Ah yes, the three genders: Girl, Boy, and Mischief
I can guarantee you that I have never pooped 10 million pounds
I’m guessing Loki has played a “poops 10 million pounds” prank on Thor before
In Sandman there was in fact a poop prank involving those two. And also a squirrel.
+1
Options
Linespider5ALL HAIL KING KILLMONGERRegistered Userregular
I'm gonna say something right now, and I'm not sure how everyone's gonna like it.
Tonight I went back and watched Iron Man 1 for the first time in...six years? Seven years? Does that sound possible?
anyway.
Iron Man 1 was not that great.
I mean, I sort of remembered it, and I sort of recalled the bit with the reporter in the beginning, and the stewardesses and the pole in the private jet. Sort of. I certainly didn't recall the trans joke RDJ told about Rhodey in front of the Air Force guys. Or the Highlander Ending for the final battle.
On the other hand, it was cool to see Stark actually work on building towards the first suit in his basement, vs Avengers and so on when, at that point he probably had suits making suits all on their own. Everything felt more grounded in a traditional way-not a peep about aliens, or stones, or anything THAT outlandish. For making a movie about a metal flying man, they were remarkably restrained in their baby steps of getting an MCU off the ground.
It's almost incredible to realize that Agent Coulson really was there, with a cheaper haircut, right from the jump.
But man, it has aged. It has aged so badly, it probably feels closer to the first Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movie than it does to the modern Marvel stuff.
jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
I agree that IM1 gets overrated here, but it's a solid flick. At the time it was kind of a huge bombdrop because Marvel was on a roll with some meh af movies like the Hulk films and Fantastic Four a few years earlier, and TDK hadn't hit yet, so it gets some definite rose-tintiness in its favor.
But yeah, it's not particularly worse than any of the current Marvel fare even with 10 years worth of miles on its soul. The Marvel formula (which is kind of getting twisted these days) hadn't been solidified yet so it's a bit rough around the edges.
Even with that said the film is still in my Top 10, easy. The Raimi Spiderman movies aged very poorly because the film standards at the time were so fucking low. It's the same reason a good movie like Men In Black was hailed as amazing, when everything else at the time (at least for summer fare) was just shit. Movies these days don't get near the lows they were at in the early 2000's (some may say at the expense of the highs, but I disagree with that as well).
I liked Iron Man quite a bit and the times I've seen it recently have held up pretty well. I agree the more "realistic" non crazy comic stuff was great in it.
As a side note I am continuing the MCU chronological watch.
Completed:
Captain America: The First Avenger
Agent Carter Season 1
On episode 8 of season 2.
It's not a great show overall but Jarvis the butler, Howard Stark and the main character Peggy Carter are solid.
I may have developed a crush on Hayley Atwell.
I agree that IM1 gets overrated here, but it's a solid flick. At the time it was kind of a huge bombdrop because Marvel was on a roll with some meh af movies like the Hulk films and Fantastic Four a few years earlier, and TDK hadn't hit yet, so it gets some definite rose-tintiness in its favor.
But yeah, it's not particularly worse than any of the current Marvel fare even with 10 years worth of miles on its soul. The Marvel formula (which is kind of getting twisted these days) hadn't been solidified yet so it's a bit rough around the edges.
Even with that said the film is still in my Top 10, easy. The Raimi Spiderman movies aged very poorly because the film standards at the time were so fucking low. It's the same reason a good movie like Men In Black was hailed as amazing, when everything else at the time (at least for summer fare) was just shit. Movies these days don't get near the lows they were at in the early 2000's (some may say at the expense of the highs, but I disagree with that as well).
What's crazy is that they ended up with the MCU formula purely by accident. They had some groundwork, but overall the movie was improvised.
Started my MCU rewatch with Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, and Iron Man 2. I don't generally rewatch movies very much, so it's been a few years since I've seen these. It's interesting to see how my impression of the movie now compares to the vague memory of how I felt about it.
My memory of Iron Man 2 was that I didn't think it was that good, but watching it last night I really enjoyed it! It's just full of great performances. Robert Downy Jr. is just incredible, and every scene between him and Paltrow is gold. Gary Shandling does a lot with a little, and Sam Rockwell combines bravado, showmanship, and insecurity into a really entertaining and complex package which I don't remember appreciating previously.
It was really fun to see Black Widow's introduction here, and contrary to what seems to have become something of a consensus that the movie was dragged down by setting up Avengers, I thought it fit into the movie quite well (it could be that at the time, without all the rest of the MCU movies as context it was more out of place). I enjoyed Nick Fury, and I realize how much I've been missing him. It's simultaneously cool and jarring seeing Coulson in these movies.
crap I accidentally posted this in the SE++ thread:
IM2 rewatch verdict: I enjoyed it! RDJ is fun, Rhodes' recasting was handled well (I do love Don Cheadle), Sam Rockwell is loving it, Mickey Rourke is a national goddamned treasure and honestly maybe the best actor in the movie, ScarJo is kind of wooden tbh but w/e
Compliments:
I really like how IM has that running theme of 'we all create our own demons' - I'm happy to see a consistent message explored in different facets in one piece of media, let alone throughout a trilogy, and in this one it's done on a few levels - Stark against Vanko and a poisonous reactor / his resultant self-destruction are the obvious ones, but there's also Hammer with the drones/Vanko/his seething ressentiment/himself in general, Rhodes going along with the creation of War Machine with some reservations, maybe even Fury reaching out to Iron Man. Importantly: Hammer and Vanko are two different parts of Tony Stark, and I think the movie intelligently pairs them to stress that the two public parts of him - playboy cad and too-brilliant-for-his-own-good techmonkey - can also be interior demons. Hammer and Vanko are both reflections of the worst in Stark; and additionally what they become, to some extent, are created if not *by* him then *because* of him. They're warped by sizing themselves up against Stark in some ways.
But I thought there was a line in there that was specifically countering or challenging this theme, with Howard Stark speaking into the camera for his son, that Tony is his proudest creation. I think the focus on the human element is a nice touch in a IP that really tries to show off what we are capable of achieving with magicomputech.
I bought Vanko a lot more than I did the first time around - Mickey Rourke was a good casting: he sold the jadedness, swagger, and general insubordination (surprisingly?) well. I felt myself nodding along at the soundness of his vision of exposing Iron Man as vulnerable, undermining Stark's posited reasons for justifying his vigilantism (assisted by Stark's own self-destructive impulses). I also like how Vanko plausibly gets upgraded from a midgame elite mob to an endgame boss; there's no power-creep in that sense. Vanko's downfall being Tony/Rhodes using a Chekov Gun-move from earlier was good eating, and it was honestly what made me perk up a little bit and ruminate a bit on the movie. A much more satisfying end to a fight than Black Panther's, TBH.
The Hammer/Vanko teamup made sense, the plot made sense, Tony's central internal conflicts and external actions made sense. It wasn't really just MacGuffin or world domination plot stuff, there were solid motivations and goals that characters chose to pursue.
I get the blood poisoning = PG alcoholism complaints, but I thought that was a fine alteration. Either way, Stark has a subtle breakthrough about trusting others (Potts, Rhodes, his father, himself... and for Avenger purposes, SHIELD). I disliked SHIELD's inclusion into the movie, but given their larger-universe necessity, them giving Stark the tools needed to fix himself was fine and served the MCU's need to have Tony begin accepting the idea of the Avengers.
Complaints:
Even keeping in mind the giant MCU that exists today and trying to be forgiving, BW / Nick Fury / Coulsson being in this movie was just pretty much Avengers set-up and in IMO the movie does ultimately suffer from their inclusion. Their roles make the movie feel a whole lot less tied together and bloats it (Happy could've gotten Coulsson's temporary conservatorship; I'll talk more about Potts -> BW/Fury below). Although maybe you have to sacrifice the quality of early individual movies to strengthen the universe-building, because SM:HC is a whole lot better in hitting its theme with a Stark father figure, and maybe you don't really get to build one as good as Stark himself in a SH standalone (Raimi's SM2 was real good tho!).
Potts in this movie was an underutilized character. I think it should've been her standing up to Tony after his bday even after it's shown that he's kind of pushing her away due to his impending death - it would've given her some actual agency in the relationship depicted in this movie. It should've been her giving Tony his dad's old footage with his dad's message, plus that damn expo miniature is just sitting in her office! Also, showing her ordering around the police was a bit inexplicable?
Nitpicks:
Man there are a fuckton of offscreen civilian casualties in that extended, completely meaningless, groaningly obligatory expo shit at the end - thousands of rounds and dozens of missiles fired by the drones pretty much directly into the crowd, giant heavy shards of glass and concrete falling onto crowds, etcetc
And where are all the MNCs coming in with their own suits after IM2 and 3? There's no way that kind of shit isn't just universal by the time IM3 ends. Hell, even DoD's gotta have a reverse-engineered Arc Reactor after going through War Machine and Hammer/Vanko's tech
tldr: Vanko's in my top 5 MCU villains and not just because 90% of them suck
Eddy on
"and the morning stars I have seen
and the gengars who are guiding me" -- W.S. Merwin
+3
Options
daveNYCWhy universe hate Waspinator?Registered Userregular
IM2 is enjoyable, but the plot is slap-dash and they touch on themes but (like in Black Panther) never really dig into them. Stark's dad kinda fucked over Valdo's dad, but Stark never really chews on what it means that his father is the reason Valdo grew up in internal exile in the USSR. Stark is dying from palladium poisoning, so he wants to create a legacy, then he just wants to get hammered, then he solves the poisoning issue so I guess we'll leave that legacy thing until AoU or maybe Civil War. And then there's the whole question of effectively outsourcing national security duties to a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist, which was answered early on with a "Hell yeah!".
It's like IM3's PTSD stuff, where the solution was for Tony to go through another traumatic situation and then get open heart surgery.
Shut up, Mr. Burton! You were not brought upon this world to get it!
I rolled my eyes at the "privatizing national security" bit and I'm glad Stark learned a lesson through Age of Ultron and internalized it by Civil War that maybe that sentiment is disgustingly arrogant and naive. Which made me hate Captain America's Bucky-loving ass even more!
Eddy on
"and the morning stars I have seen
and the gengars who are guiding me" -- W.S. Merwin
IM2 is enjoyable, but the plot is slap-dash and they touch on themes but (like in Black Panther) never really dig into them. Stark's dad kinda fucked over Valdo's dad, but Stark never really chews on what it means that his father is the reason Valdo grew up in internal exile in the USSR. Stark is dying from palladium poisoning, so he wants to create a legacy, then he just wants to get hammered, then he solves the poisoning issue so I guess we'll leave that legacy thing until AoU or maybe Civil War. And then there's the whole question of effectively outsourcing national security duties to a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist, which was answered early on with a "Hell yeah!".
It's like IM3's PTSD stuff, where the solution was for Tony to go through another traumatic situation and then get open heart surgery.
In IM3 the solution for Tony was to stop trying to hide from his problems and instead face them head on and deal with them.
IM2 is enjoyable, but the plot is slap-dash and they touch on themes but (like in Black Panther) never really dig into them. Stark's dad kinda fucked over Valdo's dad, but Stark never really chews on what it means that his father is the reason Valdo grew up in internal exile in the USSR. Stark is dying from palladium poisoning, so he wants to create a legacy, then he just wants to get hammered, then he solves the poisoning issue so I guess we'll leave that legacy thing until AoU or maybe Civil War. And then there's the whole question of effectively outsourcing national security duties to a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist, which was answered early on with a "Hell yeah!".
It's like IM3's PTSD stuff, where the solution was for Tony to go through another traumatic situation and then get open heart surgery.
Iron Man 3 was almost my favorite IM film, because I really liked the theme of a vulnerable Tony, cut off from all of his resources, but still finding a way to make it work to answer the question: Is Iron Man Tony, or the suit? The PTSD stuff was pretty good too and IMO, was handled well.
I just couldn’t stand how ham fisted that final ending was and how it undermined Tony’s escape from being a prisoner through sheer villain stupidity. The movie implies there’s only a few of these super people, yet there’s like, thirty of them on the boat! Good thing they didn’t leave, perhaps one of them to guard Tony!
Also, when Killian is just mowing through Tony’s suits and is no selling all of his attacks, Pepper just tosses one of Tony’s own rockets and... that’s it. I was expecting Killian to rise out of the flames for Pepper and Tony to double team him, but nope! It’s over! And with a rocket Tony had the entire time and didn’t use for some reason!
Ug! Such great build up for such a wet fart of a climax.
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
I fully admit there are some glaring holes present, but I absolutely love IM3 from the arrival of the Iron Legion to the finale.
Overall I think I enjoyed IM3 more than most, but I wouldn't dream of arguing it placing much higher than the middle of my list of the MCU flicks, and can respect why many would place it much lower.
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
My favorite moment from any MCU movie will probably always be Chris Hemsworth smiling for Kat Dennings in the first Thor movie.
It was perfect. Tossed out of his element, strength downgraded, no hammer, no way home, but he instinctively knows adulation and is fully prepared to smile for it.
My favorite Thor moment had to be from Ragnorok, where he’s telling a story of how Loki stabbed him as a child with all the enthusiasm of someone telling of an adolescent prank.
Loki’s smile of that fond memory really sold it on me along with Bruce’s incredulity.
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
Everyone has a price. Throw enough gold around and someone will risk disintegration.
+10
Options
Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
I can't stand IM3 because it throws away a classic Iron Man opponent to roll out a re-re-hash of the evil industrialist, but this one somehow has the magic power for his stupid convoluted plan to have a bunch of pieces that work together perfectly. The story is so contrived and dumb that I can't enjoy it at all, especially because of the things it could have used well.
I am floored that anyone thinks the first two Rami Spider-Man movies aged badly or that IM3 was good.
The first two Iron Man movies built up this solid theme of the armors & arc reactor being a problem as well as a solution. Tony let the cat out of the bag when he built the first ones, and now he's going to have to deal with bad guys either stealing from him or trying to out-compete him in the arms race. If you're sick of seeing armored villains by the third movie, fine, I get it, do something else but at least let it be semi-grounded in the real world, like the rest of what happens in Iron Man movies so far. But instead we introduce plant virus serum that gives you powers and makes you explode? To me, it wasted the threat build up of the first two movies. Might as well have had Tony fight aliens or something, that would have fit the Iron man series about as well as orange glowy Extremis goons.
I am floored that anyone thinks the first two Rami Spider-Man movies aged badly or that IM3 was good.
The first two Iron Man movies built up this solid theme of the armors & arc reactor being a problem as well as a solution. Tony let the cat out of the bag when he built the first ones, and now he's going to have to deal with bad guys either stealing from him or trying to out-compete him in the arms race. If you're sick of seeing armored villains by the third movie, fine, I get it, do something else but at least let it be semi-grounded in the real world, like the rest of what happens in Iron Man movies so far. But instead we introduce plant virus serum that gives you powers and makes you explode? To me, it wasted the threat build up of the first two movies. Might as well have had Tony fight aliens or something, that would have fit the Iron man series about as well as orange glowy Extremis goons.
Tony did fight aliens in Avengers, which is before IM.
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
I am floored that anyone thinks the first two Rami Spider-Man movies aged badly or that IM3 was good.
The first two Iron Man movies built up this solid theme of the armors & arc reactor being a problem as well as a solution. Tony let the cat out of the bag when he built the first ones, and now he's going to have to deal with bad guys either stealing from him or trying to out-compete him in the arms race. If you're sick of seeing armored villains by the third movie, fine, I get it, do something else but at least let it be semi-grounded in the real world, like the rest of what happens in Iron Man movies so far. But instead we introduce plant virus serum that gives you powers and makes you explode? To me, it wasted the threat build up of the first two movies. Might as well have had Tony fight aliens or something, that would have fit the Iron man series about as well as orange glowy Extremis goons.
Tony did fight aliens in Avengers, which is before IM.
That's what I was getting at. Aliens worked in Avengers but would have been out of place in IM1 or IM2. It felt like they made a clean break from the first two movies for IM3, while the lack of supernatural stuff was what I liked about them.
I am floored that anyone thinks the first two Rami Spider-Man movies aged badly or that IM3 was good.
The first two Iron Man movies built up this solid theme of the armors & arc reactor being a problem as well as a solution. Tony let the cat out of the bag when he built the first ones, and now he's going to have to deal with bad guys either stealing from him or trying to out-compete him in the arms race. If you're sick of seeing armored villains by the third movie, fine, I get it, do something else but at least let it be semi-grounded in the real world, like the rest of what happens in Iron Man movies so far. But instead we introduce plant virus serum that gives you powers and makes you explode? To me, it wasted the threat build up of the first two movies. Might as well have had Tony fight aliens or something, that would have fit the Iron man series about as well as orange glowy Extremis goons.
Tony did fight aliens in Avengers, which is before IM.
That's what I was getting at. Aliens worked in Avengers but would have been out of place in IM1 or IM2. It felt like they made a clean break from the first two movies for IM3, while the lack of supernatural stuff was what I liked about them.
I got ya.
The best parts about IM3 were definitely the Tony parts. How he dealt with the stress of his actions and how that affected his personal relationships with Pepper and Happy, as well as seeing him without a suit, was pretty good IMO.
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
+3
Options
DeadfallI don't think you realize just how rich he is.In fact, I should put on a monocle.Registered Userregular
I am floored that anyone thinks the first two Rami Spider-Man movies aged badly or that IM3 was good.
The first two Iron Man movies built up this solid theme of the armors & arc reactor being a problem as well as a solution. Tony let the cat out of the bag when he built the first ones, and now he's going to have to deal with bad guys either stealing from him or trying to out-compete him in the arms race. If you're sick of seeing armored villains by the third movie, fine, I get it, do something else but at least let it be semi-grounded in the real world, like the rest of what happens in Iron Man movies so far. But instead we introduce plant virus serum that gives you powers and makes you explode? To me, it wasted the threat build up of the first two movies. Might as well have had Tony fight aliens or something, that would have fit the Iron man series about as well as orange glowy Extremis goons.
Tony did fight aliens in Avengers, which is before IM.
That's what I was getting at. Aliens worked in Avengers but would have been out of place in IM1 or IM2. It felt like they made a clean break from the first two movies for IM3, while the lack of supernatural stuff was what I liked about them.
Eh, I dug IM3 for this exact reason. The extremis stuff seemed like the exact opposite of Iron Man; it wasn't a super engineer building science stuff, but a super scientist building chaotic nature stuff. I didn't see it as supernatural, just a "chaos theory" version of Stark.
There's nothing wrong with deconstructing the hero and spending some down time with him if the rest of the film makes up for it. But Pearce was just a shit villain with a bad backstory and bad plan and OP power set, he was a waste of a villain that they probably could have done something decent with if they had tried, and Gwyneth Paltrow saves the day. I've never watched it since seeing it in the cinema.
+1
Options
Inquisitor772 x Penny Arcade Fight Club ChampionA fixed point in space and timeRegistered Userregular
I shot him. Had no idea that was an option, but was so pissed off at the dialogue choices that I sat there for 10 minutes and was like...fuck it, and shot him. I didn't think it would actually do anything. But I was perfectly satisfied with my choice while the ending played out.
Posts
I don't know what you're talking about that certainly wasn't a post I wrote in the wrong tab, you crazy person that is crazy
I can guarantee you that I have never pooped 10 million pounds
I’m guessing Loki has played a “poops 10 million pounds” prank on Thor before
In Sandman there was in fact a poop prank involving those two. And also a squirrel.
Tonight I went back and watched Iron Man 1 for the first time in...six years? Seven years? Does that sound possible?
anyway.
Iron Man 1 was not that great.
I mean, I sort of remembered it, and I sort of recalled the bit with the reporter in the beginning, and the stewardesses and the pole in the private jet. Sort of. I certainly didn't recall the trans joke RDJ told about Rhodey in front of the Air Force guys. Or the Highlander Ending for the final battle.
On the other hand, it was cool to see Stark actually work on building towards the first suit in his basement, vs Avengers and so on when, at that point he probably had suits making suits all on their own. Everything felt more grounded in a traditional way-not a peep about aliens, or stones, or anything THAT outlandish. For making a movie about a metal flying man, they were remarkably restrained in their baby steps of getting an MCU off the ground.
It's almost incredible to realize that Agent Coulson really was there, with a cheaper haircut, right from the jump.
But man, it has aged. It has aged so badly, it probably feels closer to the first Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movie than it does to the modern Marvel stuff.
I'm watching them in order (I'm up to the Avengers)
Hot takes are Iron Man and Cap. were as good as I recall, Hulk and Thor were better than I recall and Iron Man 2 wasn't as good as remembered.
All in all, Marvel did an incredible job with their cinematic universe
But yeah, it's not particularly worse than any of the current Marvel fare even with 10 years worth of miles on its soul. The Marvel formula (which is kind of getting twisted these days) hadn't been solidified yet so it's a bit rough around the edges.
Even with that said the film is still in my Top 10, easy. The Raimi Spiderman movies aged very poorly because the film standards at the time were so fucking low. It's the same reason a good movie like Men In Black was hailed as amazing, when everything else at the time (at least for summer fare) was just shit. Movies these days don't get near the lows they were at in the early 2000's (some may say at the expense of the highs, but I disagree with that as well).
The first one was kind of bad villian wise and the third one, ugh
As a side note I am continuing the MCU chronological watch.
Completed:
Captain America: The First Avenger
Agent Carter Season 1
On episode 8 of season 2.
It's not a great show overall but Jarvis the butler, Howard Stark and the main character Peggy Carter are solid.
I may have developed a crush on Hayley Atwell.
What's crazy is that they ended up with the MCU formula purely by accident. They had some groundwork, but overall the movie was improvised.
Listen in the third one Harry gets multiple multiple headwounds with no issues.
The one time it isn't a head wound he dies.
How is this not a masterpiece
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
Add me!
Isn't it also where we got "so good" from?
I did not care for him in any way shape or form personally, but to each his own!
Jesus Christ what a creepy motherfucker.
Welcome to the club!
My memory of Iron Man 2 was that I didn't think it was that good, but watching it last night I really enjoyed it! It's just full of great performances. Robert Downy Jr. is just incredible, and every scene between him and Paltrow is gold. Gary Shandling does a lot with a little, and Sam Rockwell combines bravado, showmanship, and insecurity into a really entertaining and complex package which I don't remember appreciating previously.
It was really fun to see Black Widow's introduction here, and contrary to what seems to have become something of a consensus that the movie was dragged down by setting up Avengers, I thought it fit into the movie quite well (it could be that at the time, without all the rest of the MCU movies as context it was more out of place). I enjoyed Nick Fury, and I realize how much I've been missing him. It's simultaneously cool and jarring seeing Coulson in these movies.
IM2 rewatch verdict: I enjoyed it! RDJ is fun, Rhodes' recasting was handled well (I do love Don Cheadle), Sam Rockwell is loving it, Mickey Rourke is a national goddamned treasure and honestly maybe the best actor in the movie, ScarJo is kind of wooden tbh but w/e
Compliments:
I really like how IM has that running theme of 'we all create our own demons' - I'm happy to see a consistent message explored in different facets in one piece of media, let alone throughout a trilogy, and in this one it's done on a few levels - Stark against Vanko and a poisonous reactor / his resultant self-destruction are the obvious ones, but there's also Hammer with the drones/Vanko/his seething ressentiment/himself in general, Rhodes going along with the creation of War Machine with some reservations, maybe even Fury reaching out to Iron Man. Importantly: Hammer and Vanko are two different parts of Tony Stark, and I think the movie intelligently pairs them to stress that the two public parts of him - playboy cad and too-brilliant-for-his-own-good techmonkey - can also be interior demons. Hammer and Vanko are both reflections of the worst in Stark; and additionally what they become, to some extent, are created if not *by* him then *because* of him. They're warped by sizing themselves up against Stark in some ways.
But I thought there was a line in there that was specifically countering or challenging this theme, with Howard Stark speaking into the camera for his son, that Tony is his proudest creation. I think the focus on the human element is a nice touch in a IP that really tries to show off what we are capable of achieving with magicomputech.
I bought Vanko a lot more than I did the first time around - Mickey Rourke was a good casting: he sold the jadedness, swagger, and general insubordination (surprisingly?) well. I felt myself nodding along at the soundness of his vision of exposing Iron Man as vulnerable, undermining Stark's posited reasons for justifying his vigilantism (assisted by Stark's own self-destructive impulses). I also like how Vanko plausibly gets upgraded from a midgame elite mob to an endgame boss; there's no power-creep in that sense. Vanko's downfall being Tony/Rhodes using a Chekov Gun-move from earlier was good eating, and it was honestly what made me perk up a little bit and ruminate a bit on the movie. A much more satisfying end to a fight than Black Panther's, TBH.
The Hammer/Vanko teamup made sense, the plot made sense, Tony's central internal conflicts and external actions made sense. It wasn't really just MacGuffin or world domination plot stuff, there were solid motivations and goals that characters chose to pursue.
I get the blood poisoning = PG alcoholism complaints, but I thought that was a fine alteration. Either way, Stark has a subtle breakthrough about trusting others (Potts, Rhodes, his father, himself... and for Avenger purposes, SHIELD). I disliked SHIELD's inclusion into the movie, but given their larger-universe necessity, them giving Stark the tools needed to fix himself was fine and served the MCU's need to have Tony begin accepting the idea of the Avengers.
Complaints:
Even keeping in mind the giant MCU that exists today and trying to be forgiving, BW / Nick Fury / Coulsson being in this movie was just pretty much Avengers set-up and in IMO the movie does ultimately suffer from their inclusion. Their roles make the movie feel a whole lot less tied together and bloats it (Happy could've gotten Coulsson's temporary conservatorship; I'll talk more about Potts -> BW/Fury below). Although maybe you have to sacrifice the quality of early individual movies to strengthen the universe-building, because SM:HC is a whole lot better in hitting its theme with a Stark father figure, and maybe you don't really get to build one as good as Stark himself in a SH standalone (Raimi's SM2 was real good tho!).
Potts in this movie was an underutilized character. I think it should've been her standing up to Tony after his bday even after it's shown that he's kind of pushing her away due to his impending death - it would've given her some actual agency in the relationship depicted in this movie. It should've been her giving Tony his dad's old footage with his dad's message, plus that damn expo miniature is just sitting in her office! Also, showing her ordering around the police was a bit inexplicable?
Nitpicks:
Man there are a fuckton of offscreen civilian casualties in that extended, completely meaningless, groaningly obligatory expo shit at the end - thousands of rounds and dozens of missiles fired by the drones pretty much directly into the crowd, giant heavy shards of glass and concrete falling onto crowds, etcetc
And where are all the MNCs coming in with their own suits after IM2 and 3? There's no way that kind of shit isn't just universal by the time IM3 ends. Hell, even DoD's gotta have a reverse-engineered Arc Reactor after going through War Machine and Hammer/Vanko's tech
tldr: Vanko's in my top 5 MCU villains and not just because 90% of them suck
and the gengars who are guiding me" -- W.S. Merwin
It's like IM3's PTSD stuff, where the solution was for Tony to go through another traumatic situation and then get open heart surgery.
and the gengars who are guiding me" -- W.S. Merwin
In IM3 the solution for Tony was to stop trying to hide from his problems and instead face them head on and deal with them.
Iron Man 3 was almost my favorite IM film, because I really liked the theme of a vulnerable Tony, cut off from all of his resources, but still finding a way to make it work to answer the question: Is Iron Man Tony, or the suit? The PTSD stuff was pretty good too and IMO, was handled well.
I just couldn’t stand how ham fisted that final ending was and how it undermined Tony’s escape from being a prisoner through sheer villain stupidity. The movie implies there’s only a few of these super people, yet there’s like, thirty of them on the boat! Good thing they didn’t leave, perhaps one of them to guard Tony!
Also, when Killian is just mowing through Tony’s suits and is no selling all of his attacks, Pepper just tosses one of Tony’s own rockets and... that’s it. I was expecting Killian to rise out of the flames for Pepper and Tony to double team him, but nope! It’s over! And with a rocket Tony had the entire time and didn’t use for some reason!
Ug! Such great build up for such a wet fart of a climax.
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
Overall I think I enjoyed IM3 more than most, but I wouldn't dream of arguing it placing much higher than the middle of my list of the MCU flicks, and can respect why many would place it much lower.
It was perfect. Tossed out of his element, strength downgraded, no hammer, no way home, but he instinctively knows adulation and is fully prepared to smile for it.
Loki’s smile of that fond memory really sold it on me along with Bruce’s incredulity.
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
Stark's character bits are all great, though.
The first two Iron Man movies built up this solid theme of the armors & arc reactor being a problem as well as a solution. Tony let the cat out of the bag when he built the first ones, and now he's going to have to deal with bad guys either stealing from him or trying to out-compete him in the arms race. If you're sick of seeing armored villains by the third movie, fine, I get it, do something else but at least let it be semi-grounded in the real world, like the rest of what happens in Iron Man movies so far. But instead we introduce plant virus serum that gives you powers and makes you explode? To me, it wasted the threat build up of the first two movies. Might as well have had Tony fight aliens or something, that would have fit the Iron man series about as well as orange glowy Extremis goons.
Tony did fight aliens in Avengers, which is before IM.
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
That's what I was getting at. Aliens worked in Avengers but would have been out of place in IM1 or IM2. It felt like they made a clean break from the first two movies for IM3, while the lack of supernatural stuff was what I liked about them.
I got ya.
The best parts about IM3 were definitely the Tony parts. How he dealt with the stress of his actions and how that affected his personal relationships with Pepper and Happy, as well as seeing him without a suit, was pretty good IMO.
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
Eh, I dug IM3 for this exact reason. The extremis stuff seemed like the exact opposite of Iron Man; it wasn't a super engineer building science stuff, but a super scientist building chaotic nature stuff. I didn't see it as supernatural, just a "chaos theory" version of Stark.
xbl - HowYouGetAnts
steam - WeAreAllGeth
EDIT: IM3, but yeah, that too
I hear Spoit dislikes kids.
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
I felt that the whole section with the kid really drags down the rest of the movie.
I shot him. Had no idea that was an option, but was so pissed off at the dialogue choices that I sat there for 10 minutes and was like...fuck it, and shot him. I didn't think it would actually do anything. But I was perfectly satisfied with my choice while the ending played out.
Fuck you, kid.
Fuck you.