In the last 10 years of comic films, it is hard to compare the awe, wonder and wit in other heroes to that of Robert Downey Junior portraying Tony Stark, better known as Iron Man. Between the ingenious screenplay and the block buster graphics all of the films have landed in the top five Marvel reboot movies. These are movies that appeal to the masses. Anyone who knows nothing about comics can go into these films and enjoy them. With this being said, at what cost does Hollywood press to keep the masses happy instead of the fans that kept this company alive for so long?
I will first state the obvious in this film before getting into the hyper nerdy nitpicking. Please be aware that this article is going to include a massive set of spoilers.
Number One: After the to be expected attack on Stark’s Malibu home there is a scene of indisputable tension and edge of seat attending in which Stark is attempting to attach to his alleged final remote suit that has not been destroyed. The audience sits in terror as he barely latches the last piece and is dragged under water not knowing if our hero is going to live or die through his own stubborn allocation. A sigh of relief erupts once the audience sees that he is alive and well, so much so that he leaves a voicemail to Pepper to ensure that she knows he is safe. This is all well and good. Great action, great execution…until later. Towards the end when RDJ’s character is on the freight boat in the thick of the climax, he can suddenly summon dozens of suits at his disposal? So, as a viewer, in this moment, I feel as though the entire wreckage of the house scene was unnecessary. Why couldn’t he have done this earlier? I really hope I am not the only one who caught this. Whilst on the topic of suits, the entirety of the middle of the film Tony is rendered suit-less attempting to fix his masterpiece with a little misunderstood companion. I enjoyed the character development, I thought the kid was a nice touch, however… you’re Tony Stark. You made that original suit in a goddamn cave in the middle of the desert with shrapnel in your chest knowing that you were going to die if you didn’t man up and do something… and now you are thwarted by the likes of small town life? I don’t think so.
Even more deviling into suits and annoying uses, I found the scene in which Killian posed as the Iron Patriot upon Air Force One absolutely infuriating. How is it that this man completely surpassed security with no one knowing. No one checked to see who was there? I understand the play on suits being decoys in this film, however this circumstance was different. It’s the president of the United States. I get my bags checked going into a baseball game, and believe me, I have a willful suspension of disbelief beyond most, but his just seemed a little far fetched to me.
Oh Killian, Killian, Killian. Can someone please explain what his actual plan was? Besides the fact this film made a complete mockery out of the Mandrin character, which I will get into later. I will give credit where credit is due thought, Marvel handled the marketing of this villain BRILLIANTLY for the character they portrayed and we were phenomenally bewildered by the direction in which the twisted him. Well done. I also couldn’t have thought of a better casting for their interpretation of the slapstick villain. A round of applause for Ben Kingsley please, for fitting the part of a nemesis that never really existed before this film. However, in the grandeur scheme of things, terrorism was stated not to be the motive, the true motive was never revealed, but it was allegedly there. What did Killian want? A nerd who became attractive and rich later in life having his revenge? That’s a little juvenile for this kind of film if you ask me. He was going to enlist the Vice President as his figurehead and he was going force Tony to perfect the Extremis formula, then…what? What exactly drove this man to go insane and evil. All the other villains in these films clearly have reason for their diabolical nature, however I can’t wrap my head around this one. Was it Pepper, the hate for Tony, the need for recognition. I still don’t get it.
On the topic of villains, let’s get into detail about The Mandarin. Wikipedia gave a very valid recap of exactly what his character is.
“The Mandarin is a fictional character, a supervillain who appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is the archenemy of Iron Man.
The character was created by Stan Lee and designed by Don Heck, first appearing in Tales of Suspense #50 (February 1964). The character is described as being born in China before the Communist revolution, to a wealthy Chinese father and an English aristocratic mother, both of whom died when he was very young. He is characterised as a megalomaniac, attempting to conquer the world on several occasions, yet also possessing a strong sense of honor.
The Mandarin is portrayed as a genius scientist and a superhumanly skilled martial artist. However, his primary sources of power are ten power rings that he adapted from the alien technology of a crashed space ship. Each ring has a different power and is worn on a specific finger.
In other media, the Mandarin has been shown in several forms of animation and computer games. He serves as the main antagonist in the 2013 film Iron Man 3. His presence was implied in the 2008 film Iron Man through the name of the terrorist group known as “The Ten Rings”. In 2009, Mandarin was ranked as IGN’s 81st Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.”
Soak that in for a long hard second. IGN rated him in the top 100 greatest comic book villains of all times. What happened? Why did Marvel completely negate the story line of this character. What benefit did this film indulge in by casting this story line to the side for another slapstick character. Tony Stark has wit, JARVIS has silly robotic comedy, even Pepper is written in with comedic value. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND why it was necessary to create yet another laughable character when this role was clearly written to play arch nemesis. I am livid about this, absolutely livid. I smell some kind of political controversy and fear of racism, but that’s just me.
Once Mandrin’s twist was revealed a series of epic battle scenes including a team up of Don Cheadle and Robery Downey Junior ensued and viewers eyes were invaded with shock and awe and blah blah blah. The usual blockbuster shenanigans. Granted, it was well done and pretty to look at but blowing thing up can only keep your attention for so long. I’m skipping to the ending. Tony Stark has a very nonchalant epilogue about how he fixes Peppers Exremis infliction in a few attempts in a matter of seconds because he’s that much of a genius was extremely far fetched, considering the film had spoken on numerous occasion about how the remedy was flawed to begin with. Also, the sudden desire to cast aside everywhere that Tony Stark’s character had been and everything he had become by removing the shrapnel from his chest then tossing the magnet that literally held his life together and the original source of the suit into the ocean. I understand that it was necessary for character development and the metaphor of moving on. If this was that easy of a fix, why did he wait so long to remove said pieces of metal? There is a lot of speculation as to the rush of this ending and the lack of attention to detail. I’m going to give the benefit of the doubt and say that it’s gearing up for the next Avengers and wanted to leave it open.
Overall if you are not a fan of the comics and aren’t easily offended it was a good movie. A lot of action, and comedic writing. However, there is going to be an uprising of anger from fans streaming through the internet the next couple of weeks.