metaphasia (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
metaphasia) wrote2013-05-06 08:49 pm
metaphasia) wrote2013-05-06 08:49 pm
Iron Man 3 Reactions
Before I talk about Iron Man 3, a preface.
Music wasn't really a large part of my life while I was growing up. The radio and record player were very rarely on in the house, and road trips would often involve nothing coming out of the speakers (and when there was something being played, it was NPR more often than any music station). I never recorded a song off the radio, despite apparently everyone else in my generation recording entire mix tapes. In fact, I didn't purchase a CD until middle school. Alright, that's not that impressive given that CDs had only been in widespread circulation for a few years prior, but I hadn't purchased any casettes either; there were some that I listened to, but they belonged to my parents, or were the family's, not something that was mine, personally. And this was not only the first CD that was really mine, but that I had purchased, not that was purchased for me as a gift. To this day, while I acknowledge the convenience of MP3s and music downloads, I still prefer CDs, as a physical manifestation of music, and it all dates back to that first CD.
It was, of course, Europop. Eiffel 65 was one of the first techno bands I had ever really heard (I wouldn't find Daft Punk until 2001 with Discovery), and I loved the style. I was however, mocked frequently, mostly by my siblings, but also occasionally by my parents, for my choice in music.
The point of the story is that I would like to apologize to anyone in the theater I was in who was frightened by my maniacal cackling within a minute of the film starting. I consider it karmic payback on a cosmic scale.
I have to say that my final impression of Iron Man 3 was not as favorable as others; I was disappointed.
I think my problem with the movie was that the last thing before I left the theater was the ending, obviously, and as somebody famous once said and I am saying now, it was a hot mess.
My problem with the ending is that it was so ambiguous that I have no idea where Tony stands in the Marvel Cinematic Universe going forward. His last line is that he's still Iron Man, but what does that even mean? Clearly "Iron Man" is not the Tony who walked out of the cave back in the first movie because that Tony would never go under for surgery (as is made painfully obvious with the scene with Pepper in the first movie - "You are the most capable, qualified, trustworthy I have ever met"; she's the only one he trusts to poke around in his chest). And "Iron Man" is also not being defined as "the suit and I are one" anymore; Tony has Jarvis destroy all the suits at the end of the movie, and states that they are a distraction. So what exactly in Tony's mind is Iron Man now? What does he see his role as going forward?
And what's the deal with Extremis? I interpreted the ending to be that Tony was just having physical surgery done on himself, but I think it could also be interpreted as him having Extremis applied to himself. And Pepper? Did she get the Extremis reversed, or just stabilized?
The ending was just too ambiguous for me, especially considering that this is the last "Iron Man" movie planned (but apparently, "Tony Stark Will Return", so does that mean Avengers 2? Iron Man 4? Cameos in other films?). The end of the movie has him basically reconstruct himself completely, but it doesn't show what the new Tony is, it just destroys the old one that we already know without replacing it with anything concrete.I was really hoping for a more well defined ending, and the vague nature of the ending that we got was just really disappointing, especially since it is the ending, and we aren't likely to get any sort of resolution to Tony's situation for at least a few more movies, which translates to years in real life.
Aside from the ending however, I was very impressed. To be fair, pretty much the entire movie until the ending sequence was so incredible that I feel kind of bad about being disappointed in it. There were so many great moments that it's hard to call out specific ones that I liked above others. Given that though, I loved Pepper's role throughout the entire movie, especially her part in the action sequences, and how she was able to be involved in the action in a way that did not happen in the previous movies. I also really loved the way that the movie played with the different suits and had Tony both in and out of armor for different sequences and used the "the suit and I are one" motif against Tony by having the Iron Patriot armor transporting different people and having everyone assume that it was Rhodey. Also, the armor that I was calling Hulkbuster is Eeyore. Don't ever change, Tony.
My last thought is that,synecdochic posted in her review that:
Synecdochic (12:11:00 AM): and you get there, and you sit down, and ... actually, they're not telling that story. they're telling you a story ABOUT that story.
And I think that's a valid view, that the movie is not just a superhero story, but is a story about superhero stories. Especially considering that the movie has the framing device of being a story told by Tony Stark. However, I think that if you adopt that viewpoint, you also have to accept that the Yinsen cameo (which I thought was rather gratuitous when it happened) is actually because Tony knows he ran into Yinsen at some point prior to the cave, but doesn't know when and so puts a gratuitous Yinsen cameo into every story that he tells about any party prior, and also because the scene with Tony finishing the story comes after the credits, that Tony includes Hollywood style movie credits into every story he tells, thanking the Stark Industries PR Team for their valiant efforts (also, starring Tony Stark!).
ETA: Oh! I also forgot to mention that I was really disappointed that we didn't get more re: Jarvis during the course of the movie. I guess that he has to have a backup based in Stark Industries or something, because the Barbie Malibu Dream House got blown up, and all the Iron Man suits were destroyed, which means that a whole lot of places that Jarvis could be stored were exploded. That would have been a beautiful character moment that they just barely got touched on with Jarvis' line about needing to go to sleep.
Music wasn't really a large part of my life while I was growing up. The radio and record player were very rarely on in the house, and road trips would often involve nothing coming out of the speakers (and when there was something being played, it was NPR more often than any music station). I never recorded a song off the radio, despite apparently everyone else in my generation recording entire mix tapes. In fact, I didn't purchase a CD until middle school. Alright, that's not that impressive given that CDs had only been in widespread circulation for a few years prior, but I hadn't purchased any casettes either; there were some that I listened to, but they belonged to my parents, or were the family's, not something that was mine, personally. And this was not only the first CD that was really mine, but that I had purchased, not that was purchased for me as a gift. To this day, while I acknowledge the convenience of MP3s and music downloads, I still prefer CDs, as a physical manifestation of music, and it all dates back to that first CD.
It was, of course, Europop. Eiffel 65 was one of the first techno bands I had ever really heard (I wouldn't find Daft Punk until 2001 with Discovery), and I loved the style. I was however, mocked frequently, mostly by my siblings, but also occasionally by my parents, for my choice in music.
The point of the story is that I would like to apologize to anyone in the theater I was in who was frightened by my maniacal cackling within a minute of the film starting. I consider it karmic payback on a cosmic scale.
I have to say that my final impression of Iron Man 3 was not as favorable as others; I was disappointed.
I think my problem with the movie was that the last thing before I left the theater was the ending, obviously, and as somebody famous once said and I am saying now, it was a hot mess.
My problem with the ending is that it was so ambiguous that I have no idea where Tony stands in the Marvel Cinematic Universe going forward. His last line is that he's still Iron Man, but what does that even mean? Clearly "Iron Man" is not the Tony who walked out of the cave back in the first movie because that Tony would never go under for surgery (as is made painfully obvious with the scene with Pepper in the first movie - "You are the most capable, qualified, trustworthy I have ever met"; she's the only one he trusts to poke around in his chest). And "Iron Man" is also not being defined as "the suit and I are one" anymore; Tony has Jarvis destroy all the suits at the end of the movie, and states that they are a distraction. So what exactly in Tony's mind is Iron Man now? What does he see his role as going forward?
And what's the deal with Extremis? I interpreted the ending to be that Tony was just having physical surgery done on himself, but I think it could also be interpreted as him having Extremis applied to himself. And Pepper? Did she get the Extremis reversed, or just stabilized?
The ending was just too ambiguous for me, especially considering that this is the last "Iron Man" movie planned (but apparently, "Tony Stark Will Return", so does that mean Avengers 2? Iron Man 4? Cameos in other films?). The end of the movie has him basically reconstruct himself completely, but it doesn't show what the new Tony is, it just destroys the old one that we already know without replacing it with anything concrete.I was really hoping for a more well defined ending, and the vague nature of the ending that we got was just really disappointing, especially since it is the ending, and we aren't likely to get any sort of resolution to Tony's situation for at least a few more movies, which translates to years in real life.
Aside from the ending however, I was very impressed. To be fair, pretty much the entire movie until the ending sequence was so incredible that I feel kind of bad about being disappointed in it. There were so many great moments that it's hard to call out specific ones that I liked above others. Given that though, I loved Pepper's role throughout the entire movie, especially her part in the action sequences, and how she was able to be involved in the action in a way that did not happen in the previous movies. I also really loved the way that the movie played with the different suits and had Tony both in and out of armor for different sequences and used the "the suit and I are one" motif against Tony by having the Iron Patriot armor transporting different people and having everyone assume that it was Rhodey. Also, the armor that I was calling Hulkbuster is Eeyore. Don't ever change, Tony.
My last thought is that,
synecdochic posted in her review that:Synecdochic (12:11:00 AM): and you get there, and you sit down, and ... actually, they're not telling that story. they're telling you a story ABOUT that story.
And I think that's a valid view, that the movie is not just a superhero story, but is a story about superhero stories. Especially considering that the movie has the framing device of being a story told by Tony Stark. However, I think that if you adopt that viewpoint, you also have to accept that the Yinsen cameo (which I thought was rather gratuitous when it happened) is actually because Tony knows he ran into Yinsen at some point prior to the cave, but doesn't know when and so puts a gratuitous Yinsen cameo into every story that he tells about any party prior, and also because the scene with Tony finishing the story comes after the credits, that Tony includes Hollywood style movie credits into every story he tells, thanking the Stark Industries PR Team for their valiant efforts (also, starring Tony Stark!).
ETA: Oh! I also forgot to mention that I was really disappointed that we didn't get more re: Jarvis during the course of the movie. I guess that he has to have a backup based in Stark Industries or something, because the Barbie Malibu Dream House got blown up, and all the Iron Man suits were destroyed, which means that a whole lot of places that Jarvis could be stored were exploded. That would have been a beautiful character moment that they just barely got touched on with Jarvis' line about needing to go to sleep.
no subject