Banner, who not only doesn’t appear in this film despite their riding off together as besties at the end of AVENGERS, but who literally fell asleep from boredom while Tony was telling this story. I feel a self-aware filmmaker like Black wouldn’t throw in that kind of thing accidentally, but of course I’m just guessing and will probably never know.

The film ends with Stark intending to hang up the armor for good. Folks who have an interest in the wheelings and dealings of the industry know Marvel has renewed Robert Downey Jr.’s contract to return in AVENGERS 2 and 3, but there’s been no mention of IRON MAN 4. I can’t say IRON MAN 3 is the most satisfying conclusion to Tony Stark’s solo adventures; but I also can’t say, after IM3, that I particularly care to see them go on.

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Re: IRON MAN 3 review by Dorkman (mild spoilers)

I do agree with a lot of what you've said here, especially about the button being absolutely vital to the structure of the story.  And I'm sure that you've thought of/seen floated what I'm about to say, but I really think that tag re contextualized the film for me in a very dramatic way.  My read on the film is that the events we view as "Iron Man 3" aren't the actual events of the narrative that is/WAS Iron Man 3.  A lot of the scenes in the film lend credit to this; for example the scene where Tony blurts out all of his emotions to Pepper and talks about how he's not sleeping.  That reads very much like there was a huge chunk of dialogue and arguing that led up to that emotion dump that Tony just mentally glossed over because - to him - it wasn't the important part of the story.

And while it's entirely possible that there were a lot of notes about how chunks of the film didn't flow/make narrative sense and Black stuck that tag in to kind of lazily handwave, I kind of love IM3 interpreted that way.  It gives me ample room to really dig in and think about the various themes going on in the film (specifically how resonant and real I find Tony's behavior and RDJ's performance, being the child of an alcoholic with a heap of theory and psychological/treatment reading in my corner) and  focus on trying to figure out what might ACTUALLY have happened, especially for the characters we spend time away from.

I don't think this is a perfect film.  It does have some problems; specifically the handwaving of the lack of Avengers involvement given the stakes presented, as well as the rather chopped montage ending.  But taking all three movies as a whole, the emotional arc Tony goes through and continues to struggle with feels incredibly satisfying to me.  So, I'm kind of with you in being fine that Tony's solo adventures might not continue.  I'd say I'm weirdly in the place where I would like to see more, but pretty sure I don't actually need to.

Good review, and thanks!

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