As many followers of this blog are aware, I love to write reviews for big summer movies (and also some smaller ones, to be sure). The summer movie season of 2013 kicked off this past weekend with Disney/Marvel/Paramount's "Iron Man 3" (disclaimer-I am a Disney stockholder-though that might not matter when you have read what I have to say). "Iron Man 3" is the first of what Disney has termed the Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 2 (Phase 1 having consisted of "Iron Man", "The Incredible Hulk", "Iron Man 2", "Thor", "Captain America: The First Avenger", and "the Avengers"). I enjoyed each of the prior films, including the much maligned "Iron Man 2"; however I was greatly disappointed with "Iron Man 3." Please read no further if you have yet to see the movie and abhor spoilers.
1. The Mandarin: The "big reveal" in this film is the fact that the character of the Mandarin (played by Ben Kingsley), the "evil genius" counterpoint to Tony Stark's Iron Man, is an actor hired to play the part in order to hide the identity of the real villain of the piece, Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce). In explaining the reasoning behind this fundamental change to Iron Man's longtime comic book nemesis, Direct Shane Black and Marvel Films head Kevin Feige went on record stating that the character, as originally conceived in the comics, was a relic of the cold war and was a cartoonish and offensive representation of a moustache-twirling Chinese villain, the ultimate Communist counterpoint to Tony Stark's capitalist Iron Man. However, I call laziness! As a fan of comics, nothing irritates me more (when watching a comic book-based film) when a filmmaker decides to make wholesale changes to characters under the guise of "this is better" or "this will not work with audiences." If that is the case, then why use the comic book as a basis for anything? Why not create your own intellectual property instead of a bastardized version of someone else's? The truth behind the filmmaker's decision to make the Mandarin a buffoon of an actor really lies in Disney's desire to avoid antagonizing the Chinese, who have one of the most lucrative (yet tightly controlled) film distribution businesses in the world. Look no further than how Disney kowtowed to the Chinese by shooting specific "Iron Man 3" scenes catered to the Chinese audience which can ONLY be seen on Chinese screens. There is also a gaping plot hole regarding this little plot device. In one of the "Mandarin's" televised appearances, he shoots a man in the head on live television-however later, when Stark confronts the actor playing the Mandarin, he insists that he is an actor with the belief that no harm really came to anyone (nevermind the news bulletins of mass murder caused by the Mandarin's organization). Stark takes this at face value, but THE FACT THAT THIS ACTOR KILLED SOMEONE IN COLD BLOOD ON TV IS NEVER ADDRESSED! An easy plot fix for this character, if Marvel really wished to avoid offending the Chinese, would be to make the Mandarin a militant born out of Tibet, whose hard upbringing during the time of Chairman Mao caused him to lash out against the world (with a special hatred for the Chinese) as revenge for all of the pain they had caused him. It would make sense, then, for the Mandarin to team up with Aldrich Killian, an arms dealer, to wreak havoc on the world. this would have been a great opportunity to also introduce a Chinese hero to work with Iron Man to take down this combined threat-working together for the good of all. I really did miss my calling...is it too late for me to become a screenwriter?
2. Maya Hansen: This is the woman who created Extremis and started working for Killian in the belief that he would be able to help her research reach its maximum potential. The sequence of events is: 1) Hansen and Stark sleep together one New Year's Eve, and Stark leaves an equation by her bed that helps her research; 2) Hansen joins AIM (Killian's group); 3) 14 years go by, during which time the Mandarin threat makes itself known; 4) Hansen kidnaps Pepper in an attempt to kidnap Stark so that he can continue to help her; 5) a 5 minute conversation with Stark is all that is needed to turn her to the side of the good guys and 6) Killian shoots and kills Hansen immediately thereafter. Her storyline MAKES NO SENSE. In the real world, Hansen would have used Stark's equation and applied for a grant/research position with Stark International. She would not have allowed 14 years to go by in following up on the equation. And, if she had spent 14 years working on something she believed in, a 5 minute conversation would not have been enough to "turn her good." This was ridiculous.
3. the Iron Man armor: Call me crazy, but when I watch a film called "Iron Man", I should be able to expect sequences when Tony Stark as Iron Man is kicking villainous ass with the latest and greatest technology. What I do NOT expect to see is: 1) action sequences when the armor is being remote controlled by Stark; 2) armor sequences where there are no special abilities of the armor highlighted; 3) at least ONE sequence when the armor actually functions as it should. Let's look at the remote controlled aspect. One of the big action sequences of the film is a midair rescue of a lot of civilians in free fall from Air Force One. Stark REMOTELY CONTROLS the armor during this time. I do not buy this. For one, Stark's armor of choice is his glitchy Mark 42 armor. Secondly, as anyone with even a FUNDAMENTAL KNOWLEDGE of how remote controls work, the possibility of interference of the signal controlling a remote controlled piece of machinery is exceedingly high. Did the filmmakers actually believe that Stark would take such a chance that something like a solar flare would NOT interfere with his control of the armor. Not to mention the fact that Stark was STILL EXPERIMENTING with his remote control set up-so you trust THAT TECHNOLOGY-that has already been shown to be glitchy-with the lives of over a dozen people. No-I call BS. The armors in this film also had all of the character of a battering ram. There were no special attributes on display at all-no cool lasers, no beams-I am still waiting for a sequence where Stark fires a repulsor beam from his chest plate-something that was front and center in the comics. Also-the fact that Tony had all of that armor within easy reach while he was lost in the middle of nowhere strikes me as a bit odd, Are you telling me that when he was waiting for his Mark 42 armor to recharge, a supergenius such as himself could not have figured out a way to bring one of his other 41 suits of armor to his location? Really? Please...and would it be too much to ask for ONE Iron Man film where the climactic fight is NOT held at night? A daytime fight, with sunlight dancing off of the armor, would be so cool...why does each film end with a night fight?
4. Extremis/Aldrich Killian: OK-I get that Killian is supposed to be the dark side of Tony and that AIM is what Stark International might have been had Tony never been captured in Afghanistan. However, why combine the villain with Extremis? In the comics, the Extremis technology allows Stark to store a lot of his armor within his body and call it out when necessary-very cool biotech. Here, it allows the villain to breathe fire. What? Why even give Killian superpowers at all? Why not have the fights focus on the Mandarin and Iron Man, and have Killian get away at the end of the movie (as most wealthy villains do in real life)?
There are many other aspects of the film that irritated me (Rhodey's character, Pepper Potts, the tacked on epilogue that had Tony curing himself and then tossing a dangerous weapon (his personal arc reactor) into the water), but these are the big points. As someone who loved the film "The Avengers", I was really curious to see where the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe would take me. So far, I am unimpressed (though they did get the CHARACTER of Tony Stark correct...at least there is that...).
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