Review written by Christian Garcia
Today I'm looking at Iron Man 3. This was the first and only Iron Man film that I saw in theaters, and I remember enjoying it enough that I saw it a second time and really liked it.
In the years since its release, reaction to this film is a mixed bag. Some people like it okay and say, “well it's definitely better than Iron Man 2,” while others see it as a film that made a lot of stupid choices. I liked this film fine when I saw it but now looking at it again nine years later, does it still hold up? Let’s take a look.
The Hero's Journey
Following the events of the Avengers, Tony is suffering from severe post-traumatic stress and anxiety. He spends his days working nonstop on suits and cannot sleep. He keeps reliving what he saw in space and suffering from panic attacks. It is nice to see that the events from the Avengers does have lasting effects on him and it is also nice to see a superhero dealing with anxiety. As someone who deals with anxiety, I can relate with him. In today’s climate with mental health awareness being more prevalent, this was handled with good care and gives Tony Stark more depth. As a man who is sworn to protect people, this did a much better job of showing how that pressure can affect him than what they tried in Iron Man 2. Tony feels the same paranoia that everyone else is feeling, especially after Avengers, with the realization there are threats beyond Earth to be weary of. This is an arc that follows Tony throughout the rest of this film and future films that follow.
It also follows the idea of Tony paying for the choices that he’s made. His choice in the opening of ignoring Aldrich Killian comes back to haunt him as well as his one-night stand with Maya Hansen. His girlfriend Pepper Potts and his bodyguard Happy Hogan are both put into harm’s way, and he feels responsible. He does make the stupid (and yes, I stand by that wording) choice of giving the villain his home address and suffers the consequences.
The film does a much better job of juggling Tony’s inner struggles with the tangible goal of stopping the impending doom. The film takes time between trying to stop Killian and the Mandarin to have Tony confront his inner demons. Iron Man 2 had too much going on which led to good ideas not getting fleshed out properly. Here the ideas of stress and atonement are given the proper time that they need to be fleshed out and paid off and by the story’s end, Tony has grown more and better for having endured it all. At the end of Iron Man 2, it did not feel like much had changed for Tony but here he does change. He gets surgery to remove the shrapnel from his heart, destroys all his suits with the intention of scaling back his time as Iron Man and promises to dedicate more time to Pepper. It is the first time since the first Iron Man film that we see Tony grow and mature and come out of the other side better.
The Villain
Aldrich Killian is the founder and CEO of AIM.
In the film’s opening flashback, he attempts to recruit Tony Stark into AIM but is left shunned and ignored waiting on the roof. The film takes the approach of judging a book by its cover as Killian’s initial appearance is one that is not threatening as he is disabled and is more sympathetic. My girlfriend felt bad for him in the opening when Tony leaves him waiting on the roof. It plays into the theme of atonement as what Tony thought of as ignoring another kook comes back to haunt him later. While the Mandarin was built up as the big threat, Dain is the one pulling the strings. He works with Maya Hansen and conducts many illegal experiments with her Extremis project that have disastrous results.
His next appearance shows he is cured of his disabilities and is more confident. He comes off as charming in his meeting with Pepper but still threatening that you feel that he has an ulterior motive. As the film progresses, his true colors are revealed, and he becomes colder and more vindictive. When Maya threatens to kill herself to save Tony, Dain shoots her himself without any hesitation. When Pepper falls and is presumed dead, he makes the remark “I would have caught her” rubbing salt in the wound of a heartbroken Tony.
Doug Walker once described him as “another asshole in a suit,” and while there is truth to that, I also do not think Killian is that one dimensional. While comparisons can be made and there are some similarities, he is more interesting than Obadiah Stane and Justin Hammer. He is not just another greedy businessman that wants to best Tony Stark at his game, he wants to create a new War on Terror that he can control and manipulate while also conducting his Extremis experiments. While he of course is going to profit from it, he is also out for vengeance and goes to great lengths to torment Tony and Pepper, even injecting Pepper with Extremis.
Does that make him the best of the Marvel villains? Not really. Compared to later villains he does not stand out as much as Loki or Thanos but out of the Iron Man villains, he was the one that felt like the biggest threat.
The Film's Pros
The Climax
One of the biggest complaints I have about the first two Iron Man films is that the climaxes were very anticlimactic. The final battle in Iron Man was okay but nothing epic and the final battle in Iron Man 2 was short and anything but epic. Iron Man 3 is the film that finally got it right. There were stakes to the battle as they needed to stop Killian, save the President of the United States, and save Pepper while taking on an army of Extremis fueled soldiers. Tony and Rhodey are outnumbered and don’t have any suits on hand which raises the stakes. It is topped off when Tony calls for backup in the form of the many Iron Man suits that he has been building. The shot of all these Iron Man suits assembling for the final battle is the epic climax that I have been waiting to see in an Iron Man film.
The final battle had drama and tension. When Pepper fell, my girlfriend gasped. When Pepper returned and finished off Killian, my girlfriend and I were both excited. I got the feeling that I was watching an epic conclusion to a comic book movie. It had action and drama that kept me and my girlfriend on the edge of our seats and had a satisfying conclusion. It was a great conclusion to the final Iron Man film and one that sent him out on a high note.
The Film's Cons
The Mandarin
The Mandarin is the biggest blunders of the film and one of the biggest botches of a villain in film since Venom in Spider-Man 3. The Mandarin is the most popular of the Iron Man villains and the fan reaction to his portrayal in Iron Man 3 was universally hated and it is easy to see why. I laughed the first time at the reveal but looking at it again 9 years later, it does hurt the movie quite more than I remember. The Mandarin was built up great throughout the film. The videos and his voice made him so threatening and the first time I saw the film, I was excited to see him and Iron Man battle. When he threatens a hostage unless the president calls him and then kills the hostage anyway, it cemented his status as a threatening heel. He is the most interesting of the Iron Man villains as he points out the hypocrisy of the US’s actions but would go so far to the extreme that the audience also dislikes him. My girlfriend was yelling expletives at the TV when he shot the hostage in the head. He was the threat that Iron Man swore to protect the people from and was built up so well that it got me excited to see them finally come face to face. Which makes it so disappointing when it is revealed that the Mandarin is nothing more than a drunk, goofy actor playing a role with the strings really being pulled by Aldrich Killian. I was not aware of the Mandarin’s comic book origins, so I was not as angry as most comic fans were. But nine years later, this does kill the vibe the film was following and seems more like a swerve for the sake of a swerve. While Ben Kingsley as Trevor is funny, you can’t help but feel cheated. Aldrich Killian is a fine villain, but the Mandarin was a lot more interesting and felt like a bigger threat. While I do find the commentary behind creating an icon of threat for the public to revile interesting, it kills the film's momentum. All that buildup for a weak payoff really hurts the film and I can understand why some viewers choose to dislike this film for that reason. At the end of the day this is a superhero film and people want to see their favorite heroes and villains on the big screen. Those who wanted to see this villain on the big screen got cheated after a great build and while I may have found the initial swerve funny, it did not work to the film’s benefit.
The stupidest move done by a superhero
After Happy is attacked and hospitalized, Tony angrily sends out a threat to the Mandarin and gives him his home address. This is one of, if not, the stupidest choices ever made by a superhero. While I get that Tony is full of rage and not thinking rationally, this is still a stupid choice made ever stupider when he is actually caught off guard when the Mandarin’s forces attack and destroy his home. When the attack went down, my girlfriend said, “Tony you’re so smart in so many other ways but that was a dumb move.” Tony Stark is one of the smartest of the Avengers, but this was not his brightest moment. I can understand that it was probably a bad judgment call made from guilt and rage but even he admits later that it was a stupid mistake. I did not feel bad for him in that moment and just thought, “well what did you think was going to happen?”
Final Thoughts
Nine years later, Iron Man 3 still holds up and is a good movie. While it does have its problems and makes some very questionable and, at times, dumb choices, it is still an enjoyable experience. Tony’s journey throughout the film is more enjoyable to watch and shows the most growth in him out of any of the films. His inner struggles and outer struggles are handled with much better care in this film than in the previous film and it made for a fun and interesting film. It’s not perfect by any means and if the choices they made with the Mandarin are enough to turn you away, I can understand why. But at the same time, this is not a film that should be as easily as dismissed as Iron Man 2 was. Iron Man 3 combines the charm and humor of Robert Downey Jr. with the inner torment of Tony Stark who is dealing with the heightening danger of the world he has sworn to protect. It continues the saga of Tony Stark and shows how the events of Avengers carry over into the individual heroes’ lives and for that alone it is a film worth checking out. It’s not a great film by any means but a good one that does enough right to balance out its missteps.
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