I
think I always open movie reviews with, “I’m not sure how this is
going to go,” but it’s because my movie watching experiences tend
to vary wildly. This time around I saw the flick with the family. I
have never before watched a movie for the first time with my wife and
my son – not a grown-up movie that I actually cared about, anyway.
I
forgot the lesson I learned with Avengers,
which was that a five-year-old does not have the same standards of
movie pacing that I do. While I thought that Avengers
moved along at breakneck speeds the first time I saw it, I learned
that there is actually an enormous amount of people talking and not
doing superhero things while wearing superhero costumes. I know this
because it was pointed out to me by a five-year-old. Every couple of
minutes.
In
short – go see the movie by yourself first.
That
will also allow you to judge whether or not you even want your child
to see it. Lil’ Troublemaker has seen all of the Phase I movies.
Even Captain
America
against my better judgment (I didn’t want him seeing the scene
where the Hydra guy gets diced by the airplane propeller for obvious
reasons). He loves
Captain
America. I figured that Iron
Man 3
would maintain about the same levels and tone of violence and
language as the other movies, but it got a little heavier. For you
parents out there, here’s a rundown of things that I wished he
hadn’t seen/heard:
- “Pussy”, “son of a bitch”, and “g*ddamned” are each used once. Other than that there isn’t much bad language, but those are pretty bad (and unnecessary, though “pussy” was a pretty big laugh).
- Tony gets beat up a lot and there’s some minor bloodiness.
- There is a lot of graphic violence – including exploding people and dismemberment – but most of it happens to fairly cartoony supervillains. It’s still kind of rough, though.
- There are a few scenes of what basically amounts to torture. Also kind of rough. Not graphic, but definitely people in pain.
- Some scantily-clad ladies were also running around and there were a couple of references to adult naughty-time. Nothing overt. This didn’t bother me as much but your tolerance may differ.
Lil’
Troublemaker didn’t seem too upset by anything, though. He just
wanted Tony to put on the Iron Man suit and punch things. This,
honestly, is what we all want.
Since
I didn’t get to pay as much attention to the movie as I would have
liked, I’m going to avoid spoilers entirely and just give you an
idea of what we all thought of Iron
Man 3.
I don’t have any business writing one of my full reviews until I
see it again.
The
story was very, very good. I think every choice made regarding the
villain was a good one. I enjoyed the antagonist just as much as I
did Sam Rockwell in the second movie. And there was definitely a
thrill to seeing events unfold. There were plenty of things regarding
the plot that I went in totally unaware of and enjoyed the movie that
much more because of it. As a matter of fact, one of those things was
revealed in the materials that came with the Phase I Blu-Ray set that
I bought a few weeks ago and I didn’t even realize it at the time.
If you really want to know, go check out my Instagram photos on
Facebook.
The
story of Tony and Pepper’s relationship post-Chitauri invasion is
handled amazingly well. The characters behave in a realistic fashion
that is dramatic and yet never gets too heavy. The weight of Tony’s
heroism was communicated very well without ever bogging down the plot
or making his character too dark. It took a combination of a strong
script, good directing, and excellent work by the actors to strike
the right balance for this portion of the plot and they all nailed
it.
The
villain is brilliant and that’s all I’ll say.
The
supporting cast gets a bit more to do this time around. Happy Hogan
gets some good, character-building stuff. Rhodey gets a good number
of action-guy scenes and Don Cheadle handles them all like he’s the
real leading man (which I still hope to see someday). There’s
another supporting character that I won’t spoil that is a lot of
fun. He meets Tony maybe halfway through the movie and actually adds
a lot to the story.
Side
Note: It won’t happen, but I think they should do a team-up movie
with Cap and Rhodey. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Cap still
enlisted? I think that would be a lot of fun and a nice, unexpected
variation.
There
is a lot of truly hilarious comedy in this movie. Lots of physical
stuff. The whole theater was laughing out loud a bunch of times
throughout. It was fun to be a part of. Oh, and we saw it at 2:30 on
Sunday and the theater was packed.
I think this thing might make a little money.
The
effects were fantastic. There were some scenes with the Iron Man
armor that were absolutely mind-blowing – unlike anything I’ve
seen in a movie before. The way the suit interacts with Tony this
time around is incredible. There wasn’t one moment in the movie
where the CGI took me out of the story. It all looked amazing. There
were other elements that were equally breathtaking, but I can’t go
into them or I’ll spoil stuff.
Side
Note: I don’t want to go off on a rant here, but I fucking hate
movie trailers. They are destroying the intended momentum of many of
my favorite movies. The scene in Iron
Man 3
where all of the different armors showed up should have been one of
the high points of the movie and such an astonishing visual that the
viewer would carry that reveal with them for a very long time. The
movie certainly set it up that way. Instead, we all saw it in the
trailer and when it happened it was almost an anticlimax. This sort
of thing absolutely fills me with rage. Do you know what kind of
trailer Iron
Man 3
needed? This:
Seriously.
After the past five years of Marvel movies, do we really need
anything more? And we certainly don’t need things that spoil
portions of the movie. Although there were a good number of things
that were kept secret (somehow). I wouldn’t be surprised if they
come out by the time this posts.
The
climax of the movie was one hundred percent satisfying, though I did
have a problem with the very end. Something happened that didn’t
make any sense. I need to talk about it a bit, so I’m going to
surround it with spoiler warnings:
SPOILER*SPOILER*SPOILER*SPOILER*SPOILER*SPOILER*SPOILER*SPOILER
Okay,
so the big conflict with Tony and Pepper is that he’s freaked out
after fighting gods and aliens and has withdrawn and is spending all
of his time working on armor. She hates it. At the end of the movie,
he blows up all of the Iron Man suits for her. It’s stupid and
pointless because we all know that Avengers
2 is
happening and that he’s in it. And we also know he’s not going to
stop being Iron Man. And at the very end of the movie he even repeats
the post-cut line from the first movie – “I am Iron Man.” So
what the fuck? I didn’t like that and neither did Lil’
Troublemaker.
SPOILER*SPOILER*SPOILER*SPOILER*SPOILER*SPOILER*SPOILER*SPOILER
We
all enjoyed the movie. When I asked Lil’ Troublemaker what his
favorite part was, he said, “All of it.” Eventually he narrowed
it down to all of the suits fighting. I had a great time watching and
can’t wait to see it again. It created a new story while building
on what has come before. I had a few minor quibbles, but the only
major flaw I perceived was that it in no way – that is yet apparent
– set up any of the rest of Phase II. So don’t go in expecting
the first chapter of a new story. Iron
Man 3 actually
felt more like the epilogue to Phase I. But an awesome
epilogue.
4
out of 5
Go
see it as soon as you can and don’t let it get spoiled. The things
that surprised me were great
surprises.
-Phantom
SPOILER STUFF COMMENT!
ReplyDeleteI really thought that him destroying the armor at the end, then showing them taking out his arc reactor was going to lead to a final scene where he shows that he perfecting extremis and had injected himself with it like in the Ellis story line. They seemed to be setting it up with him working on parts of armor that fly at him. It would have been a great last scene to show it all coming out of his skin then the final pieces flying on.
They may do that in future parts. Pepper Potts can be assumed to be superpowered now, so it would make sense for him to be as well (she'd destroy him, if you know what I mean, without it.)
DeleteI recently watched the three "Predator" movies for the first time, so it was awesome to see the first dude who got killed from Ah-nald's team directing this movie. Bought "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang immediately" after seeing this movie.
ReplyDeleteShane Black is one talented dude.
DeleteI am so glad that I stayed away from all Iron Man 3 trailers. I felt that several surprises were ruined for me in Iron Man 2 because of the multitude of trailers giving away things that are supposed to be revealed in the story, and I didn't want that to happen again.
ReplyDeleteSPOILER-ISH STUFF: I knew less about this movie than any other Superhero/Sci-Fi film I've seen in the theater. Other than the Mandarin was the enemy, Iron Patriot was in it, and Pepper had armor on (which I inadvertently saw during a tv spot, but was glad to see that was not a big spoiler at all), I had no clue what to expect.
So, the scene with all the armors, I had no clue it was coming, and got a huge grin on my face when it happened. I did not know that this film was going to cover the Extremis story, and loved it. I was unaware Guy Pierce was in it at all, and had the nice surprise with his appearance in all his geeky glory.
I tell you, I hate that it takes effort to keep from spoiling movies. This movie doesn't need anything other than showing Iron Man flying around, and it would be a hit. Afterall, it is the third movie (forth, kind of) in a blockbuster series!
I'm really going to start making an effort to avoid trailers for things I want to see. I'm tired of powerful moments being ruined.
DeleteThis is the film to kick off the Summer Movie Season and it starts thing off pretty well. Good review.
ReplyDeleteThanks, man! I agree that Iron Man 3 got the blockbuster season off to a strong start. Star Trek is going to have to work hard to top it.
Delete