!!!

[redbrunja]

Let's start at the end:

• Bruce being in the end tag was brilliant. When the screen cut to black I legit whoop-shrieked.


• What this movie did brilliantly - so, so brilliantly - was take away in very, very believable ways, all of Tony's tools, so you really rooted for him.


• THE BANTER, MY GOD, THE BANTER. TONY WITH THAT KID IN NEBRASKA OR WHEREVER. TONY WITH THE FIRE-CHICK. TONY WITH PEPPER, THE ONE THING HE CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT.


• In general, this was just a much, much tighter movie than Iron Man 2, minus the self-indulgent air force one scene and the ridiculously over-long and confusing climax.


• I'm not sure how I feel about Tony getting the arc reactor removed from his chest.


• Because I saw the trailer, I knew Pepper was going to survive her fall - so I spent all the minutes just counting down until she showed up to kick ass. I kind of wish that had been a surprise.


• But Tony and Pepper's banter! THEIR BANTER.


• Stiles' dad! Jaye's dad! ...maybe Juno's dad?


• Also, I feel like Pepper and Tony should never have a biological kid? Can you imagine how obnoxious he would be when Pepper was pregnant? Or delivering the kid? Ugh, Pepper would have to get Natasha to forcibly remove Tony from the hospital. I think Tony is EPICALLY BRILLANT uncle material, though.


• This movie was ridiculously Christian and America-centric. Like, unbelievably. And I don't think having the Mandarin be a ploy totally made up for that? I'm surprised it did as well as it did for foreign audiences.

Comments

[qualapec.livejournal.com]

Basically? In all honesty, there were things I either really really loved or really really hated in this movie. There were a lot of moments that I absolutely loved and were perfect and hit every mark, but as a whole? There are a lot of things I'm deeply 'meh' about, too. I'll have a full post on my LJ probably, but Pepper was by far my favorite part of the movie. I also loved the banter and all the little character moments to pieces, but so far I'm not sold on the overall plot one bit. l might feel differently after I see the movie a second time, but for now I'm looking at it only as something to cradle the smaller moments, not as something that had a lot of internal consistency.

I do think the Mandarin as the construct of a white guy, planned to be everything that white people were afraid of, was a brilliant move. It was kind of disappointing, since they were billing him as the main villain, and a part of me thinks it would have been more interesting to have Killian and Mandarin both be the final bosses, but as it stands it was a surprisingly excellent commentary on how narratives portray "terrorism".

Also, there was WAY too much action to be honest. I left feeling kind of shellshocked, so I'm still kind of having a hard time organizing my thoughts/reactions in full and pulling the movie into the larger MCU narrative.

And I just flat-out have no idea what to make of Tony not having the arc reactor anymore (and I honestly think it was kind of a stupid decision, since the arc reactor is SUCH a recognizable bridge between Tony and Iron Man). HOWEVER, it left me feeling very hopeful about how far the MCU is willing to go to differ from comics canon, which is something I've been arguing for for the better part of a year. Other aspects of the ending were confusing and wrapped up way too quickly/ambiguously.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

I've been skeptical about the Mandarin since rumors of the movie, and when I watched it, I kept thinking "this doesn't make sense" because his videos were too vague, his nationalistic iconography too confusing and muddled. Was he Asian or Middle Eastern? We're those Arab kids? I thought the whole thing looked rather shamefully sloppy... and it turned out, those were deliberate errors. Because it was all a facade. It was an interesting choice.

I'm really glad the trailers didn't spoil the glowing lava soldiers. Which, btw, we're insanely neat in terms of CGI.

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

I really like the Iron Man movies in general and think the writing is generally sharper than pretty much all the other action hero movies I've seen. Part of it is that RDJ is just perfectly cast for this role. I can't imagine ANYONE playing it so well and I'm not even a particularly big fan of his or whatever. (I also generally kind of dislike Gwyneth Paltrow for shallow "she's too perfect" reasons and she's palatable as Pepper but I think the movies have kind of also cashed in on the Paltrow perfection and even made it LITERALLY CANON here with "she's already perfect").

And I liked this one too, especially the bits with the kid and Guy Pearce's ridiculously over-the-top Hollywood-movie ploy with Ben Kingsley. But.... I had some conflicting issues about the overall arc for Tony....

I didn't really like that they blew up all the suits or that he lost his reason for becoming Iron Man. I got what they were saying about it being a crutch/armor/distraction, but...Pepper being so glad he got rid of them all felt a bit like her not accepting him for who he was. I guess I thought the "I can't sleep"/PTSD/Panic attacks was actually not very well fleshed out. The suits and being Iron Man was what he was before all the Avengers shit happened so if he was just taking it to an extreme...why couldn't he just realize he could calm the fuck down now? Blowing up the suits and suddenly having convenient surgery that he couldn't figure out how to do before...meh. I didn't like that bit. I'm not sure why they un-super-ized him honestly unless they were done. But they're not.

Also I was v. disappointed about making Rebecca Hall a quasi-villain. Not only was the scene with Pepper probably the first Bechdel Test passing scene in any of these damn movies that was longer than 30 seconds, but..THERE WAS EVEN SLASHY VIBES. Instead of a standing-in-for-slash Bromance, we got a standing-in-for-slash WOmance!! (And I don't even care personally because I never really slash anything but then....I felt they kind of ruined it all by making it a facade and Hall being actually evil/in on the plan. Especially since they didn't really even commit all the way to it and then they turned her back quasi-good for a bit. I'm sure it was supposed to come off as complex/layered characterization for her but...it just ended up annoying me.

Other than those bits though I did really enjoy it. I probably should make a post now that I've vomited my opinions all over your LJ. ;)

Oh wait.... AND... I was hoping the supernova Pepper would turn her into some kind of superhero for good, but they reversed it. :( I remembered your post saying she becomes a superhero of her own in the comics but I guess in the movies she'll always be essentially Tony's nanny/secretary. :/

[lady-with-cats.livejournal.com]

i was so 'omg' when pepper turned around and then she was like, "who's the hot mess now?". just. you both are so made for each other, haha.

i thought beyond the mandarin turnaround - which i enjoyed immensely - the movie was rough on "american politics" but not in a way that really damning/beyond surface level? the president's a dick, the vp is corrupt, and yet. that's as far as the commentary goes. and i guess you could argue they don't really have time to go into the political landscape of the mcu!america but if they really wanted to talk about reactionary politics then they could have worked it in. you've got captain america floating around again, that's got to say something.

[mistaria.livejournal.com]

I really loved it. The only thing I was worried about going in was the Mandarin because I'd heard his characterization was racist in the comics so the way they totally faked us out was fantastic. I love that Tony had to deal with his trauma and that he was forced to fight out of the suit in so many scenes. And Pepper! Pepper! Also HOLY at Paltrow's abs! Daaaamn gurl! I can't say I like that they got rid of the arc reactor but I was glad they ended it by him saying "I am Iron Man." The growth of Tony in all these movies has been so well done and I love that we saw Pepper and Rhodey (less so Rhodey) playing a role in that. Also I liked that they showed Tony not at all concerned about Pepper's meeting and that they showed her doing business as CEO and the Forbes cover.

Bringing in Bruce at the end was fantastic! I was hoping to see more of his/Tony's friendship and was hoping they'd do it in a way that didn't detract from his other important relationships so this was perfect.

Can't wait to see it again. :]

[lokifan]

This movie was ridiculously Christian and America-centric. Like, unbelievably.

Huh. I thought it was very US-centric, but actually not as much as Iron Man. That film actually makes me quite uncomfortable to watch. This one was pretty much on par with most American blockbusters, I thought. Although that might have been influenced by my having seen The West Wing now, so I wasn't like "what is an Air Force One?" :)