Iron Man 3: a few things to say...

[fajrdrako]

There aren't many movies I really care about going to see these days. There was a time I liked going to a movie every week - but most of the new movies don't look interesting to me.

Least of all are they worth seeing late at night. Midnight screenings? I'm the get up at dawn girl these days; so it's the rare movie that lures me into the late hours of the night. Even when I see things, I don't often think they're worth it.

So... Iron Man 3. Worth it.

I loved Iron Man 1, mostly hated Iron Man 2. Ads for #3 made me fear it would be like #2. No need to fear: it isn't.

I just heard an IMDb interview with Robert Downey Jr.. He says, "People are happy that it's kind of clever and defies expectations." That's certainly true in my case: it's very clever and kept defying my expectations over and over. Expectations based on lot of comic book reading over the years, and a long knowledge of how these stories work.

And it isn't just changing things for the sake of changing them, randomly. It's... clever changes. Things rooted in the comic, and in the set-up of the previous movies. Surprises that all make sense, but you don't see them coming. At least, I didn't.

It was wonderful. I love surprises.

On the non-surprise front: Too many explosions. I did expect that. No big deal. If a lot of explosions sell a good plot, I'll live with them.

Mind you, some of it was due to a year or two of clever misdirection in terms of movie publicity and promotion. Those clever dogs.

Okay, spoilery comments now:

1. Maya Hansen was just what she ought to be: clever, attractive, and morally ambiguous. Left me wondering what she was all about and how she got there. Very suspenseful, wondering if she was on Tony's side... or not.
   
   
2. Pepper Potts: so true to herself. Angry with Tony for a good part of the movie, mostly, I think, because (in true PTSD fashion) he was not confiding in her.
   
   
3. What I loved most about Pepper's heroics and her general kick-assery in time of need: she is, when it ends, horrified by the violence. That sounds right. Killing people isn't, and shouldn't be, and never will be, easy for Pepper.
   
   ...But I would love to see movies in which she takes up her armoured role of Rescue.
   
   
4. Guy Pearce is brilliant. What a fabulous role. When we first see him - the elevator scene - it took me a minute to recognize him. If Tony had treated Killian with a shade more respect, would history have been different? ...Probably not. But he himself saw that as the turning point of his life.
   
   It also nicely echoes the scene in Iron Man 1 where Tony left Pepper standing on the roof, and forgot about her.
   
   Loved the scene where Killian is showing Pepper his brain. I was thinking, "This is real science fiction." So cool.
   
   
5. Ben Kingsley - wow. I know a lot of people will be spoiled about his role before they see the movie, and I'm so glad I wasn't. Absolutely brilliant. Take the old traditional Iron Man villain, who was a racist stereotype, and turn him upside down by making him a fabrication of a racist stereotype designed to manipulate and image.
   
   And Terrence too is a case of "but for the grace of God and circumstance, this could be Tony Stark". Mindless drugs, mindless sex, making excuses for himself... Did Tony see that? I think he did.
   
   
6. I thought the scariest scene in the movie was when Tony was in bed with Pepper, having a nightmare, and she tries to touch him to wake him, and the armour grabs her.
   
   As metaphors go, it's sort of blatant: the armour had taken over Tony's life. And it makes perfect sense.
   
   Just as if makes perfect sense that Tony isn't in the armour for a good part of the movie. When he is, it isn't the old familiar armour we came to know and love in the first movie and The Avengers. It's many types of armour, often operating without Tony being inside, often used as a prison rather than a superpower.
   
   So metaphors abound. When Tony has to drag the armour through the snow, it shows how the superpower is a burden, how it has become both a blessing and A curse. In some cases, taking over his life like a doppelganger, becoming a substutite for himself - as when he sends it to his date with Pepper, or sits on the sofa beside him in Tennessee.
   
   
7. Happy Hogan: Love it that he's a Downton Abbey fan. Such a nice touch. And I like it that he was good at his job, albeit in a rather uncool fashion. I wonder how Happy will progress in the next movie - and I'm sure he will.
   
   
8. Very interesting use of the situation at the end of The Avengers as the set-up for the plot, or at least for Tony's state of mind. Interesting that they don't have him reaching for a drink, or tempted to. I liked that. They gave him a totally new, and plausible, reason for his personal troubles. I wondered how much time had passed since the end of The Avengers. Weeks? Months? Loved it when Pepper said he'd been hanging out with his super-friends, implying that even though their relationship had deepened, she was feeling somewhat sidelined, and that Tony has been doing things with the Avengers.
   
   
9. The Kid: Ty Simpkins was great as Harley Keenan. I kept wondering if he was someone I should know from the comics, but no. Just a ... lucky find, on Tony's part, at a time when Tony wasn't getting much luck.
   
   
10. S.H.I.E.L.D. was remarkable by its absence. I didn't expect to see Nick Fury or Maria Hill, but I did rather expect a mention. On the other hand, there was no need. I could imagine Nick Fury trying to sort out the mess with the Mandarin from another angle, and doing things elsewhere that might have solved the problem if Tony hadn't been there first.
    
    
11. Will Tony rebuild his mansion, or move to New York to live in the Avengers Tower? Presumably he will rebuild his armour - perhaps his old style of armour - in such a way that it's less invasive in his life. Will he still have nightmares and anxiety attacks? I think the implication at the end, when he took control of his life again, and destroyed the armour - I think the implication is that this is the beginning of recovery.
    
    I hope so, because he will probably have to face aliens and strange dimensions again.
    
    
12. I still don't much like Don Cheadle as Rhodey, and I miss Terrence Howard. That being said, I liked Rhodey in this movie very much, and the way he handled the action with action-hero competence and military bearing. I loved the jokes about the War Machine/Iron Patriot name, and I wondered if this is a hint that they're thinking of doing something involving Norman Osborn and Dark Reign. Or just teasing us comic book readers. There were other examples of that sort of thing: references to works or ideas that have a rich history in the comics, but it was in no way necessary to know that to understand the word or the meaning.
    
    
13. Loved the Stan Lee cameo, as always.
    
    
14. I thought there was more inclusion of women than in most action movies, including as villains.
    
    
15. I liked the use of the word "trophy". Seems Killian had a number of reasons to be jealous of Tony.
    
    
16. J.A.R.V.I.S. remains wonderful, both as a character and an expository concept. As long as J.A.R.V.I.S. is around, Tony has someone to talk to.
    
    
17. Loved the scenes between Pepper and Maya. There's a rather interesting commentary about that and the Bechdel test with Rebecca Hall (who played Maya) here. She says, " ["Iron Man 3" is] taking a different take, not the obvious one." That was true in so many scenes, and on many levels. And it makes me so happy to see a comic book movie that isn't sexist. (X-Men movies, I'm pointing at you.) I don't even know who to give the credit to there. The director, Shane Black? The producers? The writers? Whatever it is, I love it and I want more. The movie took nothing away from Iron Man himself by including a lot of well-drawn, interesting women - and it made the movie so much better.
    
    The poster adverting movie, showing Iron Man standing protectively with Pepper Potts, is a delightful irony. She saves him. Wonderful stuff.
    
    
18. I note that Tony's ongoing technical problem in being Iron Man is always getting the armour on, on quick notice. He can't just wear it under his clothes. Love his ways to work around this. And interestingly, the solution found in the comics - which is, essentially, Extremis - is so far rejected, though it is hinted at. I loved the way he gets his armour to come to him, but it tends to beat him up in the process.
    
    
19. Though the idea of Extremis comes from the Warren Ellis story, the story is actually almost entirely different - and original.
    
    
20. And the President is named Warren Ellis. That's all the funnier if you know anything about Warren Ellis, a foul-mouth Brit with an amazing mind, who likes to hang out in pubs and complain about things in eloquent style.
    
    
21. Loved the coda after the credits. I was in a geek-savvy crowd: everyone stayed in the theatre to see it, and cheered.