MCU Sunday #7: Iron Man 3

 

 Preface: As promised last year, I plan to review every single currently available movie in what is known as the  Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) over the year 2024. These will appear in order of their release over that time period. This is the seventh installment. (Oh, and by the way, after I've exhausted all of the currently available MCU movies I will be rounding out the year with some of the other available movies made from the Marvel comics pantheon.)

Notes: In each of the MCU installments you will be seeing references to two recurring events that occur in nearly every MCU movie.

Where is Stan Lee?: Stan Lee was the driving genius behind Marvel Comics.  He usually shows up in a cameo.  Sometimes these are so quick you gotta be sure you don't blink. Occasionally he gets a line  of dialogue.

And the Credits Roll: You should always stay in the theater for the credits when watching a MCU movie, because during the credits and at the end there is a teaser (or two) that is worth the wait.  Often they were a teaser for the next installment of the films.

 

 

 

 

The next movie in the saga after the dynamic coupling of our heroes in The Avengers was this little movie, and if you're keeping track this makes the third Iron man movie when the rest of the heroes have only had one apiece. (That would be rectified in the coming attractions.) 

The movie has some star power involved in it, including Ben Kingsley and Guy Pearce.  There was a lot of stuff that should have made this an attractive endeavor (and you will forgive me if I didn't fall into the reigning opinion that it succeeded...)

Have to admit by the time I slogged through Iron Man 3, I briefly considered abandoning the project.  (It was the first time sitting through it.)  But I knew in retrospect that there were several movies in the MCU pantheon still to come that redeemed my resolve to stick with it.

As I mention in the review, one of my big problems was a rather confusing plot.  The fact that the director, Shane black, had written the script or story for two of my favorite movies, Lethal Weapon and Lethal Weapon 2 gave me some hope for a better script.  Not sure what the problem was.  And once again, this is just me.  Maybe I am losing something that was there from the outset.

 

 

 

 

 

Iron Man 3 (2008) :

The film opens on a scene, New Year's Eve 1999. It starts out with a horrendous opening song, "Blue" by Eiffel 65, and if you can get past that it gets better, trust me. Tony (pre - Iron Man) is trying to hook up with a scientist, Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall), although not entirely for the reasons that Hansen wants to connect with him...  

In the process of his endeavor to satisfy his goals, Tony is interrupted by Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), another scientist who has some ideas he wants to present to Stark Industries, but, as usual, Tony is unreceptive, and blows him off.

 

Flash forward to present day.  After the events of the alien attacks on New York (see The Avengers), Tony is suffering from the effects of post traumatic stress disorder.  He has apparently been unable to sleep, and has been working night and day creating new Iron Man suits.

 

Meanwhile, his associate / girlfriend, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) meets up with a new and improved Killian.  He tries to get her involved in his project of working on improving the human brain.  But, once again, Killian is blown off.

In the mix is a terrorist organization led by a mysterious figure called The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley), The Mandarin is the ultimate in terrorist, a man with a grudge against the United States for slights against his people,  And he is going to make the U.S. pay, of course. Or maybe just the President whom he really seems to have a grudge against.

So Tony makes a threat to The Mandarin on live TV, that he to go mano a mano with him, and even gives his home address.  Not exactly the best idea Tony has had recently.  The Mandarin sends attack forces to blow up the domicile.  Leaving Tony apparently dead.  But he just relocated...

To Tennessee.  Where the first known "terrorist" bombing occurred, albeit one before The Mandarin came on the scene.  With the help of a young ally, Harley (Ty Simpkins). Tony tracks down the mother of the guy who initiated that first attack. (And this is the point where I started to get a little confused.  I think they were trying to jam way too much information into this part of the film.) 

 

The Mandarin makes another appearance, telling the President there are only two more lessons in his education, and executes a hostage, despite the fact that the President complies with his demand to use his cell phone to call.

Where is Stan Lee? For some reason a broadcast of a beauty pageant appears on TV.  Stan is seen in the audience,  giving one of the models a "10".

Now Tony is on the case, downloading information on Killian and his special work, which appears to be some sort of regeneration formula, near as I can tell.  But the things do not go smoothly in the lab tests.  But Killian is still able to find a buyer.  If you guessed The Mandarin, you are on target.

With Harley's help and the help of his A.I., J.A.R.V.I.S., Tony is able to pinpoint The Mandarin's broadcast location.  And it's not Syria, Pakistan, Iraq or even Timbuktu.  It's in Miami.  Unable to get his suit up to power, Tony makes a new one using stuff he finds at the local hardware store. (OK...)

But when Tony arrives at the HQ of The Mandarin, he finds out the the so-called "Mandarin" is a fiction created by some other entity.  The man who has been on TV as "The Mandarin" was in fact just an actor hired to take credit for the explosions.  (Confused?  It gets better... Maybe.)

So who is behind the scenes?  A maniac. (Or a visionary, if you believe him...) Killian.  (And why does Killian keep reminding of the pre-Riddler version of Jim Carrey's Edward Nigma? Maybe it was intentional.  Of course Guy Pearce is no match for the manic delivery of Carrey, but the similarities seem to be there...)

Of course, it's only after Killian, the REAL Mandarin, has apparently defeated Tony (despite the help of the two dozen or so Iron Man suits he has in his repertoire helping him) that he revels himself to be the REAL Mandarin.  But Tony still has an ace up his sleeve.  Even though it appears nothing is going to defeat Killian (that whole regeneration thing...)

 

So in the end, after Killian is no longer a problem, Tony destroys all the Iron Man suits. Or did he? Because after all this, Tony leaves us with a final line "I am Iron Man").  And no surprise there, because if you've looked ahead, Iron Man is STILL a factor in the future stories...

And the Credits Roll: The end of the movie shows us Tony talking to a "therapist".  Or at least Tony has convinced himself he is.  But as the other guy adamantly claims "I'm not that kind of doctor"...

OK, so after all this, Iron Man 3 does not rank all that high on my list.  Part of it has to do with I could never really get a line on the plot.  And I STILL don't know what Killian hoped to achieve with his tactics.  Unless it was to have a puppet government under his thumb.  It gets a good rating on most lists I looked at, so that may just be me, and I don't make any apologies for that.  

It did get nominated and even won a few awards.  Including an Oscar nom for Best Visual Effects (which was to be expected). It also won a couple of Saturn Awards ( a science fiction/fantasy award, in case you are unfamiliar.).  And I still don't know how Ben Kingsley beat out Benedict Cumberbatch for Best Supporting Actor for the latter's role in the Star Trek: Into Darkness film. Not that Kingsley is not a great actor, just that I don't think he brings it to the film this time.

Time to fire up the Plymouth and roll.  Drive safely, folks.

Quiggy