Iron Man 3 (2013)

Iron Man 3 (2013)

Release Date: May 3, 2013

The success of The Avengers put Marvel in a prime position for Phase 2, which kicks off with the return of Tony Stark. Iron Man 3 makes the decision to go darker and edgier, with a more personal story arc, an interesting decision after the escapist fun of The Avengers.

Quick note before I progress to the plot summary / riffing. We’re coming up to the most recent films now, with these ones being less than two years old, so from now on, I’ll put a little spoiler warning, just in case readers haven’t seen these films yet, but intend to. Granted, it may not be necessary with this film, since the big twist has joined the ranks of “Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker’s father” and “Bruce Willis is a ghost” among plot twists that everyone knows, but it’s good to get into the habit anyway. Veteran readers likely know how I do this by now, but the warning is there for the sake of any new readers who may start reading here.

Seriously Bender, that was uncalled for.

We last saw Tony Stark at the end of The Avengers where he flew into space with a nuke and set the Chitauri mothership up the bomb before going to get some shawarma. As it turns out, this has resulted in Tony developing PTSD and having nightmares and panic attacks, which have prompted him to build a whole load of new Iron Man suits to keep himself occupied, since not even Pepper moving in is enough to keep him sane. Happy Hogan, now working as Head of Security of Stark Industries, is suspicious of AIM leader Aldrich Killian, who suggests working with Stark Industries and puts the moves on Pepper, so he follows Killian’s bodyguard and is caught in a suicide bombing caused by the Mandarin, leader of the League of Shad- oh wait, wrong movie. Tony is hit hard by this, and has the bright idea of challenging the Mandarin to 1v1 him if he thinks he’s hard enough, giving Mandarin his address while he’s at it. This goes about as well as you’d expect, as Mandarin doesn’t play fair and sends helicopters to blow Tony’s mansion into the sea.

Tony is able to survive the attack on his mansion thanks to Jarvis sending him to Tennessee. There, Tony gets a young boy to be his sidekick and investigates the suicide bombings, discovering that they are caused by Extremis, a drug given to veterans who’ve lost limbs to regenerate them, in addition to gaining super strength and speed, and fire powers. The catch is that Extremis doesn’t always get along with the user, and if the body rejects it, they go boom. Extremis was created by an ex-girlfriend of Tony’s, who only intended the regeneration part, not the exploding or fire parts. Aldrich Killian worked with her, but didn’t iron out the exploding glitch, since he’s in the market for suicide bombers. Killian captures Tony and Pepper separately, gives Pepper Extremis, then kills the ex when she’s about to switch sides. Killian then explains he turned to the dark side after Tony snubbed him at a new year’s party.

I don't know about you, but this sounds familiar.

After escaping captivity, Tony teams up with Rhodey, who had been hunting for Mandarin himself on behalf of the government using his snazzy new Iron Patriot suit, but got captured and taken to the same place, with his suit being stolen by Killian’s lead henchman and used to kidnap the President. They find that Mandarin is there too, but he’s just a puppet whose strings are being pulled by Killian. Mandarin is revealed to be a struggling British actor named Trevor Slattery, acting the role of a terrorist leader to scare the citizens of the USA.

Tony and Rhodey find out where Pepper and the President are, but they’re heavily guarded by Killian and a small army of Extremis enhanced soldiers. Tony initiates the House Party Protocol and sics all his suits on the bad guys at once, while Rhodey proves himself to be a bad enough dude to rescue the president. Tony fails to rescue Pepper and she seemingly falls to her death, which drives him over the edge, sealing Killian in a suit and ordering Jarvis to self-destruct it. Killian survives because he’s actually a Terminator, but Pepper also survived because of the Extremis, and uses her newly gained superpowers to do her best Sarah Connor impression and destroy the K-800. Tony then detonates all of his suits since he didn’t have any fireworks on hand, and they all lived happily ever after. Even Mandarin gets a happy ending, since although he is sent to prison, his acting talent finally gets him recognised on the world stage by adoring fans. It’s amazing how quickly acts of terrorism are forgiven when you’re the toast of Croydon.

Before we go any further, the first thing that must be addressed is Mandarin. His film portrayal is very different from the comics, and has proven to be a source of controversy. In the comics, Mandarin is a real terrorist leader, as opposed to a fake like in the film. This change to the character is a big risk, but I think it works. A comic faithful portrayal wouldn’t have been accepted since comic Mandarin is a yellow peril, Fu Manchu type, so they would have needed to do something different anyway. In that case, well done to Marvel for going crazy with it, and for keeping the twist a secret until the film came out. The fact that nobody saw it coming, and it’s not the sort of thing anyone could guess, made it all the more hilarious when it finally hit. Trevor Slattery being the funniest character in the film when he’s out of character certainly helps.

 I liked movie Mandarin. #DealWithIt

 

As I mentioned earlier, this film has a darker tone to it than the first two Iron Man films. This is because the stakes are more personal this time, and Tony Stark is really made to suffer. This time around, he loses almost everything: his friends, his suits, and his mental health. The mansion attack in particular is terrifying, especially when Tony gets dragged underwater with a cable around his neck. Considering how cocky and relaxed Tony Stark normally is, seeing him of all people have panic attacks is actually surprisingly upsetting. Credit to Robert Downey Jr for making the attacks so convincing. It’s a relief that he gets two of the things listed above back at the end. The tone is comparable to The Dark Knight Rises, in terms of the emotional journey the protagonist goes through, before retiring from their destiny and starting a new life at the end. Feel free to make jokes about The Iron Man Rises or The Stark Knight Rises.

In this comparison, Mandarin is Bane because they both have silly accents and everything they say is quotable.

While the darker tone works for the character development, I’m not sure if it was as successful elsewhere. While this film does want to be something more than the previous popcorn entertainment, and that is to be applauded, I think maybe having the villains be suicide bombers was too big a step to take at once. We see that sort of thing constantly in the news, and I’m not sure Marvel is quite ready to tackle a topic that heavy just yet. These scenes, combined with Mandarin hijacking the airwaves to announce his next target, hit a little too close to home, given the climate of fear the world is currently in, and the fact that these things can and do happen, besides the fire powers of course. The first Iron Man film also had terrorists as the antagonists, but there was a lightness of touch there that helped detach it from reality just enough to avoid being disturbing, yet still pose a threat.

Though Tony Stark will continue to play a major part in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Iron Man 3 seems to be the end of his solo adventures, at least for now. Though it doesn’t beat the original, it does at least improve on Iron Man 2, since it tells its own story, as opposed to setting up the rest of the Avengers.

Stan Lee spotter: Stan Lee appears as a judge at a beauty pageant. Dirty old man, he is, judging the looks of a woman young enough to be his grand-daughter!

Next Time: Konichiwa, Hugh Jackman-san!

Bonus: We may not have seen the last of the Mandarin in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The short film All Hail the King reveals that there is a real Mandarin, and he is pissed at Trevor Slattery for impersonating him. Iron Man 4 for Phase 4, anyone?