Iron Man 3 Review

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The critics are calling the best Iron Man ever

Wow, what's this? It's epic a thrill ride and

now it's the number one movie in the world. That's

awesome. You're welcome Iron Man 3 with a PG

-13 now playing Hello and welcome to MWIRE movie

weekend review brought to you by the GeekCaster

Radio Network. I am one of your hosts, Steve

Joe and Mike. Joining me is Steve Megatron. Hello.

Hello. And movie revolt Dan. Hello. How's it

going? It's going. And today, tonight, whenever

you listeners are listening to this, we are going

to be doing a special episode here in MWIRE before

we get to another superhero later next week.

We are going to be talking about Iron Man 3,

specifically. Before we get to that, we're gonna

just do overall thoughts on the trilogy to this

point. Just kind of do some general chatting

about it. Steve, what do you think of the first

two films? Honestly, I think the first one was

really good. The second one... I kind of understood

it, but it was more of a stepping stone for the

Avengers film Right. I don't feel that the second

film was as strong Despite the variations in

the suits and the Introduction of war machine.

I mean it was still it was still great don't

be wrong, but I think that first film still stands

tall Up until this one that is Yeah, well, we'll

get to that a little bit later. What about you,

Dan? What's your opinion on the first two films?

Well, it's similar to Steve. I loved the first

one. I remember seeing that back in 08 and being

amazed by it. Just seeing Iron Man come to the

screen was something I never really thought would

happen. He's not a necessary character that...

I ever thought would actually get a real movie

and when it finally happened I was very pleased

and loved Robert Downey Jr. and the role, just

that entire world that they created that really

made Marvel the more cinematic world that we

know today that I think it was well established

in Iron Man. The second film, I think it's okay.

It suffers from a lot of issues, a lot of plot

elements that really don't go together. It throws

a lot out there, a lot of... The actors feel

underutilized, like Sam Rockwell and Mickey Warwick.

Their characters kind of don't really seem to

have much going on in that film. I do like the

action there. I think the action overall is going

to be better in the second film, but as a cohesive

film, not as strong. But yeah, I think I rank

Iron Man to the top of the Marvel films. I rank

Iron Man to probably near the bottom. See if

you're gonna rank it amongst the other Marvel

films that's It's kind of unfair because Some

of the other Marvel films were not the Marvel

Studios brand they were Fox or Sony or whatever

else no get me wrong They're Marvel characters.

They are Marvel's, but you know it has the Marvel

brand on it But I was just I was just making

up the Marvel as the Avengers films like Iron

Man or just the ones that Marvel made themselves

See I I would I'm not gonna put Iron Man 2 as

high as some people might think but I enjoyed

it a lot I thought it was It's easily better

than the Incredible Hulk I think most of the

Marvel movies are better than the two Hulk films

Yeah, the two Hulk films and Elektra and Punisher

Warzone are the four that I just... But again,

those had nothing to do with the current Marvel

fans. Well, Incredible Hulk did. Yes and no.

Well, it... It was made by them. It was made

by Marvel Studios, so... The thing about Iron

Man was everybody, even me, I was... like you

did I wouldn't have never thought that Iron Man

would be someone to get a big screen APU and

you know say what you want about you know X -Men

and Spider -Man and everything else and having

those classic characters on screen but this pretty

much in 2008 this put Marvel on the map in filmmaking

and that first movie is so awesome it has everything

you can want in a comic book superhero type movie.

It has a tragic hero who does have some questionable

qualities to maybe some mainstream viewers. And

it has a devious villain in Obadiah Stane and

the Ironmonger armor and all that stuff and it

was just such a great movie. Iron Man 2 for me,

one of the reasons why I like it so much is it

reminds me so much of the Armor Wars storyline

both in the comics and in the 1994 cartoon series

I do agree that whiplash was very underutilized

I mean he's essentially relegated to being a

lackey I've never cared even it doesn't matter

what version it is whether it's the old man version

like in the 94 cartoon or the young man version

that they're kind of portraying now. Justin Hammer

is the biggest fucking tool in the Marvel universe

when it comes to villains. He's lame. He is just

ugh. And even though Sam Rockwell's a great actor

and he pulled it off, he pulled off Justin's

lamocity, it just doesn't matter. You could put,

uh, well I would say... Gary Goldman in the role,

but he's no longer with us. You could put anybody

in the role of Justin Hammer and no one could

save that role from the character traits that

the character has at all. And I do agree that

Iron Man 2 is essentially setting up for Avengers,

but it did have its... For me, it did have its

opening, you know, it did have its... It's interesting

moments. I like the story that is progressing

with with Tony and Pepper I Will say from Iron

Man 1 to Iron Man 2 Between those two films.

I just wanted a bitch slap Coulson. I could not

stand that character at first after seeing it

multiple times I and obviously knowing what happens

to him in Avengers Which will be retconned in

the Agent of S .H .I .E .L .D. television series

apparently You know I I got to like the character

but the first two films were First film was amazing

second film was good, but it's not like it's

no spider -man 3 Yeah, it's no spider -man 3

It's also I would say it's no spider -man 2 either

it's usually up to that point the trend for comic

book movies x -men spider -man I would say the

the sequel tends to exceed the original because

once you have that solid origin you can tend

to Kind of expand upon that universe further

and I think in a way Iron Man 2 kind of was inhibited

by the fact that it was really an Avengers origin

in some ways So it wasn't able to do that But

I think we in a way Iron Man 3 which we'll talk

about feels more like a direct sequel than Iron

Man 2 does Oh, no, it does. It very much does.

A couple of the things that bug me about the

Tony Stark character in the films is, like, sitting

in the donut. Like, Iron Man 2, what bugs me

is when he does stuff in the suit. Like, the

party, peeing in the suit, you know, sitting

in the donut. that kind of stuff bugs me i see

iron man 2 as tony needing to reinvent himself

and to save himself from dying other than that

you know and obviously it is to set up the avengers

but i mean that's between iron man 2 and iron

man 3 it's like and i'll bring this up later

You're a super genius. Why haven't you been able

to work out this very simple thing? And I'll

speak about that later, because it's kind of

spoilery right now. Overall, Dan, are these,

are the first two films, or at least the first

film, are these films something you can watch

on repeat, like every couple of months or so?

I don't know if there's really any film I can

watch every couple months or so. But I do tend

to watch. I mean, I've watched Iron Man. I don't

know how many times. It's either FX or one of

those channels. I think I play it constantly.

And I'll throw it on here and there. Iron Man

2 is when I will maybe, if certain scenes are

there, I do enjoy the battle sequence between

Iron Man and War Machine and all those droid

bots. I do like that a lot. And some of the action

moments I might stick around. but typically I'll

skip it. But if Iron Man's on TV or I see it,

I'll tend to gravitate towards it and rewatch

it because I just love a lot of the humor and

seeing kind of Robert Downey Jr. kind of establishes

himself as Tony Stark. I think that was some

of the best aspects of the first film. What about

you, Steve? Are these rewatchable for you? I

would say, yeah, the first one more so than the

second one, just because I don't really I feel

like a lot of it was underutilized and it was

just like Dan said, kind of setting up the Avengers

film and not really, it didn't feel like a true

sequel to the first one. So yeah, I don't care

for the second one as much. It's not bad. I would

rather watch that over watching, for instance,

Thor or Incredible Hulk or... I've seen Thor

exactly one time and it was on a Ustream broadcast

of someone in a theater. Who saw that? I saw

Thor exactly one time. It was someone sent me

a link to a Ustream channel or someone was Ustreaming

the film live as they were sitting in the theater.

Yeah, Thor. Don't even... No, don't get me started.

For me... I can watch them both. Do I act? I'm

more so like Dan is with the second film. I like

Iron Man 2, don't get me wrong, I do. But if

it comes on TV, and as much as it's come on TV,

because over the last... We're recording this

May 8th. Over the last two weeks, FX has been

running superhero mode. A couple weeks ago they

had Superhero Sunday where they pretty much...

aired every Marvel movie that they have rights

to. The Spider -Man movies, I think they aired

Incredible Hulk a couple of times, and they aired

Superhero Sunday. It was a couple weeks ago.

They aired to do a finale for the night. They

played Iron Man and Iron Man 2 back to back.

So I was pretty much set up and ready to go.

For Iron Man 3 without having to like go to iTunes

or you know Break out the DVDs or whatever else

as far as watching the films and a lot of these

things I Know it's kind of a money grab. Obviously.

It was a money grab when they did Avengers, but

theaters will do Marathons You know they had

the when Avengers came out they had all six movies

You know people could go to these events Where

it was an all -day event and watch all of the

movies leading up to Avengers Which I think that's

interesting and cool For Iron Man, I would have

liked to have done it, but it wasn't being done

in any of the theaters in my area But I don't

think I could have gone An all -day thing for

six films I've theater hopped in my day, but

that's a little much all at once I've done it.

I've done it for the Marvel film is what I've

done it a few times for other things It is kind

of a cool experience seeing it like that. I think

it's it's the fact that all this is all these

films I've Come out not very recently and we've

kind of had Almost Iron Man every summer even

if he's not in his own film He's kind of popped

up here and there and other places. So I think

it's it's less effective. But one is something

like, you know Of a sequel that's been out for

a while and you're finally the trilogy is finally

ending. I think it's more effective But yeah

when it's like you were gonna go see the Avengers

again, like I just saw it last summer So it's

kind of it's less enticing. I think yeah, I think

for me with with Tony Stark and Iron Man, it's

With the after credit it depends on what the

after credit scene is the only after credit scene

I will besides the one that's in Iron Man when

he goes back to the house at the end of the movie

The only other credit scene so far that he's

been in was In the Incredible Hulk at the end

of that and I don't think and it's not there's

nothing to do is Down he's acting at all. I just

don't think Tony Stark is a character for a one

-off Comedic scene like that where Nick Fury

approaches him tells him he needs him to do this

this and this yes He does have funny lines equips

like for me like the comedic type of scene is

like with Wolverine, Hugh Jackman playing Wolverine

and like in X -Men First Class where he's basically

in the movie as one cameo is eh fuck off he's

talking to Xavier you know um you know I think

Wolverine kind of fits the more like one -off

cameos I love the after credit sequences I love

that they're doing that now and I know it's just

a ploy for people to stay through the credits

you know just to make you stay until it hits

the blue screen to death at the end of the movie

but now the first Iron Man movie has everything

the second one's good it does set up Avengers

and Let's take a quick break and we're going

to get to our very spoiler heavy thoughts on

Iron Man 3. We'll be back after this. Heroes.

There is no such thing. I'm Tony Stark. I build

neat stuff. I got a great girl and occasionally

save the world. So why can't I sleep? You're

not a man. You're nothing more than a maniac.

So we are back and we've all gone to see Iron

Man 3 I've seen it twice. Since it came out I

assume you guys have only seen it once yeah,

I've only seen it once I've seen it once yes

I've told this story. I think I told it off air,

but and people will laugh at me like oh That's

that's too much money just to do this this and

this but the way I look at it is I had to eat

Red Baron was offering a by four pizzas And you

enter codes online, you get a free movie ticket.

So I did that twice. So I got two free movie

tickets for Iron Man 3. Even though I spent like

40 bucks on frozen pizza, but that's alright,

you know. Dummy ass. I am sor - well, I had to

eat, so hey, you know. A lot of sodium. It's

like, do you like penicillin on your pizza? Yes,

a Ninja Trolls reference in an Iron Man movie

review. You're just terrible with your puns.

Shut the hell up. Oh boy. Steve, what were your

thoughts going into this? After seeing Avengers

and then starting with... Technically, this starts

Marvel's Phase 2 movies. Honestly, I wasn't quite

sure what to expect. I knew going in that all

of the various Iron Man suits would be used.

I knew the Extremis line would be used. wasn't

too familiar with a lot of the other variables

in the film but I kind of had a direction of

what was going to happen as far as some of the

armor stuff and Tony and whatnot yeah Dan what

were your thoughts going into it I was a little

apprehensive not because I didn't think it was

gonna be any good just because of Looking at

the Avengers and looking at like the four -year

build -up that was and like what a huge achievement

That movie was a loved it was great and then

coming into this. It's kind of like, okay We're

gonna try to do this all over again. It's like

clown climbing Mount Everest, you know enjoying

that That adventure then getting halfway down

and realizing. Oh, we got to go back up again

It's like we just kind of did it like is it going

to be the same and I was that was kind of my

worry And after seeing all these characters together,

is it going to work seeing them by themselves

now? Am I just going to be wishing that they

were back at the adventures? So that there is

like a lot of questions I had if marbles going

to be able to kind of repeat the success that

they did last time So that that was my kind of

big worry. It's like can it can it can they do

it again? because it's it's quite a challenge

to do it the first time and now you're going

to try to Top yourself even further and as we

know with sequels that in trying to do all these

different sequels who knows what will happen

so For me Everyone knows it's just the way I

am. I will probably never change this I Make

my first impressions on whatever major trailer

is released I don't I tend not to make judgments

on just like a 30 second or a minute teaser I

wait until the quote -unquote full theatrical

trailer is released and I have never read any

I know Steve you've read some of the Iron Man

stuff in the comics I have never read any of

the Iron Man stuff in the comics I basically

know it from the 94 cartoon series and just from

what people have told me and when I first saw

the theatrical trailer where Peppers in the suit.

I just did a head desk. I was like no no no no

no Because it looks I Don't have a problem with

her being in the suit it depends on what the

situation was and obviously the trailer is not

gonna tell you Obviously now that I've seen the

movie. I understand why it happened, but just

that first image of her being in the suit and

Having the face played up. It just it looks too

strange to me But I went in with this expecting

awesome things like Steve said pretty much Almost

all the armors make debuts on screen Absolutely

loved it After seeing it twice and reading several

reviews and listening to several different podcast

reviews about it Gotta say this is like a live

-action Incredibles movie Explain I don't I don't

see that I don't either you guys don't see it

no no Killian is Incrediboy grows up to be syndrome

Okay, so he has hero worship, but still No, no,

no, but what I'm saying is, yeah, that's what

I'm saying. I'm saying other people have said

this, and I see it now. What they were talking,

at first I was like, no, what are you talking

about? Why would it be like the Incredibles?

But Killian had this whole hero worship thing

back in 99. Tony basically said, ah, screw you.

And then he turns into, quote unquote, the Mandarin.

So I'm not saying it's a bad thing about the

movie. It was just something that I had heard

and I was like, oh, yeah, that's interesting

I don't know. It's not like the Incredibles keep

that that story element of the Incredibles was

more of a reflection of others classic hero tales

like that idea of some sort of character and

then kind of turning on that person. Oh yeah,

no, no, no. I'm not saying that hero worship

was a new thing for the Incredibles. I'm just

saying that I heard someone on another podcast,

I don't remember what show it was, but someone

say that it reminded them of, that's what it

reminded them of. That was the first thing that

they thought of was the Incredibles. I'm not

saying that hero worship is something new here

at all. So the basic plot behind this is that

the Mandarin is attacking places all over the

world and Aldridge Killian is trying to get this

brain mapping done and Tony is having issues

with the after effects of what happened in the

Avengers What do you think of the plot Steve

overall? Well, I would say that There was a lot

of kind of moments that were Not really coherent

at points Okay, well, I mean they they're They're

either really long drawn out ways of doing things

That could have been done really quickly or things

that were done really quickly that could have

been done done a little bit more drawn out Hmm

Yeah, I noticed both times in the theater that

I went to I went to the same theater That I don't

think it's the theater that did this. I don't

think it's the the projection It's how the movie

is paced When it starts it starts with a black

screen and Tony talking and then it cuts into

the film, you know 1999 But every time there's

a scene like that, it's almost like they're trying

to cut for a commercial to me I think it's more

of a harkening back to like that Style is more

kind of knowing Shane Black as a writer is kind

of the classic new Irish kind of, you know self

-reflection narration that you see often with

those type of films. So I actually really like

that aspect of it having kind of, because Tony

Stark is the perfect person to kind of have a

conversation with himself because he's that egotistical.

So kind of placing him within that type of dialogue,

I appreciated. And I thought when those elements

were there, when you could see that it was kind

of placing the superhero film into You know not

common ground that we've seen telling time and

time again when the story went that direction.

I really liked it but um, there are there are

certain plot elements that are messy. I mean

it does Similarly to iron man 2 there are all

these separate characters that they try to tie

together and trying within like they're Within

trying to kind of have some twists and turns

certain things Become a little questionable like

where characters are when certain events happen

if like if that person is actually on that guy

side like Rebecca Hall's character if if she

is really on the side of Guy Pierce like why

why is she at Tony Stark's mansion when that's

getting destroyed? It's kind of like well, why

why is that going on? Because she should know

what's gonna happen. But within that I guess

they do try to explain it And with some throwaway

dialogue, but if you try to nitpick it or really

analyze it, there are certain things that maybe

don't completely work or like the, you know,

at the end when we see all these our armor that

are, you know, are there and coming to save Tony,

it's like, well, why didn't he kind of just do

that in the first place? Like what he was trying

to, you know, invade the mansion in Miami. If

he can just call on all this armor. Why is he

just waiting now? Or why didn't they call on

that when he was trying to save Air Force One?

Like why if you try to kind of. The plot holes

are there for sure, but I think the fun and the

atmosphere and kind of the overall performances

Kind of can make you forgive certain things and

the fact that is a comic book movie So there's

certain things that you're gonna kind of kind

of go with or otherwise just drive yourself crazy

Yeah Yeah, overall I enjoyed the movie I've heard

some people say it's too long of a film like

What's the runtime? Two hours and something?

Two hours, 20 minutes. Yeah, people say that's

too long. I felt it was fine. To me, that is

a sufficient time for an action movie of this

caliber. Oh, yeah. Because, for instance, it's

not out yet, but the new Star Trek film is one

hour and 40 minutes. To which I say it should

at least be two hours Shouldn't really be a you

know beyond that but I mean I think that Films

of the scale Deserve to to be around the two

-hour marker or just above it by no means should

it ever hit three hours Like the visiting to

hobbit them but uh or The Dark Knight Rises.

Yeah, that was... whatever. Alright, let's do

this because originally Iron Man and The Dark

Knight went up against each other and I know

Iron Man 3 and Dark Knight Rises are not going

up against each other but you look at those two

films and on the scale that they are because

they are the essentially the third installment

of each franchise Dark Knight Rises was, like,

it felt so, like, you know, Dan, you were talking

about the noir bits of Tony M. McConaughey. Like,

I like it. I think it's interesting. I just found

it really strange how the, I just found it strange

at first. I, you know, after seeing it a second

time, I really enjoyed it. But the Dark Knight

Rises for everything that that movie told us,

it was way too long. Don't know like when it

comes to length of films. I don't I I think it

depends on what you're trying to do I think the

question is is the length of the film going to

match with? The atmosphere and what you're going

for like and I'm in like I'm in three It's it's

about two hours and ten minutes, which is perfect

for this story It's not really an in -depth kind

of epic tale that a dark night rises is like

dark night rises tried to get at some a huge

kind of overall narrative that had a lot of different

elements, really strong kind of three act structure

where each act is kind of has a lot of different

components to it. So I think you needed that

long, you know, that if anything, I think either

Dark Knight Rises needed to be 20 minutes longer

or 20 minutes shorter and kind of get rid of

a few things or expand upon things a little more.

But I don't know. When I was watching Iron Man,

I never It never felt long. I was never bored.

That time kind of flew by. Maybe on a re -watch

or watching it for a second or third time, it'll

be more noticeable. But on a first time watch,

I had no issue with the length of the film. I

didn't have an issue with it at first either.

I really only have two nitpicks about this movie,

honestly. The movie overall on a whole is damn

good. The effects, the music, the soundtrack.

everything about it is just awesome. I know that

from reading online that Shane Black had elaborated

that this is the version of the character serves

as the Marvel Cinematic Universe interpretation

of the Mandarin as signified by the character's

dragon tattoos while the idolized terrorist persona

of the Mandarin acted as Killian's proxy. I gotta

say, I'm used to the Mandarin being like the

big bad guy and someone like Justin Hammer being

his lackey. That's what I'm used to. I gotta

say, the first time I saw this, I was like, okay,

cool. Ben Kingsley's doing an amazing job. Tony

Stark infiltrates the mansion, and he's a bumbling

fool. Like, the first time I saw the film, I

was so disappointed with that. On the second

viewing, I see where they're going. I get it.

It's not the whole ten rings powerful, you know

each ring has a power thing But they incorporate

the ten rings with the visuals and the TV stuff.

So I'm okay It's not Between the Mandarin's characterization

and the end of the film. Those are the two initial

things that I just could not get past The first

time around the second time around I can I can

kind of see where they're going because I wasn't

sure After the first time I saw it whether or

not Tony had ever Had his heart fixed in the

comics or any other storyline because I've never

seen it that way I've always seen it where he's

had the chest plate Or he's had to rely on the

vibranium whatever And going back and and looking

into it and doing some research on Iron Man there

have been times where he has Had you know the

heart surgery to have the shrapnel removed and

whatever else But I always thought oh if you

remove it it'll kill him It's kind of like you

know if a bullet gets lodged in the wrong place

you try to remove it the person will die But

those so the Mandarin characterization and the

end of the film were my initial issues with the

movie And I can kind of see where they're gonna

go from here they pretty much left and out for

Downey if he doesn't want to renew his contracts.

I hope he does. I don't think there's any person

currently that can play Tony Stark as well as

he can unless they completely revamp the character

and do it in a different way and I don't think

they want to do that. Regarding the Mandarin

twist I know a lot of people were upset about

that and I think that's kind of ridiculous because

first of all The idea that the Mandarin is this

epic character is ridiculous. He's a horrible

character I'm sorry, but he's a dumb character

based on racist stereotypes that has no place

in today's society. There's a reason they haven't

brought him into the films yet. It's because

they didn't want to even dare go after that character,

but Shane Black came up with an idea of how to

do it and make it work, and I love that. I don't

subscribe to the idea that you need to be beholden

to the source material to a certain extent. Yes,

you don't want to change everything, but the

Mandarin is a character I think that... It's

made it far more interesting and I think there's

a lot to it. It's not just people saying oh,

they're just changing it for change sake I don't

believe that at all. A lot of it is kind of showing

it's kind of a Taking our own kind of What we

believe what we so easily buy into and turning

on its head like when you see when you rewatch

the film I'm assuming or when you see the different

Mandarin videos and Seeing how he's acting his

speech is extremely over -the -top and we easily

buy into it And then when you realize that it's

all an act it makes you realize even further

like wow It was kind of ridiculous a lot of those

like really campy terrorist videos and whatnot

And I love that. I love the fact that they're

having They're willing to take risks because

Marvel typically doesn't when with their storytelling

It's usually by the book for the most part. So

I absolutely love the Mandarin twist, but Steve,

what did you think of that whole? Mandarin and

how they handle it. I mean I I was kind of expecting

him to be a bigger badass than what he was but

it's not unforeseen in any superhero movie to

see a double villain, where one is the scapegoat

slash McGuffin for the entire film, and then

you find out, oh, somebody else is pulling the

strings. So, I mean, it's not really that unforeseen

to see that he's not actually the prime villain

of the entire movie. Right. But, I mean... It

would have been nice to have like the the powers

that he had. I mean, I don't care about all the

other source material, but because I just I don't

care for that particular character at all. But

it just. He was basically useless. Yeah, I think

I think that was kind of. And I like that about

it. I guess I like the fact that it was just,

hey, it's just, I can, how easily we can retract

and showing that like, we're so, we're so cling,

cling to like this kind of big bad, this, this

certain like evil that we expect, but really

the true evil is often that, that, you know,

grinning business man behind the scenes, it's

really screwing us over type of thing. I felt

that was kind of what they were getting at in

different ways, but. What did you think of the

overall action of the film compared to the other

Iron Man films? Oh, it's way higher than the

other films. I'll give it that. Because you have

extremist -powered people. You have a crap -ton

of Iron Man suits. You you have explosions. I

mean you have all kinds of stuff going on So

I would say that overall I mean it evolves Iron

Man's story Not only with the fact that he's

Physically changed and his suits have changed

and his abilities with the suits have changed

But it seems like somebody is continuously