In Defence of Iron Man 3.

Now I've returned home and the release dates are no longer conspiring against me (released in the UK while I was in the US, not released in the US until I returned to the UK) I've finally seen Captain America: The Winter Soldier. My thoughts? It's a very strong entry into Marvel's line of superhero movies, only really let down by the poor writing of Black Widow and the even poorer acting ability of Scarlett Johansson. I already had a bias here, as I think I'm one of the few men on the planet who isn't dazzled by how attractive her body is, and I never really bought her initial performance as a former KGB agent all the way back in Iron Man 2. Seeing and reading how much effort Mickey Rouke put in for the same movie, learning Russian, visiting gulags, really throwing himself into the role - I always found how little work Johansson put in by comparison, for a much bigger role, to be insulting. As the movies have rolled on, it's become more and more apparent that she can't really emote for toffee and has very limited chemistry with anyone she's on screen with so despite liking the character of Black Widow in the comics, the idea of her appearing in the movies is an instant black mark for me. Although to be fair to her, I tried to imagine a better actress pulling off the dialogue and characterisation she was given in the new Cap movie, and really couldn't picture them doing much better. So given what she was working with, it's at least not all her fault this time? 

That being said, Sebastian Stan and Anthony Mackie were superb as the Winter Soldier and Falcon respectively, and it was fantastic to finally see Nick Fury step out of his role as enigmatic director a little and actually get some solid action scenes. The amount of villains they snuck under the radar and how they handled them were a nice surprise too, and overall I give the film a pretty big thumb up. I didn't enjoy it as much as Cap'n America the first, but then I thought that World War II aesthetic was a breath of fresh air for a superhero movie, and I'll always secretly long for more of that kind of thing and resent The Avengers a teeny, tiny bit for not allowing them to explore it. 

One thing I genuinely dislike about Winter Soldier though, is the reaction to it. Not that it's been at all negative, but one thing I've seen time and time again, especially from my friends across the pond, is statements along the lines of 'THAT is how you do a sequel Iron Man 3!'. Honestly? I don't get it. I really don't get it. 

Okay, that's a lie, I kind of get it, but only when it comes to the trigger sensitive issue of the Mandarin, and we'll get to him later, but I've always thought that Iron Man 3 was one of Marvel studio's triumphs, on par with or perhaps just nudging past the original Iron Man in quality. 

Iron Man 3 showed us a Tony Stark who had to overcome more than a man in a suit like his or some Russian dude with whips on his arms and an over-glorified cockatoo. In that movie, he has to finally come to terms with the myriad of personal problems that have manifested in past movies (especially in Iron Man 2) as well as face up to an enemy that has exploited those issues and left Stark with zero resources to fight back with. If there was one movie that really developed Stark's character and personality, and really forced him to grow as a character, it was this one. All that pomp and arrogance that led to the climatic 'I'm Iron Man!' scene in the first movie comes back to haunt him, and while that aspect of his personality is never truly going to go away, three did humble him just a little. 

Beyond that though, three allowed us to see a Tony Stark that was truly a genius in practical terms. We all know that he can create massive arc reactors that can power entire towers, program robot butlers to attend to his every need - Christ, without Richards or Hank Pym on the scene and Banner being more a geneticist, Stark is the lead 'Weird Scientist' of the Marvel cinematic universe. But in three we really got to see him put that mind to work and turn nothing into something. We got to see that the actual hero was more than just money and a suit, but the brains and courage behind it. Which led to some fantastic, Bondequse scenes of Stark working with smaller, McGuyvered together gadgets to get things done when his suit wasn't an option. 

But let's say you don't care about character development or story? Well, first of all, screw you sir/madam! You're the kind of person that keeps Michael Bay in business and that I cannot abide! I cannot abide!! But if you happen to like your action, Iron Man 3 has the kind of action set pieces that the first could only dream about. The rescue from the plane was exciting and intense, and say what you like about Aldritch Killian as a villain, the final battle with the dozens of automated Iron Man suits zipping around was rather wonderful. I know I cheered when I spotted the Hulkbuster like piece of armour, and I'm sure if I had a very patient and precise thumb on the pause button and a book of Iron Man armour types I could find quite a few from the comics and past movies tucked away in there. 

So, great characterisation of the main protagonist and great action, let's get down to the story, shall we? And this is where I can kind of understand where some have problems with this film. As a comic book fan, I tend to get very... Terse when film producers mess with characters I love. I feel that while change is a necessity when it comes to adaptation, if you don't keep the core spirit of the characters and world alive you may as well not bother doing the adaptation at all and work on an original project. There's an argument to be made that the core spirit of the Mandarin wasn't kept intact, however I'd counter that with the fact that it was never supposed to be the Mandarin in the first place. If you're upset about the bait and switch, that's fair enough, but to paraphrase the man himself - I never saw it coming, and was surprised to actually be caught off guard by a twist in a film. There's also the fact that most fans of the Iron Man comics I've spoke too tend to shrug this off and say that between them, Killian and Trevor make decent representations of the classic and ultimate universe Mandarin's. 

I don't know, I may be biased on this point because I thought Ben Kingsley's role as failing luvvie actor Trevor Slattery provided some of the most entertaining moments of the movie, and far surpassed his turn as the more serious, terrorist leader. I also saw it as an intriguing twist rather than a bait and switch. I found the plot they presented far more interesting than a potential 'Uh oh, the Ten Rings sound like trouble! Better spend the movie hunting them down and then triumphing over them!' if only because that's the plot of most every other superhero film ever. If the Mandarin is still a sticking point for you, though, well perhaps you should get around to picking up a copy of Thor 2: The Dark World as it has this little gem on it...

A one-shot that effectively answers the Mandarin question once and for all, and gives us the final fate of poor old Trevor Slattery. Some may call it a cop-out, or Marvel caving to pressure, and maybe it is, but hey! At least they did it in style.

Putting this aside, the one thing I loved about Iron Man 3 above all else was that it felt like an end to the trilogy. I was worried that with a new director coming on board, it would feel fundamentally different to the other films. But I need not have worried, as instead it felt like a fabulous capstone to the trilogy that tied the films together into one cohesive story but still left room for Stark to appear as part of the Avengers movies. I came out of the cinema thinking I'd be happy not to see another Iron Man film ever again, not because it was bad, more because it just felt like the character's story had come to a natural end and anything that came along afterwards would just feel tacked on. I can't remember having that feeling before, even in films designed to be trilogies, it just felt like the perfect way to tie off the whole thing. 

For me, the tone of Iron Man 3 felt perfect for an Iron Man movie, the characterisation was excellent (not just of Stark himself, but of Pepper, Rhodey, Trevor, Killian, even the kid they paired him up with managed to come off feeling like a regular kid, not a creep-under-your-skin-annoying movie savant kid), the acting was of the high quality I'd come to expect from these movies, the action scenes were fantastic and the story really brought the whole thing to a close in a grand style. It's for these reasons, and I'm sure a few others if I really scratched around in my brain, that I just can't understand why Iron Man 3 is the Marvel sequel that everyone seems to run down in comparison to the others. Personally, I take the opinion that it's one of the best sequels that Marvel has released so far and exactly what I was looking for in an Iron Man film. 

Does it have the same tone and focus as films featuring other characters in the same universe? No. But then again, none of them do when compared to each other. That's the whole point of The Avengers and why it seemed so impossible to accomplish on film for so many years. Disparate heroes, from different times and dimensions, who come from very different origins and lend themselves, individually, to very different kinds of stories coming together onto one team to fight for freedom and justice. And even though they're very different movies, Iron Man 3 was exactly what I was looking for when it came to Iron Man, in the same way The Winter Soldier was exactly what you'd expect from a modern Captain America story. Stark is a sarcastic smartarse with his flaws as front and centre as his shining attributes, while Cap struggles with a sense of moral justice that many in the modern world think is outmoded and impractical. It makes for very different movies, but in my opinion? Two fantastic sequels, and all this 'THAT is how you do a sequel, in your FACE Iron Man 3!!!!' nonsense every time Marvel releases a follow up to anything needs to stop. Because if anything, when it comes to Marvel sequels - Iron Man led the way!