[After the “noted” “success” of our LOST rewatch two years ago, James and Scott are back to prepare for the release of Avengers: Age of Ultron the only way they know how: by going through the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, movie by movie. We are not very imaginative. Check in every week as we go into way too much detail about pop entertainment and frequently say people are wrong about things.]

 

James: After last week’s disappointing revisit of AVENGERS, and the wrap-up of Phase 1 of the MCU, we’re plunging into it Phase 2 with Shane Black’s IRON MAN 3, a weirdly maligned instalment of the franchise. I think it’s safe to say that this is going to be another one where we run contrary to the conventional fan wisdom.

Scott: Totally. I remember the fan response to this one being lukewarm at best, likely due to the adrenaline comedown after MARVEL’S THE AVENGERS, as well as some misplaced disappointment about the Mandarin’s role in the plot. I had a lot of friends who were just casual MCU fans - ie not really comic people - who were pretty put off by it for a few reasons, including wondering why Tony didn’t just call the Avengers in on this. But to be honest? I had forgotten how much I LOVED this movie, since it’s now in thew shadow of films like CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER and GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. I couldn’t believe I was the only person I spoke to who liked it as much as I did, and watching it now I think you could make a solid case for it being the best MCU movie to date at that time, or at least the best IRON MAN one.

James: I think it’s definitely, in some ways, the smallest scale movie of the MCU, or at least the most personal, and after AVENGERS, for a lot of people, it might have been a bit of a let-down. I think it’s one of the few MCU movies to date with a strong authorial voice, and in this case, it’s co-writer/director Shane Black’s.

Scott: To this movie’s credit, it uses the word “fag” a lot less than the first Shane Black movie I ever saw, MONSTER SQUAD.

James: I haven’t seen that, but I also haven’t seen the original. Black, of course, was the writer/director who basically resurrected Robert Downey, Jr’s career single-handedly with KISS KISS BANG BANG. As much as it was Jon Favreau going to bat for Downey with IRON MAN that really launched him to the stratosphere, it was Black who basically made Downey a going concern again.

Scott: It was a risky move to have to replace Jon Favreau, who luckily stayed on as Executive Producer as well as in his onscreen role as Happy Hogan (well, for a few scenes anyway.) But Black absolutely nails the tone Favreau had established, and even in some ways improves upon it. It’s clear he was the right man for this job.

James: Favreau, as we discussed in the first week of our rewatch, was the right guy to launch the MCU; he’s got great comic chops, a surprisingly good sense of action, and really broad tastes. Black makes idiosyncratic movies, and I think it was smart to bring him in for a movie that’s consciously smaller than the one that came before it. Because really, this movie was always going to be smaller than AVENGERS, and it was smart to steer into that with the choice of director.

Scott: Our story begins with a quirky, rambling voiceover from Tony about how someone said “We create our own demons,” setting the scene to the halcyon days of 1999, where we get the best opening scene of any MCU movie when EIFFEL 65 cues up to reminds us it’s the turn of the millennium - New Year’s Eve Y2K, baby! And Tony Stark is in his full pre-Iron Man douchebaggery.

James: My exact notes for the Eiffel 65 music cue is, “BLUE UGH SCOTT”

Scott: Hate on, haters!

James: There are a couple of cute callbacks in the scene in Switzerland. One is the ever-present “Tony doesn’t like to be handed things” when this weird nerd named Aldritch Killian, owner of some dumb think tank named AIM (itself a wink) tries to hand him and the girl, he’s macking on, botanist Maya Hansen, a business card. The other, of course, is the flashback return of Yinsen, Tony’s cavemate in IRON MAN, who mentioned meeting him at a conference in Bern in 1999.

Scott: Aldritch Killian ranks right up there with Obadiah Stane and Justin Hammer in the category of “Names of guys who are obviously supervillains.” Sadly, Stark is not impressed enough by Guy Pearce’s flashback wig to get in on the ground floor of his future supervillain enclave, especially with Maya Hansen on his arm. I think this movie really could have done with more Rebecca Hall in that role: she plays it very well, but isn’t given a ton to do. In this flashback we are also treated to Hansen’s project, a plant that ends up exploding when Happy touches it, as well as Happy’s bolo tie and Travolta-in-Pulp-Fiction hair. Flashback wigs for everyone!

James: Yeah, for the most part, this movie is better for its laser focus on Tony (and to a lesser extent, Pepper), but you’re definitely right with the idea that Rebecca Hall could have been given a SKOOSH more to do. The flashback, wigs aside, is mostly important for introducing Killian and Maya, as well as giving us the not-so-subtle reminder of the jerk Tony used to be. I’m also a fan of the narration, which is not only very Shane Black-y in tone, but somewhat reminiscent of the opening narration in Fraction and Larocca’s INVINCIBLE IRON MAN comic book run, with the talk of Tony’s “five nightmares.”

Scott: Tony drunkenly scribbles down some notes for Maya’s project while simultaneously walking out on her, as well as Killian, whom he dickishly left standing on the roof of the building. I’m guessing Switzerland (not Stockholm as I erroneously wrote earlier) gets cold in January.

James: These characters and events will be important to the movie’s big plot later, but for now, what I like is that both this scene and the first present-day one with Tony in his lab are smaller than our introductions to Tony in the first two movies, which were all about rock music and galas and a giant spectacle stage show. Right out of the gate, this movie is focusing itself on the man, which is what I think makes it so strong.

Scott: Following the events of MARVEL’S THE AVENGERS, Tony has basically barricaded himself in his garage tinkering with new suits. I have to say, the way that movie’s events are acknowledged on this one, the impact they have on the character, is one aspect that I really enjoy about it that I think maybe others don’t. It kind of rehabilitates Tony after what you and I basically acknowledged as a Hiroshima moment, that he can’t just walk it off and be a cool uncaring guy about it.

James: People’s big complaint about the movie is that it doesn’t “follow” from AVENGERS because the Avengers aren’t there, but what I adore about the movie is that it follows from AVENGERS where it matters: Tony as a person. The entire movie following through on the franchise’s long-running idea that Tony might have PTSD, and I like it. It doesn’t rehabilitate AVENGERS as a movie, but it rehabilitates Tony a lot.

Scott: Absolutely.

James: This movie is all about how you deal with something like AVENGERS, and that, to me, makes it a smart beginning for Phase 2.

Scott: It also does, starting a few scenes later in the restaurant between Tony and Rhodey, what comics have always had to do: justified why this is an Iron Man story and not an Avengers one. Rhodey starts by saying the Mandarin isn’t “superhero business,” but “American business.” Rhodey is technically a Superhero, but he’s America’s superhero, even moreso than Captain America, especially following his big rebranding.

James: I was going to mention that! Personally, I’ve always been happy with the explanation that the Avengers aren’t there because they have their own missions or whatever, but really, the reason the Avengers aren’t there is because it would be a really shitty Iron Man movie if he couldn’t do anything by himself. I think of it like comics: I can read Tony in a team book and in a solo book and neither negates the other. But here, it’s nice that they do basically give a reason, even if it’s quick, and even if I think it’s ultimately unneeded because nerds can suck it.

Scott: Yeah, like, you read the marquee coming in. This isn’t “IRON MAN AND CAPTAIN AMERICA.” But again, the story really lends itself to a solo adventure. At first, it’s not even really Tony’s fight! The Mandarin introduces himself with some very spooky, cryptic propaganda videos, offering lectures about American hypocrisy in an eerily good Johnny Cash impression. He’s America’s enemy, not the guy you call Thor to fight. The series of events that leads to Tony being drawn into fighting the Mandarin makes the first act of this movie really strong, because even Rhodey’s like “I’m on it” and Tony is fine with it at the time.

James: But back to the scene, there are a few nice details in the scene in Tony’s lab, like the robot Tony makes fun of all the time wearing a dunce cap, or Jarvis mentioning that Tony’s been awake for 72 hours, or even that we’re up to Mk42 in suits. And what were we at in AVENGERS? Mk4?

Scott: Mk7 at the end of AVENGERS, I believe, with the cool wristcuff sensor design. Now he’s basically made the suit fly onto him at will, one of the many developments in the armour that this movie showcases and uses effectively in the plot.

James: It comes back several times! It’s a small scene, but between Tony’s mental state and introducing a new suit mechanic, it’s surprisingly important.

Scott: Yeah, a really great and effective way to establish his mental state and what he’s been up to.

James: Plus, of course, we get the first glimpse of the Mandarin, a mysterious terrorist played by the just-biracial-enough-to-get-away-with-a-character-of-that-name Ben Kingsley. And remember when we were watching IRON MAN and I mentioned I thought the flag in the Ten Rings terrorist camp was brought back in this movie with the Mandarin’s videos? I was right!

<hold for applause>

Scott: I have some thoughts on the Mandarin, that we’ll ultimately get around to later, but right now I feel like the character would have been 100% perfect if they could have just changed the name. It’s like he’s only called that because that’s one of Tony’s most recognizeable villains from the comics, and they knew they couldn’t have the character as originally conceived, either due to racial sensitivity, or because the Chinese market has become very important lately. Occasionally, the character Ben Kingsley plays is referred to as “The Master,” which suits me fine.

James: Yeah, we’ll talk about it in more detail later, but for now, let’s just say that the name is a thing that could be retired both here and in the comics and I’d be fine with it, since it’s not the 70s anymore and yellow peril villains are passe at best. (And racist at worst)

Scott: I remember when he had green skin in the 90’s cartoon. It was… a thing that happened.

James: The version of the Mandarin/Master we see here is pretty different from the megalomaniacal villain with magic rings, that it even seemed like the first movie was setting up with the terrorists being called the Ten Rings. Here, in his videos, he presents himself as a much more standard terrorist punishing America for its sins. And Kingsley plays it with a lurching voice and ethnically ambiguous accent, giving it a sense of mystery that also keeps it blessedly away from being an impersonation of a Chinese person.

Scott: He’s wearing a Chinese-type robe, but the iconography is very broadly sourced, and his accent, like I said, reminds me of Johnny Cash.

James: He basically says he hates American Imperialism and brings up their mistreatment of aboriginal people, and brother, tell me about it. It’s an interesting example of a villain’s (stated) goals having a valid point but going about it in a really immoral way, i.e. mass murder.

Scott: Following the first appearance of the Master, we get that restaurant scene discussed earlier where a brief bit of dialogue explains the Avengers’ absence in a way that doesn’t really feel like a copout (but was offhand enough that inattentive viewers might miss it) and we get a good glimpse at the extend of Tony’s PTSD when some kids approach with a crayon drawing of Tony committing genocide and it… doesn’t sit well with him.

James: That in itself plays as a really smart commentary on AVENGERS. Like, the thing that sets Tony off in a panic is someone treating the end of AVENGERS basically the way that movie treated it.

Scott: It’s a great bit of “reality ensues,” which deepens Tony’s character after the flattening out everyone got in AVENGERS, but manages never to derail the movie.

James: Hell, it’s the POINT of the movie. And that’s why I like it so much! It takes my primary displeasure with AVENGERS and responds to it, sensitively.

Scott: Shhh, the point of the movie is to watch Tony punch terrorists with his laser fists! The relatively sensitive portrayal of the real psychological trauma stemming from a catastrophic event is completely accidental!

James: Next up, we get a scene at Stark Industries, where a now sexy-fied Killian tries to pitch old coworker Pepper on his “Extremis” technology, which basically hacks the human body and brain to improve it. Pepper, to her credit, basically goes, “Listen, you’re really hot and all, but this technology sounds SUPER easy to make evil, and that’s kinda the opposite of what we try to do here.”

Scott: Head of Security Happy Hogan is shown being good at his job by actively suspecting the shady guy who has accompanied Killian.

James: It, as well as the other part of the scene where Happy, now head of security, is a dick about people wearing badges and running things by him, is pretty perfunctory. I will grant the movie’s critics that as much the movie gets Tony post-AVENGERS completely right, it doesn’t always handle his supporting cast with the same acuity.

Scott: It introduces the full idea behind Extremis, establishes a fair bit about Killian’s new persona, and leads to Hogan investigating Shady Guy.

[James: Yeah, it’s not BAD by any means. It’s just more functional without a lot of Black’s style that inhabits more of the movie. Case in point: the next scene, where Pepper arrives back home to find a giant Christmas present stuffed rabbit from Tony on their steps, and finds him talking through one of his suits seated on the couch. This whole scene is really fun, because not only does it nail the lived-in flirtatiousness of Tony and Pepper’s relationship - which is a nice progression from their status at the end of IRON MAN 2 and AVENGERS - but the reveal that Tony is actually downstairs working while mind-controlling a suit to romance Pepper, is both funny and sensitive. (And a bit WATCHMEN-esque vis-a-vis Doctor Manhattan and Silk Spectre II without trying to be really obvious about it.)

Scott: They present differing viewpoints his behaviour - Tony thinking of it as “Tinkering, doing what he knows” and Pepper viewing it as a distraction from reality. And neither is really off base? It’s a really genuine moment between the two, the Tony-Pepper relationship continues to develop in three dimensions.

James: What I like is that Tony pretty quickly concedes that Pepper is right, and basically confesses his entire set of problems “since New York.” Tony’s mature enough at this point, and honest enough with Pepper, that he actually shows vulnerability, openly and repeatedly. The previous two IRON MAN movies, especially 2, were based around Tony being difficult and stand-offish to the people in his life, and it’s really refreshing that this movie doesn’t press the reset button with that. Tony doesn’t somehow forget that he loves and trusts Pepper in this movie, for a second. He tells her the truth basically as SOON as she asks. In both big ways and small, this movie respects its own continuity.

Scott: There isn’t really a big relationship faux pas in this movie that artificially comes between Tony and Pepper, just a fairly believable hitch in an actual, functioning relationship.

James: PTSD, in real life, is hell on relationships! This movie is smart enough to not make Tony and Pepper this fraught, dramatic focus of the movie, but it acknowledges a very real problem for a person to have. And it shows the hero of the movie respond to that problem in a positive, proactive way.

Scott: This is all wrapped up in the plot-relevant reveal that Tony has made ANOTHER upgrade, that the suit can be operated remotely, with somewhat negative implications when he accidentally activates it in his sleep during a stress dream about New York.

James: Pepper is patient and understanding with Tony right up to the point where, while having a PTSD nightmare, he summons the Iron Man suit mentally and it almost attacks her.

Scott: I remember watching this the first time and thinking “Oh, this is how Tony creates Ultron,” although I don’t know if they had revealed that was the plot of the next Avengers movie.

James: That’s also ANOTHER really interesting idea of the movie, the idea that Tony and Iron Man are separate entities. Several bystanders refer to Tony as not “really” being Iron Man, and even Tony himself refers to the suit in the third person as a “him.” This idea of Tony reconciling his own relationship with his superhero half ties in nicely and subtly with the idea of Tony reconciling himself with the guilt and trauma of what he did as Iron Man in AVENGERS. So seeing that made literal with Tony and the suit being different physical entities is fun, and it comes back nicely in how Tony takes charge of that relationship in the climactic action scene, which we’ll get to later.

Spoiler alert: this movie is smart as heck.

Scott: Elsewhere, Happy goes on the hunt for Shady Guy, whom we see having a cryptic conversation with a troubled veteran about being able to “regulate.” An explosion occurs that The Kinglsey will take credit for. Tony is drawn int oa fight with the terrorist because his friend is following up on a seemingly unrelated thread in the film - and while nobody watching believes for a second Killian and the Mandarin aren’t in cahoots, it’s still sharper storytelling than someone pointing Tony at Kingsley and going “Go get ‘im!”

Especially because it involves a believably, characteristically careless move on Tony’s part. Like, this is the kind of thing you would almost expect to wind up on “Dumb Decisions Made By Heroes” listicles, but the thing is, in the movie it is PLAYED as a dumb idea - Tony is blinded by rage, so he issues a challenge to come to his house.

James: Here’s the thing: Tony, while cocky and distraught, gives a speech about how he’s going to get some “old-fashioned revenge” on the Mandarin. This is the attitude that got Tony celebrated in the first movie, where he hunts down terrorists on a personal vendetta. But in IRON MAN 3, that attitude is actively punished. Like, he says he is going to go murder a terrorist and then his house gets blown up in the literal next scene and people almost die as a result. It’s a much more nuanced approach to violence and superheroism than either of the first two movies, honestly. And we LIKED those. But one of our problems with both IRON MAN and AVENGERS was the cavalier attitude towards killing and revenge, and this movie really reads to me as a response to that.

Scott: And yet without sacrificing an exciting two hours of action and suspense!

James: Right?! It’s still pretty funny and exciting. Maya shows up seemingly for no reason at Tony and Pepper’s house, mid-Pepper-leaving, and Pepper’s pretty annoyed that an ex-girlfriend/one-night-stand of Tony’s is showing up, so there’s fun bickering. Then Shady Guy shows up in a helicopter and blows up Tony’s house, and we not only get big explosions, but the great bit where Tony summons the Mk42 armour but has it encapsulate Pepper instead, saving her life and letting her get Maya out of there. It’s a nice little nod to Tony having his priorities straight.

Scott: Pepper saves Tony from an explosion: “I got you.” “I got you first.”

James: It lets Pepper be an active participant in an action scene vs her more subdued role in the first two movies’ climaxes, where she pressed buttons or made phone calls.

Scott: The destruction of Tony’s house is a pretty great scene, coming after Tony does some CSI work to realize that he needs to investigate an incident in Rose Hill, Tennessee. When Tony finally does get free of the wreckage, the suit autopilots him to Tennessee, away from Pepper much to his dismay. This is following a triumphant moment where Jarvis saves Tony’s life by pulling him out from underwater. You mentioned that Tony’s supporting cast gets the short-shrift, but Jarvis gets some really great moments!

James: Pepper saves Tony and then Maya, and with them safe, Tony summons the suit back as he falls into the ocean. And you remember how I talked about the movie is about Tony’s relationship with his suit? There’s a fun shot here where the suit literally saves him, when a gauntlet grabs Tony’s hand and pulls him out of the underwater wreckage.

Like you said, the suit autopilots Tony to Tennessee, and there’s a great exchange between Tony and Jarvis. And you’re right, Jarvis actually gets to be a bit more of a character in this movie, which befits the idea of the suit and Tony being separate. When Tony is crashing into Rose Hill and then immediately after, Jarvis is basically inhabiting the suit consciously more than Tony is. So here’s Tony, struggling with what it means to be Iron Man, having made a catastrophic mistake and being at his lowest point, basically being forced to see “Iron Man” the entity as something separate. And what’s the first thing he does? He calls Pepper to apologize.

I can’t say it enough: I really like how Tony is actually mature in this movie.

Scott: The second thing he does? Find an adorable moppet to become his sidekick.

James: A+++

Listen, if you’re setting a movie at Christmas, there had better be an adorable moppet.

Scott: Seriously, that kid is amazing. I also love that this is a summer blockbuster set at Christmas for almost no discernable reason.

Scott: Ten years down the road you’re going to be having the same arguments with people about IM3 as you do about DIE HARD.

But I need to double back and address the tears in my eyes as Jarvis says “I think I need to sleep now, sir.” “Don’t leave me buddy.”

James: Drunk/malfunctioning Jarvis is heartbreakingly adorable. Paul Bettany actually gets some material to work with in this movie.

Scott: Tony is completely torn down, separated from his friends, lost his tech and his AI best friend, but he does have an 11-year-old with a potato gun and an inquisitive temperament and that’s amazing. The way Tony and the kid push each other’s buttons as they banter is just perfect. Yes, Tony crosses the line when he says the kid Doesn’t “need to be a pussy about” his father leaving, but Tony’s never been known for tact.

James: I’m not a fan of the line, but Tony backs away from it pretty quickly, which is more than some of the jokes in IRON MAN.

Scott: Tony gathers some materials to repair the suit’s power circuits, then proceeds with his investigation by meeting with the mother of an apparent suicide case whose details match the Kingsleyman’s attacks strangely closely.

James: There are some people who really hated Tony having a kid sidekick, but I actually really liked it because a kid’s natural lack of tact means that he’s gonna ask questions, which means that Tony is going to have to face questions about whether he’s REALLY Iron Man or if the suit is, or how he’s doing post-New York. He can’t really deflect it like he wants to.

Scott: The kid is about the same age as one of my younger cousins, and I can vouch for their ability to just keep prying when they want to know something. Handled wrong, it could have been a dumb Indiana Jones Short Round type thing, but the movie manages to find the exact right notes between them. The kid isn’t out there fighting Killian, he just helps him get a spring and a watch and some other stuff.

James: As mature as Tony is, it’s still natural that there are things (coughgenocidecough) that he doesn’t want to face, and Harley is a great way to force him to do that while also adding humour. It’s fun that the one person Tony can’t bullshit is a 10 year-old kid.

Scott: This leads to one of the few hand-to-hand fights Tony engages in in his onscreen existence, when he goes asking the wrong questions and gets noticed by Apparent Homeland Security Agent But Actual AIM Extremis Monster Brandt (Stephanie Szostak). The other IRON MAN movies struggled to give him much action to do between the opening and the climax, but so far we’re 2 for 2 following the home attack. The way Tony MacGyvers some weapons to combat this superpowered monster is pretty great.

James: It comes back later, but it’s a nice counterpoint to the idea that Tony isn’t really Iron Man if he doesn’t have the suit. When the series started, the suit was a symbol of Tony’s change, but at this point, the wide perception is that the change has surpassed him and taken on its own life. So without that, what’s Tony? It’s something that Captain America asks Tony in AVENGERS, and he gives a flippant response there, but here, scenes like this show, rather than tell: he’s a genius who uses his intelligence for good. thinks his way through the problem of fighting someone with weird heat/energy abilities who can regenerate/heal from damage quickly, and showcases his skills. It’s not as dramatic as building a suit IN A CAVE WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS but for a small action scene in the middle of a movie that’s consciously about a smaller scale? It’s a good touch.

Scott: Meanwhile, following the apparent public execution of an oil exec by the Kingsley, the President sets Iron Patriot on a wild goose chase throughout the Middle East, but always ending up in the wrong spot somehow. Ultimately, he is taken out of commission by THAT AWFUL CHARLOTTE LEWIS WHAT THE DAMN HELL.

Number one: how dare you.

James: Oh, lord.

Scott: Iron Patriot as a Patsy for AIM is a fun extension of the hack job Hammer did on the War Machine armour in IM2. Poor Rhodey can’t catch a break.

James: It’s also a nice fun counterpoint to Tony hunting down terrorists in the first movie.

Scott: But let’s not skip over the real centerpiece of the film: Tony discovers the real source of the Mandarin’s broadcasts in Miami, thanks to an assist from HAPPY ENDINGS’ Adam Pally, the world’s #1 Tony Stark fan.

James: We also skipped over Harley inducing another panic attack and then trying to guilt trip Tony to staying around, one of the more Shane Black-y scenes in the movie.

Scott: “I’m cold!”

James: But yes: ADAM PALLY is a national treasure.

Scott: Sorry, I got that a bit mixed up: Thanks to Pally’s assistance, Tony uses Rhodey’s AIM login to watch some Extremis test footage to get the full story on what it is and how it relates to Kinglsey’s “schemes.” It’s meant as a way to “hack” the human body, as Killian explained earlier to Pepper, but it hsa a bad habit of going wrong and exploding people (and also giving them fire powers.) “When is a bomb not a bomb? When it’s a misfire.” Or when it’s a person. Then the newly rebooted Jarvis triangulates Kingsley’s location to Miami, much to Tony’s disbelief.

James: A nice touch is how throughout all the Extremis experiment progress, we see Killian gradually healing his physical disability, as well as making himself more good-looking and youthful. It’s never spoken about, but it’s a good visual detail.

Scott: Tony MacGyvers some more weapons and manages to get to Miami right quick in order to infiltrate the Kingsley/AIM compound.

James: Before that though, Pepper and Maya have an important scene in a motel room, as Maya talks about her guilt in being a party to evil, only for a heck of a swerve to happen.

Scott: Notably: Maya is not all that torn up about being party to evil!

James: Actually, it turns out, she’s a willing party to it!

Scott: All she wants is for her invention, Extremis, to work properly, and she believes (not wrongly as it later happens) that Tony can figure out how to fix the glitches. And kidnapping Pepper would seem to be the way to motivate him to do that. No, Maya is not that big on ethics.

James: So Killian basically shows up and kidnaps Pepper for nefarious means, as Maya seems Pretty Cool With That(tm).

Scott: Elsewhere, Tony comes face to face with THE AMAZING TREVOR SLATTERY!!

James: But as you said, Tony basically MacGuyvers himself some low-fi tech to sneak into the Mandarin’s mansion, and I LOVE how this helps solve one of the big issues of the movie, or at least move towards it. He hops on the phone with Rhodey (as Don Cheadle gives a nice, earnest little grin when he discovers Tony is alive) and Harley, and Harley tells him that the suit isn’t ready yet, and Tony has a panic attack over it.

Scott: “You’re a Mechanic, right? So make some stuff.”

James: This whole movie, Tony has been insistent that he’s Iron Man and not the suit, but in this moment, you can see the insecurity in those statements, as he honestly can’t contemplate how to solve this situation without the armour. It ties in Tony’s PTSD and his self-doubt, as well as the fundamental question of the movie, all through one of Tony’s relationships to another character, and the moment when Harley shocks Tony into remembering just who he is, and what he can do, is a really quick moment but it’s also really meaningful. If the first two thirds of the movie were about showing off Tony’s weaknesses, this is the moment where he starts rising back up. This is, notably, the final panic attack Tony has in the movie.

Scott: It also seems that all of his hardware-store arsenal is non-lethal.

James: That’s a good catch! He does in fact incapacitate the thugs at the Miami compound rather than kill them. And now, as you mentioned: TREVOR SLATTERY

Scott: I fucking love Trevor Slattery. Kingsley made a pretty good terrorist in this, but he makes a WAY better smacked-out actor.

James: Using basically his natural accent and intonation, which he rarely uses in movies!

Scott: That scene with the reveal temporarily converts the movie into a total comedy - not for the first time but probably for the best - and helps sell the reality behind the Mandarin, that he was a fake focus group terrorist designed to cover for the failed Extremis subjects. “I was on drugs” “They said they’d get you off of them?” “They said they’d give me more!”

James: We’ve known for basically the entire movie that the Mandarin and Killian were in cahoots, down to the scene where Killian is on-hand as the “Master” films a propaganda video, but this is where we realize that the Mandarin is just a tool, not just a way to cover for Extremis subjects, but to basically give a nice “reason” for the US government to start paying AIM a lot of money for super soldiers. And now we might as well discuss the biggest controversy of the movie, namely that the Mandarin here is basically the opposite from his comic book iteration, who is Tony’s greatest adversary and an actual Asian man, vs. the biracial Kingsley.

Scott: If the reveal weren’t so over-the-top you’d almost feel like they were just using the same idea Christopher Nolan had for Ra’s al-Ghul in BATMAN BEGINS, but the entire film suddenly fits together, especially once it’s revealed that Vice President Twin Peaks’ Miguel Ferrer is ALSO in cahoots.

James: To which I’ll ask a question: is there a way to have a yellow peril villain on screen in the year 2013 without making it a meta thing where it’s actually a white(-ish) person? Is it more offensive to take away a role for a Chinese actor or to continue an arguably racist character iteration?

Scott: There’s no way to execute the classic Mandarin onscreen without it being absurdly tone-deaf to the IRON MAN movies in particular and cinema in our present day and age in general. I’m sure some talented writer or other has rehabilitated the character in the comics, but it’s such a shitty role onscreen I wouldn’t want to see it. I don’t want yellow peril, I don’t want magic rings.

James: Matt Fraction’s Mandarin is a pretty good character but I’m not sure it could translate to the screen, without context. If I saw that version of the character in a Disney movie I’d probably find it offensive, I think. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I want magic rings, because those are dope and I think they’re a nice counterpoint to Tony’s science, but I also totally understand why they made the change here.

Scott: I feel like he remains viable in comics because he’s established and there are ways to get around it. But he wouldn’t have been created today, and it’s important for Tony’s movie villains to be ones that feel organic to the modern-day aesthetic the films do a great job of realizing. Stane had that, Hammer and Vanko had that, Killian and Slattery have that.

James: I’m not sure there’s an easy answer to the Mandarin question, because the Mandarin is automatically a problematic character, but I generally agree with you: I think I’m more comfortable with Kingsley here than I would have if it had been an actual Asian person named the Mandarin that I was supposed to hate. It’d probably feel too racially insensitive.

Scott: And as I mentioned before - and this is a crass reason for this but it’s a real factor - Chinese audiences are very important these days, to the point where there’s an alternate cut of this movie for China with two prominent Chinese characters. So you don’t want to get your movie banned there if you want to make All The Money. Anyway, the reveal is just too GD amazing that I can’t see anyone not being won over by that turn of events.

James: I think the far more problematic thing is the DVD-only Mandarin short “All Hail the King” that makes homosexual/prison rape jokes; I know Andrew Wheeler at ComicsAlliance was really upset at his sexuality being used so crassly. That short, I should point out, also introduces the idea that there’s ANOTHER Mandarin in the MCU who actually does have ties to the Ten Rings, and that Trevor’s portrayal made him angry. Also, Sam Rockwell is in it.

Scott: We’ll see if that goes anywhere, or if it’s just nerd appeasement (boo.)

James: Well, considering one of those Marvel One Shots became an actual TV series (Agent Carter), I’d think it’s probably not nerd appeasement, though who knows what will come of it.

Scott: Anyway, Slattery’s antics stalls Tony long enough that he gets captured and informed that he should probably go ahead and fix Extremis or else Pepper is going to die of Extremis-related explosiveness.

James: That scene where Killian menaces a tied-up Tony is really interesting, because it really sells Killian as a true nega version of Tony. In IRON MAN, Obadiah Stane was a mirror for Tony’s business/arms dealer side. In IRON MAN 2, we talked about how Rockwell mirrored Tony’s cockiness and showmanship while Vanko mirrored Tony’s genius. Killian, however, is flat out a full-on evil Tony. He’s smart, he’s charismatic and he pushes past the moral quandary that Tony had in IRON MAN. He’s gleeful about causing death. He coldly murders Maya just because!

James: I’m not sure how I feel about that, actually. It’s a very well executed scene, pardon the accidental pun, and it’s certainly chilling. On the other hand, it’s a female character being killed largely as a motivating tragedy, and that’s already a character we mentioned was somewhat underused.

Scott: Yeah, that is a rough trope to play with, and I’d rather it weren’t in the film.

James: Maya’s character development - her relative face turn as she reconsiders her actions - happens so soon before her death that it doesn’t really get to “count.” It’s especially weird, considering how the movie tries to empower Pepper, both figuratively and literally.

Scott: I forgot what happened to her and briefly thought it was one of those gut shots that characters survive all the time in movies.

James: It’s definitely a rough moment that I agree would rather was very different at minimum. Meanwhile, Killian hauls a still-struggling-with-adapting-to-Extremis Pepper to his secret offshore lair, and Tony starts telling the thugs guarding him that he’s going to kill them. Between this and KISS KISS BANG BANG, I adore how Shane Black writes thugs as these wry little side characters who you actually feel have personalities and outside lives.

Scott: “How far is Tennessee from Miami?” “822 miles.” “Nice.” “I’m good like that.”

James: “How did we get this shift?”

And my personal favourite, “Honestly, I hate working here, they are so weird.”

Scott: Ooh, I was just typing that one!

But yeah, Tony’s armour FINALLY shows up, recharged and ready for the next battle - well, some of it, while he and Rhodey escape the compound and work to foil the next part of Killian’s plan to ABDUCT THE PRESIDENT FROM AIR FORCE ONE!!

James: Tony escapes when summoning his suit over the air (flying 822 miles from Rose Hill to Miami), and is surprisingly lenient to the thugs!

Scott: This plan is so circuitous and yet masterful at the same time.

James: It turns out that the VP was helping Killian because, it is hinted, that Killian has offered the use of Extremis to give the VP’s granddaughter back her amputated leg. With the President, though, Killian is basically just going to capture him so that he can be executed on screen in a Mandarin propaganda video, which will drive military sales of Extremis through the roof.

Scott: They have commandeered the Iron Patriot Armour so Shady Guy can use it to sneak aboard AF1, trap the President in it, and autopilot it to the secret offshore base on a decommissioned oil tanker.

James: And Tony saves the civilians on Air Force One with a REALLY COOL method: he Barrel of Monkeys them by using a mild electrical shock to tense their muscles, so they’re able to hold on to each other super tightly without letting go.

Scott: That is one of my favourite scenes in all movies. “How many are there?” “Twelve.” “How many can I carry?” “Four.” And yet he gets a perfect score.

James: So they each grab onto each other as he “hooks” them on, and one thing I really like is how friendly and supportive Tony is to the people he’s saving. No real snark, just trying to calm people down and help them through a rough situation. It’s a lot more depth than the rescue of the kids he saved in IRON MAN 1 & 2 got. It’s also really smart and visually fun, which befits an instalment in a fun movie series about a genius.

Scott: It’s bright, suspenseful and exciting, and it showcases Tony’s genius and his heroism, it’s an A+++.

James: One of our big complaints with AVENGERS is that the team saving people often felt like an afterthought to the violence and destruction. In IRON MAN 3, it’s a focal point. He saves Pepper. He saves the president. He saves those civilians. And while he kills Shady Guy and, later, some of the other Extremis folks, he goes out of his way to NOT kill the non-powered thugs who are just guys doing their jobs instead of being actual villains.

Scott: It shows why Tony is a hero, and not merely the guy with the most powerful gun.

James: It, as well as the next scene in the action climax, showcases the answer to the movie’s main question about who actually is Iron Man. It’s Tony, not the suit, because it’s finally established as just a tool; Tony’s the one who saves people and thinks of answers to tough situations.

Scott: That sends us headlong into the climax, which I honestly have to say is one of the most awesomely-directed, exciting and interesting climaxes of any MCU film yet, as Tony calls upon his entire army of suits to combat the Extremis thugs by targeting their heat signatures. It’s called the House Party Protocol, and Tony is neither kidding, nor playing.

James: It’s great. It starts with Killian showing how much of an opposite he is to Tony by outright calling Pepper his trophy, and then it goes into this inventive, crazy action scene where Tony gives instructions to all of his suits and hops in between them. It firmly shows that Tony is the boss of the suits. You get these great visuals where Tony jumps between suits in mid-air, or where the suits following his orders will alley-oop the Extremis soldiers into the air, just for another suit to knock them out. There’s that great visual where the Mk42 suit flies in, bumps into something and falls apart, and Tony just goes, “Welp, I’ll roll with this, I don’t need that suit.”

Scott: It’s so perfectly set up to be the hero moment, but it’s just yet another great gag at an unexpected moment. That also helps Tony’s character!

James: It’s a huge action setpiece with 42 suits of armour (43, including Iron Patriot) that actually answers the movie’s philosophical questions.

Scott: Ultimately, Pepper saves the day, after surviving a 200 foot fall to her fiery death. After acrobatically taking down a suit that is targeting her because it’s still set to target anything with an Extremis heat signature, and then taking Killian out once and for all, she observes, “That was really violent. I see why you don’t want to give this up.”

“Who’s a hot mess now?” “Debatable, but leaning towards you.”

James: That’s a line that isn’t set up by anything and is so boneheaded that it comes all the way back around to charming.

Scott: Tony did refer to himself as a hot mess earlier!

James: Oh, right! in that scene I explicitly talked about how much I liked!

Scott: Haha well it’s your article so you can cut that exchange out.

Tony and Pep have a legitimately heartwarming embrace as Tony enacts the Clean Slate Protocol that causes all his suits to self-destruct in an awe-inspiring spectacle. It’s a Festivus Miracle!

James: “Am I going to be okay?” “No, you’re in a relationship with me, things are never going to be okay.” And while destroying his suits, Tony finally embraces who he is: “I fix stuff.” Also the exploding suits become fireworks in a romantic scene between equals! This movie has it all.

Scott: And so his voiceover wraps up over a montage of things being set right, including the shrapnel being removed from Tony’s chest, finally. “The armour wasn’t a distraction, it was a cocoon.” Killian is dead of course, and Slattery is hauled off to jail (I skipped my favourite Slattery line: “There are some people I’d like to roll on immediately.”)

James: It’s a little abrupt, but it’s an interesting idea, that Tony could have actually gotten the shrapnel out anytime, but he was so distracted by how the arc reactor - and being Iron Man - made him feel that he never really tried to.

Scott: The movie pretty tidily writes Tony a happy ending, in case Downey didn’t re-up his contract (spoiler alert: he did.) And in the end, it turns out that Tony was pouring his heart out to Bruce Banner for… some reason.

James: And man, people were UPSET about that.

Scott: They were expecting maybe Ty Burrell? Anytime the credits scene doesn’t tease the next movie, people get real indignant.

James: Honestly, I think nerds have gotten really spoiled and entitled now, where they expect not just post-credits scenes, but post-credits scenes that move forward the franchise mythology in meaningful ways. Even when the post-credits scenes they get indulge a fan/Tumblr-favourite inter-hero friendship.

Scott: Listen, I love the Thanos reveal more than pretty much anything about MARVEL’S THE AVENGERS but I also love the cameo at the end of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY so whatever.

James: Yeah, I like them both! I’m pretty easy about that stuff, because I don’t expect those scenes to be fanservice. Some of them, like the scene in INCREDIBLE HULK or the shawarma scene at the end of AVENGERS, kind of rub me the wrong way, but that’s not because they’re not “Important” or whatever.

Scott: Like anything, it’s all about being a good version of what it is.

James: And since my favourite part of AVENGERS was Bruce Banner being an adorable science pal, I enjoyed this post-credits scene!

Scott: FINAL THOUGHTS?

James: This is another movie where I honestly think the nerd gestalt got it completely wrong. I’d heard some initially positive response to it at the time, but somehow, over that summer, IRON MAN 3 got this weird reputation as a “bad” movie, largely because it wasn’t as big as THE AVENGERS. But that’s why I like it! I really enjoy that it naturally follows from AVENGERS as well as both other IRON MAN movies, and knowingly makes itself smaller in scale. They hired a director/co-writer known for his wry wit and authorial voice, and he made the transition from small pulp-y movies to big action spectacle really well! Like, this movie has a really fun and visually complex action climax and it also asks interesting, subtle philosophical questions of its hero. And it lets him grow up and learn from his mistakes without hitting the audience over the head with it! Like the THOR movies, I think nerds got this one wrong, flat-out.

Scott: It’s an appropriately-sized movie that is all the better for the way it navigates its existence in the post-Avengers landscape. It has a ton of ideas about who Tony is and what Iron Man means. And it acts all those out in a surprisingly tight yet also incredibly elaborate plot that is fun and twisted and loaded with action and humour. It’s creative and bursting with life, honesty and sincerety. What the fuck is not to love? A lack of racist caricatures?

James: I’ll be honest: I’m not sure Jon Favreau could have made this movie.

Scott: He could have made a fine movie out of the same parts, but no, this really outpaces the previous two in too many ways to count. All while feeling organically part of the same series. This is the platonic ideal of what the MCU aims to be.

James: We’ll see when it comes to AGE OF ULTRON, but so far, I think Phase 2 is incredibly strong and learning from a lot of Phase 1’s mistakes.

Scott: IRON MAN THREE (as the end credits say, for some reason) is a movie where all the pieces fit. I’ve really renewed my appreciation for this movie, where I almost bought into its reputation after a while.

James: It’s been on TV a lot over the last few months, so it’s one I’ve caught a few times, in whole or in part, and it’s really enjoyable each time! It grows in my esteem, whereas AVENGERS has suffered from being a movie I saw a second time.