Iron Man 3!
Hi, so, I went and saw Iron Man 3 Thursday night, and I’ve been trying to write my reaction ever since! Things were really busy, so I was just snatching time here and there, but after a while I realized I’d sort of snatched a lot of time. More time than it would take a person who is normal to write a reaction post for a movie they loved.
Then I looked and my reaction post was 8,000 words. Oops. Well, this is lettered for “so many feeeeeeeeeeeeels!”
The Mandarin: Like many, when I heard the Mandarin would be the villain, I was appalled. I didn't know anything about this villain, but the name rings instant warning bells, as did the imagery. Comic book history in general is pretty offensive when it comes to villains of other cultures. (edit) I felt like they were trying to avoid accusations of racism by making him “ambiguously ethnic,” which is even worse, imo. I felt like my worst fears were confirmed when I read a quote from producers or something that said they cast Kingsley because they were going for a more "international" villain.
And part of me was saying, why would Ben Kingsley do this? Kingsley has played a lot of “ambiguously ethnic” characters, but aren’t we past this point? He seems like such a classy gentleman; why would someone like that take on something like this, which is so obviously and egregiously offensive?
I must say that the quote I’d read at least comforted me with the reassurance that they were thinking about the issue, though it shouldn’t be much comfort if they were thinking about it wrong. Then, around a week or so ago, I started hearing from people who had seen it that it was not nearly as racist as it looked, so I hoped that they had subverted the villain somehow.
Boy, did they ever fucking subvert that villain.
First of all, good job keeping spoilers under wraps, people. Well done. Kudos. Especially when possibly faced with flak from accusations of racism. The accusations were justified in light of the previews, but the Mandarin works much better if you don’t know the twist, and not just because it’s a plot twist. It’s also a twist on comics canon, on the super hero genre, on the movie-going public, on moral themes and assumptions made by the problematic text of this canon and this canon’s fans. Just, Jesus.
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fairestcat says it succinctly: “[they take] a character who is a blatant racist stereotype invented for a western audience and make him a blatant racist stereotype invented for a western audience.”
Super hero ethics, moral themes: I have a big problem with the Iron Man franchise in general. The Iron Man suit is a weapon of mass destruction. In the first movie, this gets pointed out, and the question gets asked, whether one man should really get to make unilateral decisions about how that weapon is used. Basically, the answer to the question is, “If you’re Tony Stark, you can do what you want!”
I actually appreciate that more than a movie like The Dark Knight, which asks the question quite well by framing a whole movie around it (whereas in the IM series, it’s really more of a side note), then pretends to be ambiguous (which the IM series never does) while at the same time suggesting that Batman was right all along. The problem is that TDK is still a superhero movie.
When I was writing The Hollow Men, my beta told me that if you’re going to ask questions about super hero ethics, and do it within the genre, you can only do it in two ways. You can say, “super heroes are right!” validating the idea that super heroes should get special rules because they’re special, or you can say, “super heroes are wrong!” In short, you can have IM1, which validates the genre, or you can have Watchmen, which deconstructs the genre.
I tend to disagree. I think you can have stories that are about superheroes that neither validate nor completely subvert the basic premise. I want it to be possible, because I don’t believe that skewed ethics are part of the genre by definition. And it’s okay to destroy the genre; Watchmen has its place. I just don’t think it’s our only option to have an acceptable conversation about these issues within the genre. That said, I haven’t really seen a movie in the genre address said issues in an acceptable way without tearing the genre down.
TDK is disturbing to me because it tries so hard to be ambiguous; it makes people think it’s ambiguous, and yet it still feels like it’s trying to give us answers in the end. Meanwhile, the first Iron Man movie just felt like it was saying, “Yeah, this is a problem, but hey this is a super hero movie, and this is how this works in this world, so let’s just blow it off.”
It says that, and yet, this whole series is about “bad guys” stealing Tony’s technology and then doing massive damage with it! Stane, Hammer, and Vanko all are riffing on the Iron Man suit. They’re all in a hot war with Tony, each making bigger and better weapons that put everyone more at risk. So it’s totally problematizing Tony’s actions, while at the same time not addressing it at all.
In some ways, IM3 doesn’t deal with that either. It starts out by saying that you unknowingly create demons and then you have to face those demons, which is great. In some ways, Tony created Stane, Hammer, and Vanko. But he did not create Killian by blowing him off at a party. Being an asshole doesn’t bring on nuclear holocaust; creating nukes brings on nuclear holocaust. So I was glad that this movie highlights the fact that Tony has created his own demons, but kind of disappointed that of them all, Killian was the least like his personal creations.
That said, the Mandarin is explicitly a creation of western attitudes, and those attitudes include Tony’s, and implicitly, all of the stuff in the Iron Man movies. Thus, Killian is implicitly created by them as well.
The idea is that Killian is able to get away with what he’s doing because he’s created a super villain, while Killian himself doesn’t really have the motivations of a villain. He wants power, but he’s not into total domination or killing all his enemies or whatever. What he wants to do is develop a successful product, and it’s going badly, so he needs to cover up his mistakes. That’s why the Mandarin gets created.
So, Extremis is a metaphor for an industrial product, such as oil or weapons tech. These are the things that represent power, the things that everyone wants, the things that everyone is trying to get. While the problems with politics and fundamentalists are all very real, they’re all stemming from attitudes and behaviors related to industry.
So, while the movie never really points the finger at Tony’s technology, and in fact does so even less than the other Iron Man movies, it does point a finger at America/western culture/global culture/the current political atmosphere/etc. It tells us that we’ve created war, we’ve created enemies, we’ve created an atmosphere in which tech/industry/power allow you to do anything, we’ve created dissatisfied citizens and veterans, we’ve created a construct of fear and terror that everyone buys into.
It doesn’t make up for the fact that Tony’s actions always get validated, but it does ask you to think about the genre. Plus, since it’s not questioning Tony specifically, I don’t get that icky feeling I get from TDK, where I feel like it’s answering its own question. It was almost like there were two separate levels: the level where it was comic-booky and okay, and the other level where it was saying, “Please think.” And yes, I would appreciate these levels being merged, but if, as my beta said, it isn’t possible to answer the question in any form but a right/wrong binary, with little room for ambiguity, this is a way to have your cake and eat it too.
I approve.
So does Orson Welles.
Trevor: There are few actors that could have been more perfect for this role, considering other roles Kingsley has played. In that sense, it’s very meta casting.
On several levels, Trevor is farcical. For one thing, though this movie is doing something entirely different with the genre, it’s not like a villain hiring a face for his evil hasn’t been done. It is a comic-booky premise, with all the campiness that often entails. The writers also made Trevor himself hilarious, as did Kingsley. And then of course there’s the meta/irony/farce of Trevor not being the actual villain, which I have already discussed.
But this is the other brilliant thing about casting Kingsley: you have to take him seriously. Even when he’s playing someone this ridiculous, he feels real; Trevor feels like a human being with wants and needs and layers. If this character had come off as too camp, I think it would have made the point less well, because the point is: this is real. People might not be hiring actors, but we as human beings are creating these situations ourselves. The important part is that Trevor is still human, and Kingsley is a talented enough actor to make you believe it, even while being comic gold, and looking like he’s having the time of his life.
But I am still disappoint: I did have a problem with the Middle Eastern women in the sewing factory place. Yes, Killian played them: the U.S. expected the signal to be coming from the Middle East, so that’s where it came from, and he planted an Extremis agent there to take out Iron Patriot. Still, I felt like most of the scene was played for comedy, and it wasn’t the right kind of comedy. The joke’s on us; the joke’s on Rhodey, but the why it’s a joke doesn’t come across. Instead, it’s played as if it’s funny because he got the wrong info. It also seemed to be laughing at the very real conundrum of female liberation in places where the culture itself prohibits it.
I also thought the handling of disability in this was poor. The worst was the Vice President’s daughter. It was questionable with the wounded soldiers, because yeah, okay, we can understand that people who have lost limbs or whose family members have lost limbs would want them back. What we do not need is the message that the only reason people get involved with the Extremis project is disability, because pretty soon you start getting the message that all people who have disabilities will be involved in Extremis. Just no. Do better, movie; you were doing so well.
Tony/Pepper: Tony got her a giant rabbit. I actually didn’t think the gift itself was that funny, since it’s obviously meant to be funny, but all of the conversations about it were hilarious. And Tony being frustrated when he tried to explain it to Maya. It reminded me of whatthingswithwings says about Tony’s inappropriate gifts.
Then, we have the suit without Tony in it waiting in the living room for her. This suggested some things I wanted to see right off the bat, whether they meant to or not: is Pepper attracted to the suit, does Tony want her to be attracted to the suit, how much does Tony see himself as the suit, how much of Tony does Pepper see in the suit, etc.
But then there's also the issue of this creepy robot that talks and acts like her boyfriend but is not her boyfriend, which is an interesting reversal from all the Buffybotesque stories in which guys build robot girlfriends. In some ways, Tony using the suit like this with Pepper hints at a lot of scary stuff in which Tony feels he is the suit, but Pepper knows he isn't. And it makes sense; Tony feels safe in the suit; he can save her in the suit; he would rather be the suit because it's invulnerable, etc. Pepper knows this; knows he disassociating, and that's why she's worried.
But then there's the issue of him knowing she was with Killian. He didn't actually stalk her or use his technology to spy on her; Happy told him even though Tony didn't even really want to know. I loved this, because Tony has the power, tech, and some of the personality traits to spy on her. We know he doesn’t follow social norms; we know he has had very few relationships; we know he has a gigantic ego; we know he doesn’t respect boundaries. Pepper thinking he had her followed and being pissed off about it just opens this whole realm of thought for me. I like thinking Pepper knows what Tony is capable of. She knows the danger he could become. She knows she has to walk away, for her own mental health, if that happens, and she’s afraid she won’t be able to do it, because she still loves him anyway.
But Tony didn’t go check up on her, he wasn’t worried when Happy told him about Killian, he didn’t even really want to hear it, and all of this was awesome. Part of the reason it’s awesome is that I really don’t see him as the jealous type. Another reason it’s great is you can read it as Tony actively trying to respect boundaries and not use his awesome powers for evil. I love the idea of him knowing what a “good boyfriend” is, but just never having actually tried to be that before. Lastly, he obviously trusts her completely. Never once during this movie does he doubt that Pepper is in love with him and will still want to be with him, and Tony has a lot of issues but it is so nice that that is not one of them.
(Even when he runs away and plays dead and gets their house blown up and puts her in danger, he just says, “Sorry! Won’t do that again!” as though he entirely expects her to forgive him. He isn’t worried about her leaving him. Now, there is something wrong with that. For one, this is his gigantic ego at work; maybe he never fears Pepper will leave him even when she should. He does put her in danger; he puts himself in danger; and he got their home blown up. However, the whole message to Pepper read much more as, “You know I’m like this and we’ve already worked through that and accepted it,” than, “I know you love me so I can do anything I want nyah.” And it’s not like an apology from Tony is flippant, no matter how he sounds when he talks.
In fact, how much do I love that this person has grown enough to say, “I love you and I’m sorry”? How much do I love that they didn’t string out the whole Pepper-believing-he’s-dead thing? How much do I love that he calls her first thing, using a pay phone? And how much do I love that this is all believable to me—because it was. It was entirely believable that he had grown enough, and that their relationship had grown enough, that he could say and do these things.)
Speaking of Tony being emotive, it was very different for him (imo) to say what he did to Pepper about not being able to sleep and needing to protect her, etc. I also believe that he’s changed enough to speak about those emotions, though it felt like a little much early on. I'm still a little unsure of what I thought about Pepper response. I felt like in Iron Man 2, she'd sort of learned to accept that the suit is a part of who Tony is, and that when she chooses to be with him, she chooses to be with it as well—so calling the suits "distractions" seemed a little back-slippage? But in retrospect, maybe what she was trying to tell him that working on the suits was a way of avoiding actually dealing with his issues.
Actually, this makes the end interesting in a new way. At the end, Pepper says that she understands why the suits are distracting, or that they're not just distractions? (Idk, I don't remember the line, help?) So on the one hand, you could say that if she back-slipped, she's taking yet another step forward by not only accepting Iron Man but identifying with Iron Man as well. On the other hand, if she hadn't back-slipped, but was in fact saying, "You're not dealing with your issues," then Tony blowing up his suits is his way of saying, "I'm dealing with my issues now."
Also, I loved how her response to Tony being emotive wasn’t to give a lot of emotion back. Her response was basically, “Okay, we need to have sex now.” It made it seem like an acknowledgement that he had really bared his soul. It was an acknowledgement that his problems couldn’t really just be solved with a snap of her fingers. It was an acknowledgement that they were going to work through it, and she was going to do it with him. And I loved the way it was phrased, because it’s cheesy, but a shower is definitely a metaphor, and telling him he’s going to take a shower with her adds to that metaphor, but is also pretty commanding. And Tony liked her being commanding.
The next Tony/Pepper we get is Tony having trouble sleeping, and the suit coming to them in their bed. This was a very visceral scene for me, which is great. It needs to be terrifying, and it was. Pepper is dealing with a very dangerous man, who has in some ways split himself, who could very easily hurt her and himself. She knows all this and this brings it right out there. I was sad that she just walked out when he’s obviously terrified too, but I thought it was awesome as well. Again, she knows she needs to take care of her own mental health. She knows that there’s only so much she should accept from Tony. When he crosses a line, she tells him and there are consequences, even if those consequences hurt him.
I also loved the moment when the house got attacked when Tony put the suit on her. I love that that was his first instinct. It wasn’t something that I expected to happen, because the suit is his, and I always imagined him kind of being territorial about it (“No! Mine!”) But if he is territorial, Pepper is more important to him than the suit. Of course he’d give it up to save her. And if the suit is a part of himself, of course he would cover her with himself if he could. I just love that he doesn’t even really seem to think about it; he just throw it on her; I love that Tony thinks quickly in brutal situations. (I like to think that Banner doesn’t. WHAT. I think about Bruce all the time; I’m always going to have these random comparisons; I can’t help it.)
So anyway, the best thing about him throwing the suit on Pepper is that she throws herself on him. Later, when she’s trying to save Maya, it’s obvious Pepper doesn’t know how to use the suit and doesn’t know what she’s doing. But man, when she was saving Tony—God, that’s just instinct for her.
Sadly, that conversation at the beginning, though awesome, was the only real Tony/Pepper we get besides their conversation at the end (though admittedly, there’s some pretty good banter with Tony/Pep/Maya.my_daroga and I really appreciated the way Tony totally acknowledged that he used to be a whore, but also doesn’t seem to be having any trouble with monogamy these days).
Speaking of the conversation at the end, I really loved him asking her why she didn’t dress like that at home, because Paltrow was really hot at the end. The girl is of course amazingly beautiful and gorgeous, but she’s not really my type and I just don’t find her attractive, but man. She looked awesome at the end. I was imagining in my head that Tony was really turned on by her kicking ass, so it was nice to get that hint that that was probably true.
I did love Tony’s reaction to Pepper being tortured. I loved how he couldn’t even look at her. RDJ made himself look so powerless, and RDJ!Tony never looks powerless; it was awesome. I actually didn’t think his reaction was nearly as good when he thought she died, nor when she returned, but he had other things to deal with at those times.
And I loved the line about her already being perfect. I don’t like it when people say people are perfect, because people are never perfect. I prefer people to say, “I love you in spite of some of your faults, and because of other of your faults, and because of the way we fit together.” But there was something about the timing and delivery of the line that read to me as, “she was perfect for me,” and I like to think she is. Tony isn’t the type to think through whether something is true to the letter; he’s much more likely to make sweeping statements and believe they’re true until they’re not.
Pepper: We didn’t get to see her CEO’ing much, but I loved what we did get: her talking to Happy, then meeting with Killian. I thought the points she brought up with Killian were great; her being concerned about what the tech could be used for (weapons) is both prescient and relevant to the themes of this movie and the series. I wish more had been done with that. I thought the way she turned Killian down was this cool, badass professionalism that suggests how she runs the company the rest of the time.
I also really enjoyed her conversation with Maya. I feel like someone was very consciously thinking about passing the Bechdel test during that conversation, because Maya wasn’t even talking about Killian, even though that’s what Maya’s concerned about. She was talking about her research and the effect it’s had on people, which is again, relevant to themes, and also some cool stuff to hear from a female scientist. I didn’t even care that it felt a little over-conscious; it just made me happy. I was disappointed that Maya turned out to be just setting Pepper up, but hey, at least the conversation happened.
I was also disappointed that Pepper had to be a victim, setting up two tropes they really need to stop using in comics: damsel in distress our hero has to save, and damsel in distress who spurs hero into action. They tried to address this by lampshading it, which I really respect—if you’re gonna do it, at least acknowledge it—but it also makes it more disappointing. If you know you’re doing it, then stop it. They also explicitly made clear that she was not just a damsel to spur Tony’s action; she was also a prize. I felt like this was another lampshade; they were trying to subvert the trope by having Pepper kick Killian’s ass at the end, but it was still upsetting that Pepper had to be the victim.
I went into the movie really, really afraid they might kill off Pepper, but by the time she fell I knew she had Extremis. I knew she would come back, so I wasn’t worried.
The part that made me cry was when she does come back and kicks ass. I feel like in this series, they have always been careful to give Pepper action at the end. In the first one, she’s the one who has to stop the reactor. In the second one, she’s the one who stops Hammer. I have always rather liked that the stuff she’s done hasn’t been actiony, because she’s not a super hero. Her powers are intelligence, initiative, efficiency, independence, not ass kicking. I have even liked that she screams a lot and gets really scared, because hey, some people do.
That said, I loved her kicking ass so much. She has been given super powers, and she is smart and independent and takes initiative, so of course, she uses them. God, it was just so amazing, and she looked so beautiful doing it, and she did it to save Tony—she knocks Tony out of the way; he is the damsel, and while it doesn’t make the earlier stuff okay, it is one of the best moments in any comic book movie anywhere.
Maya: I really, really loved that Tony pretended he didn’t remember her. I feel like he does this a lot with people: plays the playboy until he figures out what they want. Or until he gets bored. Or until whenever. I feel like he probably does this with Steve all the time, and that Steve gets pretty fed up with it. I feel like he does it with Bruce; Bruce never reacts so Tony stops bothering.
Anyway, Maya. I liked this character; I liked this actress, but I was sort of disappointed. I loved her conversation with Pepper; I loved that she was a brilliant scientist. I loved that she wanted Extremis to succeed, but that she didn’t want to go on hurting people. I love that she was willing to do horrible things for the sake of her project, but that in the end she was willing to sacrifice herself. She has all the makings of a strong, ambiguous character, so I guess I’m sort of annoyed by the fact that she didn’t really get to do anything really cool except try to sacrifice herself, and then she didn’t even get to do that.
Also, I just like the Maya in the Extremis comic better. I don’t remember the comic well enough, but I felt like Maya in the comics was a lot more in control of the Extremis situation, and calling a lot more of the shots. This Maya just really felt like a pawn of Killian, which was annoying.
Happy: We got about the same amount of Happy in this movie as we do in the other ones—maybe a little more than we get in IM1, and less than we get in IM2. Why do I feel like I know him so much better? Who freakin’ wrote this shit? Why weren’t they writing the rest? Jesus, when it comes to this character, the kid, the fanboy, and even Rhodey, it felt like someone studied Whedon’s technique in The Avengers, realized, “hey, you really can feel like you get to know someone in the space of three lines if you actually give them something interesting to say,” and then . . . the characters said it.
For instance, Happy isn’t the brightest tool in the shed (touching the plant!), obsessed with his job (badges!), puts his work above people (replace the humans in human resources!), is rough around the edges (complaints have increased 300%!), is a big dork (forehead of security), is bad with tech (can’t flip his camera), is overly suspicious (he followed those dudes!), ships Tony/Pepper, cares about Tony, and has a sensitive side (Downton Abbey).
And you can take those things and read so much more into them. I read someone’s reaction that said that Happy was characterized as sucking as head of security, and I thought what they did with Happy in this job was so much more nuanced. Yes, Happy is bad at the human side of his job, but he actually rocks at security. He was suspicious of those dudes, but it turned out he had a reason to be. That reason wasn’t visible; it read more like Happy just had a bad feeling about it—but okay! Awesome! Happy is someone who a) has good instincts about people who are up to no good, and b) follows his instincts.
Plus, he actually got a relationship with Tony in this. Tony called him one of his best friends. Tony visited him in the hospital and looked like he was actually in physical pain, seeing his friend laid out like that. Plus, we got Happy being concerned on Tony’s behalf about Pepper being with another man. We also got Happy snarking at Tony, and we got him protecting Tony in the early years. Also, I love the idea that one of Tony’s best friends is so goddamn bad with a tablet.
Idk why Happy is so much better in this movie than in Jon Favreau’s own freakin’ movie, but then again, everything about this is better than Favreau’s movie. Maybe he should stick to playing an adorable Happy.
Rhodey: I’m just so glad that all of Tony’s supporting cast got such awesome parts in this. I wish there could have been more Rhodey and that he got some more plot, but what was there was excellent.
There were again, the little things: Tony and Rhodey having drinks in the beginning, like friends do (have we ever gotten to see Tony spend time with a friend besides Pepper in anything but life threatening situations?), and WARMACHINEROX, and the line about how Tony’s always hacking into Rhodey’s suit. They’re buddies! Tony calls him “buddy”!
My favorite part of this!Rhodey was that we got to see that he has different strengths than Tony. This comes out the most when they’re sneaking around and neither of them have a suit, and Rhodey is using military terms and Stark has no idea what Rhodey’s talking about. And Rhodey knows how to use a gun and Stark actually has no idea.
And then Rhodey gets to save the President.
Tony doesn’t save the day: I just readsynecdochic’s review, which points out that supplemental characters take on the action whereas Tony is the mechanic. He built the things so this could happen, but he’s not the warrior here.
I find this interesting on several levels. For one thing, it’s something I’ve been tempted to do with Tony before, because there are a lot of warriors in The Avengers, and I sort of wish there were more characters (like Bruce) who prefer to stay away from the action. But of course, Tony does not prefer that. He may be the mechanic, but he’s also the one in the suit. He wants to be the one fighting; on some level I think he needs it. I think he’s very controlling of his creations.
This movie manages to make him a huge part of the final action without making him be the one to save the day, not as a choice, but through circumstance. It’s an interesting thing for the movie-makers to have done. To me, Pepper killing the villain and Rhodey saving the day feels perfectly natural, but most of Hollywood seems pretty hung up on one guy doing all the work, unless it’s four guys who each get their own film, if you know what I mean. In Iron Man movies Iron Man has to be the hero. It’s a stupid trope, but I thought it was ballsy that this movie defied that, since these movies so rarely do.
That said, let’s think about what it means. If Tony’s super power is building things, not using them, we’re back at the problems IM1 and 2 present and don’t adequately address: Stane, Hammer, and Vanko all steal and riff off Iron Man/arc reactor tech. Those movies prove that if the tech isn’t in Tony’s hands, it’s evil. So you could say that by highlighting the “mechanic” role instead of the “using the machines” role, you’re highlighting the fact that Tony’s just making a lot of WMDs for anybody to use.
On the other hand, Rhodey saves the day using Iron Man tech. (Actually, he does it mostly with his own two hands, which is so cool, but presumably he gets the President out of the Iron Patriot and uses the Iron Patriot to get them out of there?) And Pepper kills the bad guy with Extremis tech. I think the point is that dangerous weapons are dangerous. Some people do bad things. Some people do good things.
It’s a fairly simplistic point and not necessarily a useful one, but at least they’re not (still) saying only Tony can do good things.
The kid: If you had told me there was gonna be a kid in this movie, I’d’ve assumed there was a mandate to get younger audiences. I still think that might be the reason the kid is there. We didn’t need another character, especially someone who isn’t from comics canon (he’s not, is he?) We don’t necessarily need him to further the plot. And if you’d’ve asked me before the film, I’d’ve told you we certainly don’t need Tony bonding with a kid, because he wouldn’t; we don’t need Tony being cute with a kid, because he’d be a dick; we don’t need the writers fucking up Tony’s characterization by trying to show us that he likes kids and dogs, because he doesn’t.
But since you put the damn kid in the damn movie, I’d never ever ever ever want the version without him. He’s perfect. Everything about Tony and the kid is goddamn perfect, and I never thought I’d be saying that.
The kid isn’t a realistic kid, imo. He’s a little bit too aware of what’s going on with Tony, and seems a little too self-aware as well. I don’t care, though; a lot of it works as a sort of short-hand for who the kid is and how Tony relates to children, which is not at all.
Tony is totally inappropriate without necessarily being cruel. When he is mean, he apologizes, but not really. He bonds with the kid without being nice. He shows that he understands what it’s like to be a kid, but he doesn’t pity the kid; he has empathy, but not sympathy. All of it is perfect, and felt like I was reading the very best of good fanfic. I mean that in the most complimentary way possible.
Anxiety attacks: The anxiety attacks also felt like the very best of good fanfic, which is also a compliment, because fanfic actually deals with consequences. Fanfic posits that fictional people are real people who live in the real world who have to deal with things like PTSD. They also posit that Tony Stark could be a mermaid, but whatever.
I loved that this was there. I feel like Hollywood isn’t very good at allowing action heroes to be vulnerable in this way. You can have an action hero have PTSD, but if he does, that’s his schtick, and it doesn’t get mentioned very much (think John Watson in Sherlock. PTSD is presented as a premise for the character, and then gets dropped fairly quickly). You’re more likely to get a hero who is deeply damaged, but whose problems don’t manifest in obvious, recognizable ways that can be diagnosed with clinical terms. You can argue that it’s because psychological disorders are never textbook, and to make them so reduces them, but the real reason is that no one wants to think Batman has schizophrenia, or that Peter Parker is bipolar, etc.
But apparently, someone in this world wanted us to think Tony has PTSD, for which I am deeply grateful. I love the way it was handled, because it felt perfectly in character—Tony not recognizing what it is, needing to be told, needing to get away from other people when he’s having an attack, but also needing to push through it. You get the feeling that it happens and he just sort of ignores it; he doesn’t think about it, because Tony always needs to go go go. If he stops, he might drown. I thought RDJ did a good job with the acting.
I also love that this happens as a consequence to a traumatic occurrence. They never really talk about New York, which on the one hand, makes me sad. In some ways, you could see it as a cop-out—they don’t want to talk about what happened, because they want you to pay for IM3 even if you didn’t see The Avengers. But they also want you to pay for The Avengers, so they’ve got to give The Avengers some kind of weigh plot-wise, and reward the viewers who have seen it.
But I don’t think that’s all they were doing by just calling it “New York” and not going into The Avengers plot. For one thing, they made it a trigger for Tony; of course he doesn’t want to talk about it. For another thing, this really leaves it in the hands of the viewer to decide why and how New York traumatized Tony. After all, Tony has been in life-threatening situations before; why was this one so much worse?
I have two theories. One: Tony made the choice to sacrifice himself. He tells Steve in The Avengers that he’d just cut the wire, and he obviously believes that he can always do that, that he will always have that option. But then it comes down to the actual wire, and he realizes that option isn’t there. He can no longer believe that he can always just cut the wire, which has got to be a paradigm shift for Tony. He also realizes that he is the sort to throw himself on the wire, which must also be a paradigm shift. He didn’t know he was the sort of person who would be willing to sacrifice himself, so he’s got to be asking himself why he was willing—does he have a death wish? Etc.
Theory two: as I have been discussing, Tony’s other foes have been of his own creation. The other things he’s fought in the other movies were machines invented by other human beings. Tony believes himself smarter and strong and better, and so he believes that he can always win. Then he is faced with aliens from outer space, gods, and technology so far beyond his ken that he has to know he cannot invent it or overcome it sheerly by the power of his intellect and force of his will. That’s got to be a paradigm shift as well.
. . . Actually, when you think about it, those two theories are sort of the same thing.
The fanboy: was hilarious. Perhaps I should have felt that this was some kind of indictment of fans, but instead, I thought it 1) adequately addressed the paparazzi all of the Avengers no doubt have to deal with after New York, and 2) provided a juxtaposition to the crowd of reporters in the beginning. Tony seems actively unhappy with the reporters (though maybe he’s more unhappy with the Mandarin and Happy getting hurt). Meanwhile, Fanboy is annoying and could totally get in his way, but he genuinely admires Tony and all that Tony stands for, and so is helpful in the end. It was just some nice, quick commentary on both the good things and the bad things about fans.
Also, he got a tattoo based on a doll he made.
I want that doll.
JARVIS: I like robots. I like how they are like humans, but they aren’t humans, which brings up all kinds of questions about what the soul is. JARVIS is fascinating as a creation of Tony’s—because he’s not Tony; he’s just a part of Tony, and he’s a part of Tony engineered to be a specific thing. The reason I love books is they give us whole worlds and entire populations created by one person’s mind; JARVIS is a fictional character to whom Tony gave birth.
However, there has never really been enough in the other movies for me to really do much with these thoughts. JARVIS definitely has a personality, but it seems to be comprised mostly of snark. Before this movie, I felt like JARVIS just wasn’t multi-faceted enough for my interest in robots to really make a connection to him. But in this movie, we have JARVIS getting tired, failing, seeming confused, and gradually coming back. Just those little bits were enough for me, and I loved them.
Iron Man: Then there was the suit—Tony taking care of the suit; for him it is both a burden and, well, a bundle of joy. Maybe the parallel was the reason for the kid. The suit needs to be made comfortable; it needs to be kept safe; it needs TLC, but it also needs to be useful; it needs to do what Tony wants it to.
I loved that Tony didn’t know what to do without it (when he was talking to the kid about it on the phone). It made sense that that moment was brief—Tony always acts like he knows what to do, and he’s a quick thinker, which was why this moment surprised me so much. He’s always thought of himself a creator; the fact that he doesn’t remember that in this moment is significant. It means that at some point, he began to rely on the suit just as much or more than himself. It means that he doesn’t see the suit as just something he’s made, but as a part of himself.
Again, this changes the meaning of blowing all the suits up—he’s realizing that they are not him. They’re just some stuff he made, and he can make more. I think that’s what Pepper was trying to tell him all along.
The action sequences: I was more engaged in these action sequences than almost any other action movie (The Matrix and Terminator II always win, though), mostly because I was actually worried about something each and every time.
Watching Happy fly through the air was terrifying, because I hadn’t even considered that he could die. I already said what I loved about Tony putting the suit on Pepper, but then there was Tony almost drowning—I loved him using the glove to pull him out. Then there was the first action sequence in which Tony doesn’t have the suit. I was just so glad they managed to believably divorce him from it.
Then he makes weapons out of Christmas ornaments and a fuzzy glove! And fights with random pieces of the Iron Man suit! This and the suit hopping at the end were all just really different, creative, unique ways to use the suit. They showed how versatile and dynamic it can be, whereas in the other movies . . . it’s sort of hard to get engaged when you’re basically watching a guy in a flying tank. I also appreciated the lack of CGI.
The only thing that didn’t interest me that much was the Barrel of Monkeys bit, mostly because I hoped he was going to have to choose to only save four, instead of all thirteen. I really wanted Tony to be faced with that dilemma—another instance of not being able to cut the wire. That said, when the semi made the suit fly apart I actually gasped, even though I knew Tony wasn’t hurt.
Mise-en-scène: Why was this movie set during Christmas? Was this meant for a Christmas release? I didn't mind, but I feel like Hollywood sets movies during Christmas for Christmas movies. It was actually interesting seeing it at this time of year. Though I can see myself watching it at Christmas. Like Die Hard.
I loved Tony’s costuming all the way through, with his weird checkered scarf and stupid hat. It was nice to see Tony not looking like a million bucks for once, and yet still managing to stick out even when he’s trying to blend in.
I also loved Rhodey’s green polo. It was just so clean cut, boring, and dorky. Rhodey’s such a straight up guy, and the shirt read that way. But mostly, I love Don Cheadle’s arms, so there’s that. (Edited to explain: I don't find Rhodey boring. He's just the kind of guy that would dress in a perfectly normal and boring way, and then he's kicking all sorts of ass and taking names and you're just sort of rocking back on your heels going . . . where did you come from?)
The end: I really hope this is the last Iron Man movie. It was really good; it felt like Tony had really evolved from the beginning; it started with a flashback to before Afghanistan and ended with him getting the arc reactor removed; the voice-over narration sounded really final. It was just a good ending, and I want to believe that Tony just continues to make his life better. To get another whole movie out of him you’d have to do something terrible to how much he’s grown and accomplished, and I just don’t want it. I do think you could put him in a few more Avengers movies and that it will be awesome, so I was happy to see the “Tony Stark will return” message.
I was a little sad to see the arc reactor go, but it fit thematically. A lot of people ask why he didn’t just get the shrapnel removed earlier, but I always loved that he didn’t. It was like a scar, or like tattoos some people get to remind them of something significant. He needed proof that he was breakable; he needed to remember that he wants to do something more with his life. Basically, he needs to deal with what was done to him and make other people pay for it.
By getting it removed, he’s saying, “This wasn’t done to me;” he’s saying, “I choose this.” He wasn’t forced to become Iron Man; he chooses to be Iron Man. It’s not something he can leave behind, but something he has accepted and made peace with. I really want it to just end there—partly, selfishly, so I can try to figure out for myself what this new Tony Stark will do. I like to think he’s going to work on more clean energy projects and support the other Avengers and support Pepper as she leads the way for Stark Industries, but I don’t think the end means that he’s put the suit behind him. I’m interested in thinking about how he chooses to use it in the future, what he has learned about drawing stark lines between good and bad, and what he has learned about the use of his own tech.
BRUCE BANNER OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG! I knew there was gonna be an after-movie tag, and I had high hopes for it involving Ruffalo.
At first, I was a little unsure about the voice over narration. In general, I love Tony!voice, so the more talking RDJ gets to do in Iron Man movies the better, I say. But it seemed very emotive for Tony, to want to tell his story this way. OTOH, he's apparently telling it to Bruce, and there's so much you can do with that; there are so many questions you can ask about why he opens up to Bruce and whether he opens up to anyone else, etc.
Maybe he’s saying all this to Bruce because he thinks Bruce can identify, or thinks it will help Bruce—or maybe he knows Bruce won’t deal with it. He knows Bruce will just sit there and let him talk. Steve would try to fix it, and Tony doesn’t feel comfortable with enough other people to talk through it, and he knows that Banner is just gonna sit there and say, “Uh-huh” a lot, and maybe snore. Tony finds this comforting. I gotta go write a fic now.
my_daroga were having a debate about where the rest of the Avengers were during this, but we both agreed it would be totally awesome if Bruce himself was just at Stark Tower or something. He’s just dicking around in the lab, messing with stuff, and he’s not listening to the radio or TV because they stress him out. He’s jamming to Beethoven or Billie Holiday or something, who knows. Then Tony calls after Pepper takes down Killian, and he’s all, “It’s alright! We’re okay! Everything’s under control! We’re fine!”
And Bruce is just like, “Uh. What the hell are you talking about? Also why don’t you own a dishwasher?”
Then I looked and my reaction post was 8,000 words. Oops. Well, this is lettered for “so many feeeeeeeeeeeeels!”
The Mandarin: Like many, when I heard the Mandarin would be the villain, I was appalled. I didn't know anything about this villain, but the name rings instant warning bells, as did the imagery. Comic book history in general is pretty offensive when it comes to villains of other cultures. (edit) I felt like they were trying to avoid accusations of racism by making him “ambiguously ethnic,” which is even worse, imo. I felt like my worst fears were confirmed when I read a quote from producers or something that said they cast Kingsley because they were going for a more "international" villain.
And part of me was saying, why would Ben Kingsley do this? Kingsley has played a lot of “ambiguously ethnic” characters, but aren’t we past this point? He seems like such a classy gentleman; why would someone like that take on something like this, which is so obviously and egregiously offensive?
I must say that the quote I’d read at least comforted me with the reassurance that they were thinking about the issue, though it shouldn’t be much comfort if they were thinking about it wrong. Then, around a week or so ago, I started hearing from people who had seen it that it was not nearly as racist as it looked, so I hoped that they had subverted the villain somehow.
Boy, did they ever fucking subvert that villain.
First of all, good job keeping spoilers under wraps, people. Well done. Kudos. Especially when possibly faced with flak from accusations of racism. The accusations were justified in light of the previews, but the Mandarin works much better if you don’t know the twist, and not just because it’s a plot twist. It’s also a twist on comics canon, on the super hero genre, on the movie-going public, on moral themes and assumptions made by the problematic text of this canon and this canon’s fans. Just, Jesus.
fairestcat says it succinctly: “[they take] a character who is a blatant racist stereotype invented for a western audience and make him a blatant racist stereotype invented for a western audience.”Super hero ethics, moral themes: I have a big problem with the Iron Man franchise in general. The Iron Man suit is a weapon of mass destruction. In the first movie, this gets pointed out, and the question gets asked, whether one man should really get to make unilateral decisions about how that weapon is used. Basically, the answer to the question is, “If you’re Tony Stark, you can do what you want!”
I actually appreciate that more than a movie like The Dark Knight, which asks the question quite well by framing a whole movie around it (whereas in the IM series, it’s really more of a side note), then pretends to be ambiguous (which the IM series never does) while at the same time suggesting that Batman was right all along. The problem is that TDK is still a superhero movie.
When I was writing The Hollow Men, my beta told me that if you’re going to ask questions about super hero ethics, and do it within the genre, you can only do it in two ways. You can say, “super heroes are right!” validating the idea that super heroes should get special rules because they’re special, or you can say, “super heroes are wrong!” In short, you can have IM1, which validates the genre, or you can have Watchmen, which deconstructs the genre.
I tend to disagree. I think you can have stories that are about superheroes that neither validate nor completely subvert the basic premise. I want it to be possible, because I don’t believe that skewed ethics are part of the genre by definition. And it’s okay to destroy the genre; Watchmen has its place. I just don’t think it’s our only option to have an acceptable conversation about these issues within the genre. That said, I haven’t really seen a movie in the genre address said issues in an acceptable way without tearing the genre down.
TDK is disturbing to me because it tries so hard to be ambiguous; it makes people think it’s ambiguous, and yet it still feels like it’s trying to give us answers in the end. Meanwhile, the first Iron Man movie just felt like it was saying, “Yeah, this is a problem, but hey this is a super hero movie, and this is how this works in this world, so let’s just blow it off.”
It says that, and yet, this whole series is about “bad guys” stealing Tony’s technology and then doing massive damage with it! Stane, Hammer, and Vanko all are riffing on the Iron Man suit. They’re all in a hot war with Tony, each making bigger and better weapons that put everyone more at risk. So it’s totally problematizing Tony’s actions, while at the same time not addressing it at all.
In some ways, IM3 doesn’t deal with that either. It starts out by saying that you unknowingly create demons and then you have to face those demons, which is great. In some ways, Tony created Stane, Hammer, and Vanko. But he did not create Killian by blowing him off at a party. Being an asshole doesn’t bring on nuclear holocaust; creating nukes brings on nuclear holocaust. So I was glad that this movie highlights the fact that Tony has created his own demons, but kind of disappointed that of them all, Killian was the least like his personal creations.
That said, the Mandarin is explicitly a creation of western attitudes, and those attitudes include Tony’s, and implicitly, all of the stuff in the Iron Man movies. Thus, Killian is implicitly created by them as well.
The idea is that Killian is able to get away with what he’s doing because he’s created a super villain, while Killian himself doesn’t really have the motivations of a villain. He wants power, but he’s not into total domination or killing all his enemies or whatever. What he wants to do is develop a successful product, and it’s going badly, so he needs to cover up his mistakes. That’s why the Mandarin gets created.
So, Extremis is a metaphor for an industrial product, such as oil or weapons tech. These are the things that represent power, the things that everyone wants, the things that everyone is trying to get. While the problems with politics and fundamentalists are all very real, they’re all stemming from attitudes and behaviors related to industry.
So, while the movie never really points the finger at Tony’s technology, and in fact does so even less than the other Iron Man movies, it does point a finger at America/western culture/global culture/the current political atmosphere/etc. It tells us that we’ve created war, we’ve created enemies, we’ve created an atmosphere in which tech/industry/power allow you to do anything, we’ve created dissatisfied citizens and veterans, we’ve created a construct of fear and terror that everyone buys into.
It doesn’t make up for the fact that Tony’s actions always get validated, but it does ask you to think about the genre. Plus, since it’s not questioning Tony specifically, I don’t get that icky feeling I get from TDK, where I feel like it’s answering its own question. It was almost like there were two separate levels: the level where it was comic-booky and okay, and the other level where it was saying, “Please think.” And yes, I would appreciate these levels being merged, but if, as my beta said, it isn’t possible to answer the question in any form but a right/wrong binary, with little room for ambiguity, this is a way to have your cake and eat it too.
I approve.
So does Orson Welles.
Trevor: There are few actors that could have been more perfect for this role, considering other roles Kingsley has played. In that sense, it’s very meta casting.
On several levels, Trevor is farcical. For one thing, though this movie is doing something entirely different with the genre, it’s not like a villain hiring a face for his evil hasn’t been done. It is a comic-booky premise, with all the campiness that often entails. The writers also made Trevor himself hilarious, as did Kingsley. And then of course there’s the meta/irony/farce of Trevor not being the actual villain, which I have already discussed.
But this is the other brilliant thing about casting Kingsley: you have to take him seriously. Even when he’s playing someone this ridiculous, he feels real; Trevor feels like a human being with wants and needs and layers. If this character had come off as too camp, I think it would have made the point less well, because the point is: this is real. People might not be hiring actors, but we as human beings are creating these situations ourselves. The important part is that Trevor is still human, and Kingsley is a talented enough actor to make you believe it, even while being comic gold, and looking like he’s having the time of his life.
But I am still disappoint: I did have a problem with the Middle Eastern women in the sewing factory place. Yes, Killian played them: the U.S. expected the signal to be coming from the Middle East, so that’s where it came from, and he planted an Extremis agent there to take out Iron Patriot. Still, I felt like most of the scene was played for comedy, and it wasn’t the right kind of comedy. The joke’s on us; the joke’s on Rhodey, but the why it’s a joke doesn’t come across. Instead, it’s played as if it’s funny because he got the wrong info. It also seemed to be laughing at the very real conundrum of female liberation in places where the culture itself prohibits it.
I also thought the handling of disability in this was poor. The worst was the Vice President’s daughter. It was questionable with the wounded soldiers, because yeah, okay, we can understand that people who have lost limbs or whose family members have lost limbs would want them back. What we do not need is the message that the only reason people get involved with the Extremis project is disability, because pretty soon you start getting the message that all people who have disabilities will be involved in Extremis. Just no. Do better, movie; you were doing so well.
Tony/Pepper: Tony got her a giant rabbit. I actually didn’t think the gift itself was that funny, since it’s obviously meant to be funny, but all of the conversations about it were hilarious. And Tony being frustrated when he tried to explain it to Maya. It reminded me of what
thingswithwings says about Tony’s inappropriate gifts.Then, we have the suit without Tony in it waiting in the living room for her. This suggested some things I wanted to see right off the bat, whether they meant to or not: is Pepper attracted to the suit, does Tony want her to be attracted to the suit, how much does Tony see himself as the suit, how much of Tony does Pepper see in the suit, etc.
But then there's also the issue of this creepy robot that talks and acts like her boyfriend but is not her boyfriend, which is an interesting reversal from all the Buffybotesque stories in which guys build robot girlfriends. In some ways, Tony using the suit like this with Pepper hints at a lot of scary stuff in which Tony feels he is the suit, but Pepper knows he isn't. And it makes sense; Tony feels safe in the suit; he can save her in the suit; he would rather be the suit because it's invulnerable, etc. Pepper knows this; knows he disassociating, and that's why she's worried.
But then there's the issue of him knowing she was with Killian. He didn't actually stalk her or use his technology to spy on her; Happy told him even though Tony didn't even really want to know. I loved this, because Tony has the power, tech, and some of the personality traits to spy on her. We know he doesn’t follow social norms; we know he has had very few relationships; we know he has a gigantic ego; we know he doesn’t respect boundaries. Pepper thinking he had her followed and being pissed off about it just opens this whole realm of thought for me. I like thinking Pepper knows what Tony is capable of. She knows the danger he could become. She knows she has to walk away, for her own mental health, if that happens, and she’s afraid she won’t be able to do it, because she still loves him anyway.
But Tony didn’t go check up on her, he wasn’t worried when Happy told him about Killian, he didn’t even really want to hear it, and all of this was awesome. Part of the reason it’s awesome is that I really don’t see him as the jealous type. Another reason it’s great is you can read it as Tony actively trying to respect boundaries and not use his awesome powers for evil. I love the idea of him knowing what a “good boyfriend” is, but just never having actually tried to be that before. Lastly, he obviously trusts her completely. Never once during this movie does he doubt that Pepper is in love with him and will still want to be with him, and Tony has a lot of issues but it is so nice that that is not one of them.
(Even when he runs away and plays dead and gets their house blown up and puts her in danger, he just says, “Sorry! Won’t do that again!” as though he entirely expects her to forgive him. He isn’t worried about her leaving him. Now, there is something wrong with that. For one, this is his gigantic ego at work; maybe he never fears Pepper will leave him even when she should. He does put her in danger; he puts himself in danger; and he got their home blown up. However, the whole message to Pepper read much more as, “You know I’m like this and we’ve already worked through that and accepted it,” than, “I know you love me so I can do anything I want nyah.” And it’s not like an apology from Tony is flippant, no matter how he sounds when he talks.
In fact, how much do I love that this person has grown enough to say, “I love you and I’m sorry”? How much do I love that they didn’t string out the whole Pepper-believing-he’s-dead thing? How much do I love that he calls her first thing, using a pay phone? And how much do I love that this is all believable to me—because it was. It was entirely believable that he had grown enough, and that their relationship had grown enough, that he could say and do these things.)
Speaking of Tony being emotive, it was very different for him (imo) to say what he did to Pepper about not being able to sleep and needing to protect her, etc. I also believe that he’s changed enough to speak about those emotions, though it felt like a little much early on. I'm still a little unsure of what I thought about Pepper response. I felt like in Iron Man 2, she'd sort of learned to accept that the suit is a part of who Tony is, and that when she chooses to be with him, she chooses to be with it as well—so calling the suits "distractions" seemed a little back-slippage? But in retrospect, maybe what she was trying to tell him that working on the suits was a way of avoiding actually dealing with his issues.
Actually, this makes the end interesting in a new way. At the end, Pepper says that she understands why the suits are distracting, or that they're not just distractions? (Idk, I don't remember the line, help?) So on the one hand, you could say that if she back-slipped, she's taking yet another step forward by not only accepting Iron Man but identifying with Iron Man as well. On the other hand, if she hadn't back-slipped, but was in fact saying, "You're not dealing with your issues," then Tony blowing up his suits is his way of saying, "I'm dealing with my issues now."
Also, I loved how her response to Tony being emotive wasn’t to give a lot of emotion back. Her response was basically, “Okay, we need to have sex now.” It made it seem like an acknowledgement that he had really bared his soul. It was an acknowledgement that his problems couldn’t really just be solved with a snap of her fingers. It was an acknowledgement that they were going to work through it, and she was going to do it with him. And I loved the way it was phrased, because it’s cheesy, but a shower is definitely a metaphor, and telling him he’s going to take a shower with her adds to that metaphor, but is also pretty commanding. And Tony liked her being commanding.
The next Tony/Pepper we get is Tony having trouble sleeping, and the suit coming to them in their bed. This was a very visceral scene for me, which is great. It needs to be terrifying, and it was. Pepper is dealing with a very dangerous man, who has in some ways split himself, who could very easily hurt her and himself. She knows all this and this brings it right out there. I was sad that she just walked out when he’s obviously terrified too, but I thought it was awesome as well. Again, she knows she needs to take care of her own mental health. She knows that there’s only so much she should accept from Tony. When he crosses a line, she tells him and there are consequences, even if those consequences hurt him.
I also loved the moment when the house got attacked when Tony put the suit on her. I love that that was his first instinct. It wasn’t something that I expected to happen, because the suit is his, and I always imagined him kind of being territorial about it (“No! Mine!”) But if he is territorial, Pepper is more important to him than the suit. Of course he’d give it up to save her. And if the suit is a part of himself, of course he would cover her with himself if he could. I just love that he doesn’t even really seem to think about it; he just throw it on her; I love that Tony thinks quickly in brutal situations. (I like to think that Banner doesn’t. WHAT. I think about Bruce all the time; I’m always going to have these random comparisons; I can’t help it.)
So anyway, the best thing about him throwing the suit on Pepper is that she throws herself on him. Later, when she’s trying to save Maya, it’s obvious Pepper doesn’t know how to use the suit and doesn’t know what she’s doing. But man, when she was saving Tony—God, that’s just instinct for her.
Sadly, that conversation at the beginning, though awesome, was the only real Tony/Pepper we get besides their conversation at the end (though admittedly, there’s some pretty good banter with Tony/Pep/Maya.
my_daroga and I really appreciated the way Tony totally acknowledged that he used to be a whore, but also doesn’t seem to be having any trouble with monogamy these days). Speaking of the conversation at the end, I really loved him asking her why she didn’t dress like that at home, because Paltrow was really hot at the end. The girl is of course amazingly beautiful and gorgeous, but she’s not really my type and I just don’t find her attractive, but man. She looked awesome at the end. I was imagining in my head that Tony was really turned on by her kicking ass, so it was nice to get that hint that that was probably true.
I did love Tony’s reaction to Pepper being tortured. I loved how he couldn’t even look at her. RDJ made himself look so powerless, and RDJ!Tony never looks powerless; it was awesome. I actually didn’t think his reaction was nearly as good when he thought she died, nor when she returned, but he had other things to deal with at those times.
And I loved the line about her already being perfect. I don’t like it when people say people are perfect, because people are never perfect. I prefer people to say, “I love you in spite of some of your faults, and because of other of your faults, and because of the way we fit together.” But there was something about the timing and delivery of the line that read to me as, “she was perfect for me,” and I like to think she is. Tony isn’t the type to think through whether something is true to the letter; he’s much more likely to make sweeping statements and believe they’re true until they’re not.
Pepper: We didn’t get to see her CEO’ing much, but I loved what we did get: her talking to Happy, then meeting with Killian. I thought the points she brought up with Killian were great; her being concerned about what the tech could be used for (weapons) is both prescient and relevant to the themes of this movie and the series. I wish more had been done with that. I thought the way she turned Killian down was this cool, badass professionalism that suggests how she runs the company the rest of the time.
I also really enjoyed her conversation with Maya. I feel like someone was very consciously thinking about passing the Bechdel test during that conversation, because Maya wasn’t even talking about Killian, even though that’s what Maya’s concerned about. She was talking about her research and the effect it’s had on people, which is again, relevant to themes, and also some cool stuff to hear from a female scientist. I didn’t even care that it felt a little over-conscious; it just made me happy. I was disappointed that Maya turned out to be just setting Pepper up, but hey, at least the conversation happened.
I was also disappointed that Pepper had to be a victim, setting up two tropes they really need to stop using in comics: damsel in distress our hero has to save, and damsel in distress who spurs hero into action. They tried to address this by lampshading it, which I really respect—if you’re gonna do it, at least acknowledge it—but it also makes it more disappointing. If you know you’re doing it, then stop it. They also explicitly made clear that she was not just a damsel to spur Tony’s action; she was also a prize. I felt like this was another lampshade; they were trying to subvert the trope by having Pepper kick Killian’s ass at the end, but it was still upsetting that Pepper had to be the victim.
I went into the movie really, really afraid they might kill off Pepper, but by the time she fell I knew she had Extremis. I knew she would come back, so I wasn’t worried.
The part that made me cry was when she does come back and kicks ass. I feel like in this series, they have always been careful to give Pepper action at the end. In the first one, she’s the one who has to stop the reactor. In the second one, she’s the one who stops Hammer. I have always rather liked that the stuff she’s done hasn’t been actiony, because she’s not a super hero. Her powers are intelligence, initiative, efficiency, independence, not ass kicking. I have even liked that she screams a lot and gets really scared, because hey, some people do.
That said, I loved her kicking ass so much. She has been given super powers, and she is smart and independent and takes initiative, so of course, she uses them. God, it was just so amazing, and she looked so beautiful doing it, and she did it to save Tony—she knocks Tony out of the way; he is the damsel, and while it doesn’t make the earlier stuff okay, it is one of the best moments in any comic book movie anywhere.
Maya: I really, really loved that Tony pretended he didn’t remember her. I feel like he does this a lot with people: plays the playboy until he figures out what they want. Or until he gets bored. Or until whenever. I feel like he probably does this with Steve all the time, and that Steve gets pretty fed up with it. I feel like he does it with Bruce; Bruce never reacts so Tony stops bothering.
Anyway, Maya. I liked this character; I liked this actress, but I was sort of disappointed. I loved her conversation with Pepper; I loved that she was a brilliant scientist. I loved that she wanted Extremis to succeed, but that she didn’t want to go on hurting people. I love that she was willing to do horrible things for the sake of her project, but that in the end she was willing to sacrifice herself. She has all the makings of a strong, ambiguous character, so I guess I’m sort of annoyed by the fact that she didn’t really get to do anything really cool except try to sacrifice herself, and then she didn’t even get to do that.
Also, I just like the Maya in the Extremis comic better. I don’t remember the comic well enough, but I felt like Maya in the comics was a lot more in control of the Extremis situation, and calling a lot more of the shots. This Maya just really felt like a pawn of Killian, which was annoying.
Happy: We got about the same amount of Happy in this movie as we do in the other ones—maybe a little more than we get in IM1, and less than we get in IM2. Why do I feel like I know him so much better? Who freakin’ wrote this shit? Why weren’t they writing the rest? Jesus, when it comes to this character, the kid, the fanboy, and even Rhodey, it felt like someone studied Whedon’s technique in The Avengers, realized, “hey, you really can feel like you get to know someone in the space of three lines if you actually give them something interesting to say,” and then . . . the characters said it.
For instance, Happy isn’t the brightest tool in the shed (touching the plant!), obsessed with his job (badges!), puts his work above people (replace the humans in human resources!), is rough around the edges (complaints have increased 300%!), is a big dork (forehead of security), is bad with tech (can’t flip his camera), is overly suspicious (he followed those dudes!), ships Tony/Pepper, cares about Tony, and has a sensitive side (Downton Abbey).
And you can take those things and read so much more into them. I read someone’s reaction that said that Happy was characterized as sucking as head of security, and I thought what they did with Happy in this job was so much more nuanced. Yes, Happy is bad at the human side of his job, but he actually rocks at security. He was suspicious of those dudes, but it turned out he had a reason to be. That reason wasn’t visible; it read more like Happy just had a bad feeling about it—but okay! Awesome! Happy is someone who a) has good instincts about people who are up to no good, and b) follows his instincts.
Plus, he actually got a relationship with Tony in this. Tony called him one of his best friends. Tony visited him in the hospital and looked like he was actually in physical pain, seeing his friend laid out like that. Plus, we got Happy being concerned on Tony’s behalf about Pepper being with another man. We also got Happy snarking at Tony, and we got him protecting Tony in the early years. Also, I love the idea that one of Tony’s best friends is so goddamn bad with a tablet.
Idk why Happy is so much better in this movie than in Jon Favreau’s own freakin’ movie, but then again, everything about this is better than Favreau’s movie. Maybe he should stick to playing an adorable Happy.
Rhodey: I’m just so glad that all of Tony’s supporting cast got such awesome parts in this. I wish there could have been more Rhodey and that he got some more plot, but what was there was excellent.
There were again, the little things: Tony and Rhodey having drinks in the beginning, like friends do (have we ever gotten to see Tony spend time with a friend besides Pepper in anything but life threatening situations?), and WARMACHINEROX, and the line about how Tony’s always hacking into Rhodey’s suit. They’re buddies! Tony calls him “buddy”!
My favorite part of this!Rhodey was that we got to see that he has different strengths than Tony. This comes out the most when they’re sneaking around and neither of them have a suit, and Rhodey is using military terms and Stark has no idea what Rhodey’s talking about. And Rhodey knows how to use a gun and Stark actually has no idea.
And then Rhodey gets to save the President.
Tony doesn’t save the day: I just read
synecdochic’s review, which points out that supplemental characters take on the action whereas Tony is the mechanic. He built the things so this could happen, but he’s not the warrior here.I find this interesting on several levels. For one thing, it’s something I’ve been tempted to do with Tony before, because there are a lot of warriors in The Avengers, and I sort of wish there were more characters (like Bruce) who prefer to stay away from the action. But of course, Tony does not prefer that. He may be the mechanic, but he’s also the one in the suit. He wants to be the one fighting; on some level I think he needs it. I think he’s very controlling of his creations.
This movie manages to make him a huge part of the final action without making him be the one to save the day, not as a choice, but through circumstance. It’s an interesting thing for the movie-makers to have done. To me, Pepper killing the villain and Rhodey saving the day feels perfectly natural, but most of Hollywood seems pretty hung up on one guy doing all the work, unless it’s four guys who each get their own film, if you know what I mean. In Iron Man movies Iron Man has to be the hero. It’s a stupid trope, but I thought it was ballsy that this movie defied that, since these movies so rarely do.
That said, let’s think about what it means. If Tony’s super power is building things, not using them, we’re back at the problems IM1 and 2 present and don’t adequately address: Stane, Hammer, and Vanko all steal and riff off Iron Man/arc reactor tech. Those movies prove that if the tech isn’t in Tony’s hands, it’s evil. So you could say that by highlighting the “mechanic” role instead of the “using the machines” role, you’re highlighting the fact that Tony’s just making a lot of WMDs for anybody to use.
On the other hand, Rhodey saves the day using Iron Man tech. (Actually, he does it mostly with his own two hands, which is so cool, but presumably he gets the President out of the Iron Patriot and uses the Iron Patriot to get them out of there?) And Pepper kills the bad guy with Extremis tech. I think the point is that dangerous weapons are dangerous. Some people do bad things. Some people do good things.
It’s a fairly simplistic point and not necessarily a useful one, but at least they’re not (still) saying only Tony can do good things.
The kid: If you had told me there was gonna be a kid in this movie, I’d’ve assumed there was a mandate to get younger audiences. I still think that might be the reason the kid is there. We didn’t need another character, especially someone who isn’t from comics canon (he’s not, is he?) We don’t necessarily need him to further the plot. And if you’d’ve asked me before the film, I’d’ve told you we certainly don’t need Tony bonding with a kid, because he wouldn’t; we don’t need Tony being cute with a kid, because he’d be a dick; we don’t need the writers fucking up Tony’s characterization by trying to show us that he likes kids and dogs, because he doesn’t.
But since you put the damn kid in the damn movie, I’d never ever ever ever want the version without him. He’s perfect. Everything about Tony and the kid is goddamn perfect, and I never thought I’d be saying that.
The kid isn’t a realistic kid, imo. He’s a little bit too aware of what’s going on with Tony, and seems a little too self-aware as well. I don’t care, though; a lot of it works as a sort of short-hand for who the kid is and how Tony relates to children, which is not at all.
Tony is totally inappropriate without necessarily being cruel. When he is mean, he apologizes, but not really. He bonds with the kid without being nice. He shows that he understands what it’s like to be a kid, but he doesn’t pity the kid; he has empathy, but not sympathy. All of it is perfect, and felt like I was reading the very best of good fanfic. I mean that in the most complimentary way possible.
Anxiety attacks: The anxiety attacks also felt like the very best of good fanfic, which is also a compliment, because fanfic actually deals with consequences. Fanfic posits that fictional people are real people who live in the real world who have to deal with things like PTSD. They also posit that Tony Stark could be a mermaid, but whatever.
I loved that this was there. I feel like Hollywood isn’t very good at allowing action heroes to be vulnerable in this way. You can have an action hero have PTSD, but if he does, that’s his schtick, and it doesn’t get mentioned very much (think John Watson in Sherlock. PTSD is presented as a premise for the character, and then gets dropped fairly quickly). You’re more likely to get a hero who is deeply damaged, but whose problems don’t manifest in obvious, recognizable ways that can be diagnosed with clinical terms. You can argue that it’s because psychological disorders are never textbook, and to make them so reduces them, but the real reason is that no one wants to think Batman has schizophrenia, or that Peter Parker is bipolar, etc.
But apparently, someone in this world wanted us to think Tony has PTSD, for which I am deeply grateful. I love the way it was handled, because it felt perfectly in character—Tony not recognizing what it is, needing to be told, needing to get away from other people when he’s having an attack, but also needing to push through it. You get the feeling that it happens and he just sort of ignores it; he doesn’t think about it, because Tony always needs to go go go. If he stops, he might drown. I thought RDJ did a good job with the acting.
I also love that this happens as a consequence to a traumatic occurrence. They never really talk about New York, which on the one hand, makes me sad. In some ways, you could see it as a cop-out—they don’t want to talk about what happened, because they want you to pay for IM3 even if you didn’t see The Avengers. But they also want you to pay for The Avengers, so they’ve got to give The Avengers some kind of weigh plot-wise, and reward the viewers who have seen it.
But I don’t think that’s all they were doing by just calling it “New York” and not going into The Avengers plot. For one thing, they made it a trigger for Tony; of course he doesn’t want to talk about it. For another thing, this really leaves it in the hands of the viewer to decide why and how New York traumatized Tony. After all, Tony has been in life-threatening situations before; why was this one so much worse?
I have two theories. One: Tony made the choice to sacrifice himself. He tells Steve in The Avengers that he’d just cut the wire, and he obviously believes that he can always do that, that he will always have that option. But then it comes down to the actual wire, and he realizes that option isn’t there. He can no longer believe that he can always just cut the wire, which has got to be a paradigm shift for Tony. He also realizes that he is the sort to throw himself on the wire, which must also be a paradigm shift. He didn’t know he was the sort of person who would be willing to sacrifice himself, so he’s got to be asking himself why he was willing—does he have a death wish? Etc.
Theory two: as I have been discussing, Tony’s other foes have been of his own creation. The other things he’s fought in the other movies were machines invented by other human beings. Tony believes himself smarter and strong and better, and so he believes that he can always win. Then he is faced with aliens from outer space, gods, and technology so far beyond his ken that he has to know he cannot invent it or overcome it sheerly by the power of his intellect and force of his will. That’s got to be a paradigm shift as well.
. . . Actually, when you think about it, those two theories are sort of the same thing.
The fanboy: was hilarious. Perhaps I should have felt that this was some kind of indictment of fans, but instead, I thought it 1) adequately addressed the paparazzi all of the Avengers no doubt have to deal with after New York, and 2) provided a juxtaposition to the crowd of reporters in the beginning. Tony seems actively unhappy with the reporters (though maybe he’s more unhappy with the Mandarin and Happy getting hurt). Meanwhile, Fanboy is annoying and could totally get in his way, but he genuinely admires Tony and all that Tony stands for, and so is helpful in the end. It was just some nice, quick commentary on both the good things and the bad things about fans.
Also, he got a tattoo based on a doll he made.
I want that doll.
JARVIS: I like robots. I like how they are like humans, but they aren’t humans, which brings up all kinds of questions about what the soul is. JARVIS is fascinating as a creation of Tony’s—because he’s not Tony; he’s just a part of Tony, and he’s a part of Tony engineered to be a specific thing. The reason I love books is they give us whole worlds and entire populations created by one person’s mind; JARVIS is a fictional character to whom Tony gave birth.
However, there has never really been enough in the other movies for me to really do much with these thoughts. JARVIS definitely has a personality, but it seems to be comprised mostly of snark. Before this movie, I felt like JARVIS just wasn’t multi-faceted enough for my interest in robots to really make a connection to him. But in this movie, we have JARVIS getting tired, failing, seeming confused, and gradually coming back. Just those little bits were enough for me, and I loved them.
Iron Man: Then there was the suit—Tony taking care of the suit; for him it is both a burden and, well, a bundle of joy. Maybe the parallel was the reason for the kid. The suit needs to be made comfortable; it needs to be kept safe; it needs TLC, but it also needs to be useful; it needs to do what Tony wants it to.
I loved that Tony didn’t know what to do without it (when he was talking to the kid about it on the phone). It made sense that that moment was brief—Tony always acts like he knows what to do, and he’s a quick thinker, which was why this moment surprised me so much. He’s always thought of himself a creator; the fact that he doesn’t remember that in this moment is significant. It means that at some point, he began to rely on the suit just as much or more than himself. It means that he doesn’t see the suit as just something he’s made, but as a part of himself.
Again, this changes the meaning of blowing all the suits up—he’s realizing that they are not him. They’re just some stuff he made, and he can make more. I think that’s what Pepper was trying to tell him all along.
The action sequences: I was more engaged in these action sequences than almost any other action movie (The Matrix and Terminator II always win, though), mostly because I was actually worried about something each and every time.
Watching Happy fly through the air was terrifying, because I hadn’t even considered that he could die. I already said what I loved about Tony putting the suit on Pepper, but then there was Tony almost drowning—I loved him using the glove to pull him out. Then there was the first action sequence in which Tony doesn’t have the suit. I was just so glad they managed to believably divorce him from it.
Then he makes weapons out of Christmas ornaments and a fuzzy glove! And fights with random pieces of the Iron Man suit! This and the suit hopping at the end were all just really different, creative, unique ways to use the suit. They showed how versatile and dynamic it can be, whereas in the other movies . . . it’s sort of hard to get engaged when you’re basically watching a guy in a flying tank. I also appreciated the lack of CGI.
The only thing that didn’t interest me that much was the Barrel of Monkeys bit, mostly because I hoped he was going to have to choose to only save four, instead of all thirteen. I really wanted Tony to be faced with that dilemma—another instance of not being able to cut the wire. That said, when the semi made the suit fly apart I actually gasped, even though I knew Tony wasn’t hurt.
Mise-en-scène: Why was this movie set during Christmas? Was this meant for a Christmas release? I didn't mind, but I feel like Hollywood sets movies during Christmas for Christmas movies. It was actually interesting seeing it at this time of year. Though I can see myself watching it at Christmas. Like Die Hard.
I loved Tony’s costuming all the way through, with his weird checkered scarf and stupid hat. It was nice to see Tony not looking like a million bucks for once, and yet still managing to stick out even when he’s trying to blend in.
I also loved Rhodey’s green polo. It was just so clean cut, boring, and dorky. Rhodey’s such a straight up guy, and the shirt read that way. But mostly, I love Don Cheadle’s arms, so there’s that. (Edited to explain: I don't find Rhodey boring. He's just the kind of guy that would dress in a perfectly normal and boring way, and then he's kicking all sorts of ass and taking names and you're just sort of rocking back on your heels going . . . where did you come from?)
The end: I really hope this is the last Iron Man movie. It was really good; it felt like Tony had really evolved from the beginning; it started with a flashback to before Afghanistan and ended with him getting the arc reactor removed; the voice-over narration sounded really final. It was just a good ending, and I want to believe that Tony just continues to make his life better. To get another whole movie out of him you’d have to do something terrible to how much he’s grown and accomplished, and I just don’t want it. I do think you could put him in a few more Avengers movies and that it will be awesome, so I was happy to see the “Tony Stark will return” message.
I was a little sad to see the arc reactor go, but it fit thematically. A lot of people ask why he didn’t just get the shrapnel removed earlier, but I always loved that he didn’t. It was like a scar, or like tattoos some people get to remind them of something significant. He needed proof that he was breakable; he needed to remember that he wants to do something more with his life. Basically, he needs to deal with what was done to him and make other people pay for it.
By getting it removed, he’s saying, “This wasn’t done to me;” he’s saying, “I choose this.” He wasn’t forced to become Iron Man; he chooses to be Iron Man. It’s not something he can leave behind, but something he has accepted and made peace with. I really want it to just end there—partly, selfishly, so I can try to figure out for myself what this new Tony Stark will do. I like to think he’s going to work on more clean energy projects and support the other Avengers and support Pepper as she leads the way for Stark Industries, but I don’t think the end means that he’s put the suit behind him. I’m interested in thinking about how he chooses to use it in the future, what he has learned about drawing stark lines between good and bad, and what he has learned about the use of his own tech.
BRUCE BANNER OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG! I knew there was gonna be an after-movie tag, and I had high hopes for it involving Ruffalo.
At first, I was a little unsure about the voice over narration. In general, I love Tony!voice, so the more talking RDJ gets to do in Iron Man movies the better, I say. But it seemed very emotive for Tony, to want to tell his story this way. OTOH, he's apparently telling it to Bruce, and there's so much you can do with that; there are so many questions you can ask about why he opens up to Bruce and whether he opens up to anyone else, etc.
Maybe he’s saying all this to Bruce because he thinks Bruce can identify, or thinks it will help Bruce—or maybe he knows Bruce won’t deal with it. He knows Bruce will just sit there and let him talk. Steve would try to fix it, and Tony doesn’t feel comfortable with enough other people to talk through it, and he knows that Banner is just gonna sit there and say, “Uh-huh” a lot, and maybe snore. Tony finds this comforting. I gotta go write a fic now.
my_daroga were having a debate about where the rest of the Avengers were during this, but we both agreed it would be totally awesome if Bruce himself was just at Stark Tower or something. He’s just dicking around in the lab, messing with stuff, and he’s not listening to the radio or TV because they stress him out. He’s jamming to Beethoven or Billie Holiday or something, who knows. Then Tony calls after Pepper takes down Killian, and he’s all, “It’s alright! We’re okay! Everything’s under control! We’re fine!”And Bruce is just like, “Uh. What the hell are you talking about? Also why don’t you own a dishwasher?”
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idk, with the Iron Man films I always find myself getting lost trying to puzzle out how Iron Man can exist in an ethical way, or how Tony building any weapons at all (for himself, for Rhodey, for anyone) is acceptable. I think IM1 is actually really cowardly on this issue, saying that building weapons would be fine if they didn't get into the hands of "the wrong people" or "the bad guys" - because the US Military could never be the bad guys. But anyway that "hands of the wrong people" thing has plagued the film series ever since, and it's an issue they keep scratching at but never really deal with or resolve.
In the end, though, if Tony is the mechanic, and that's what being Iron Man really means, if Iron Man is just Tony's superhero powers of building things, then his ethics have to come down to what he chooses to build. I'm really interested to see how fic (yours especially!) will explore this issue.
I agree 100% on your analysis of Pepper's damseling - they're going for a reversal, but imo she just spends way too much time being a damsel before the reversal happens (in part I think it's a straight up pacing issue). And also she doesn't show any agency (doesn't even have a line of dialogue after "trophy") during her capture - if she were brainstorming escapes or being sarcastic at her captor or trying to manipulate the guards like Tony was during his capture, I think I would've been fine with it. I love what you say about how Pepper's superpowers are her intelligence, competence, etc., and I thought it was a pity that we didn't see any of that during her capture, so that she NEEDS Extremis-style superpowers to save the day. If she had been using her skills to try to escape or try to save Tony, even if she wasn't successful, it would've established that her value under pressure isn't tied to whether she can kick ass or not, and the asskicking would've seemed more of a natural extension of her capability, calm under pressure, intelligence, etc.
Mise-en-scene and narration: have you seen Kiss Kiss Bang Bang? This was written by Shane Black, who's famous for his action films (Lethal Weapon among them) and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is the earlier film that he did with Robert Downey Jr. Anyway, Shane Black loves a Christmas theme (like three of his other movies have them) and he loves the voiceover narration (which is also a big feature of KKBB, RDJ's role as a narrator of his own story). Anyway, that's where those elements come from. And if you haven't seen KKBB, well, it's kind of a perfect movie and I recommend it heartily. :)
LASTLY: lol I was wondering about the other Avengers too! The "superfriends" line at the beginning (was that Tony or Pepper? I forget) made me laugh, but also seemed to acknowledge that they hadn't all just gone their separate ways after Avengers, that they were doing superheroing together now. You can always say Clint and Natasha are off doing SHIELD things, Thor's in Asgard, and obviously the post-credits scene implies that Bruce wasn't there (though I love your take on it, that he just didn't have his tv or phone on and was jammin out at Avengers tower this whole time!), but it's kind of hard to account for Steve's absence. Maybe this happens at the same time as Cap 2? Maybe Cap 2 and Thor 2 will also have Christmas themes so that we know they all happen at the same time?
Of course the other great thing about this film is that it sets up that Tony's PTSD is related in part to NYC itself, and now that his Malibu home's destroyed, it kind of seems like he's setting out to make a new life in NYC. Of course he could rebuild or make a home wherever he wants, but c'mon, he's taking Dummy back to Avengers tower. Or possibly Avengers mansion, if they do the mansion in the MCU as well. I want all the fic about Tony moving to NYC and freaking out about it a lot. Perhaps that's the setting of the end-of-credits scene: Tony's just moved back to the Tower, Bruce says, "What brings you back to New York?" and Tony then talks at him for two hours.
This is a superlong comment! But, anyway, I loved your review.
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the film is both interested in the idea of superhero ethics and not really dealing with the idea of superhero ethics. I think the Iron Man movies in general have been very weird about this
Yeah! They keep bringing it up! only to actively dismiss it. It's like they know, and they're just saying, "The answer to this is different in comic book movies than in real life!" Seriously, last time we watched IM2, housemate and I were trying to figure out what the viewer is supposed to want, watching that Senate hearing, because it's so obvious that Tony is wrong and the Senate is bringing up legit points, yet at the same time Tony is being awesome and hilarious and the one we're supposed to root for, so--what the fuck are you doing, Marvel? I'd say I appreciate the ambiguity of moments like that, but I rather it be intentionally ambiguous; I'd rather it say, "Look. We know the Senate has a point, but Tony also has a point because super-tech is getting way out of hand; so what should we do?"
then his ethics have to come down to what he chooses to build.
I suppose, but I don't think he's giving up on Iron Man. Also, take something like the arc reactor--it's clean and efficient and the answer to the world's energy woes. It can also be used to power a WMD. I just don't think you can ask the question, "What are you creating?" without also asking, "And who is going to use it?" And as you say, the franchise does not address the "who should use it" questions well, and I haven't seen anyone who does have any good answers.
I'm really interested to see how fic (yours especially!) will explore this issue.
I'm interested to see the fic too! !!! Because, like you, I don't understand how Iron Man can exist in an ethical way. I'm not sure Tony agrees though, and I just want to see him trying to deal with being the person he says he wants to be.
the asskicking would've seemed more of a natural extension of her capability, calm under pressure, intelligence, etc
Good point! I love the idea that Pepper simply uses the available tools in a given situation, and often that means compromise, manipulation, working around and with people, outsmarting people. But every once in a good long while it involves punching someone in the face.
have you seen Kiss Kiss Bang Bang?
I have! (I have seen all the RDJ. Except that movie he did when he was 5 but only because I haven't been able to get my hands on it.) I didn't know that's where Black came from. It explains a lot--in particular the talkiness (which I really appreciated). I didn't like KKBB that much, though I'd have to revisit it to state why; I do think the stylized nature of that film and the dark comedic tone suited IM3 really well and brought a new flavor to it, which I love.
it's kind of hard to account for Steve's absence. Maybe this happens at the same time as Cap 2?
This is what housemate said, but it's still hard to explain away. The Mandarin is a world-wide phenomenon. If Steve's dealing with the Winter Soldier, I just don't see how the action in that situation would be so tight that a) Steve wouldn't try to help Tony, or b) Tony wouldn't try to help Steve. I mean, Tony is really, really busy in this movie, but if he knew something was happening with Cap he'd be distracted by it and sending suits and so on, and I'd assume the same would be true with Steve no matter what's happening to Steve. Even if it's super covert Winter Soldier stuff, so Tony doesn't know Steve's having problems, Steve has to know about the Mandarin, because the Mandarin is everywhere.
I know they're not gonna try too hard to make it all sync until Avengers 2, but still.
Bruce says, "What brings you back to New York?" and Tony then talks at him for two hours.
And Bruce says, "You could've just said your house blew up. Would that really have been so hard?"
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Yeah. Like, is it believable that you could get a group of disabled veterans together and give them their limbs back, plus superpowers, and then tell them, "Look, people just aren't ready to integrate you back into the military yet, so we'll just form our own little independent contracting service, and eventually there'll be a threat and they'll need us, and you guys can get back out there in the field and protect America and spread democracy and basically go back to doing your jobs." And then at the top there is a small inner circle which is just a couple of real venal mercenary types, like the red-headed woman and gum chewing dude, and only those *very few* are in on Killian's REAL plan, which is to assassinate the President on live TV and then, presumably, get paid billions of dollars to invade Pakistan (or some other country or countries, probably doesn't matter which) to "hunt down the Mandarin." Sure, I totally believe that could happen. That makes total sense.
But what the movie shows us at the end is that there are like DOZENS of ex-soldiers (and also a whole tech team) who are in on this plan and maybe *one*-- the guy from Tennessee-- who decided to back out and didn't want any part of it. And I really don't think they thought about that part at all, and it's terrible. Really? Your bad guy canon fodder in the movie is wounded veterans?? Because like... when did Killian bring them in on the plan, anyway? Before giving them Extremis? How could he tell them after, though? I mean... unless you maybe posit that something about Extremis *turns you evil* (which I don't think they are, especially since they did it to Pepper) the movie is pretty much saying that MOST people who are missing a limb would probably become treasonous murderers to get their limbs back. Well, their limbs and superpowers, but it's still gross.
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The other thing which could have helped was make it explicit that some of the people with Extremis were not missing limbs. There are plenty of other reasons to volunteer--you could be afraid, and want to make yourself invulnerable; you could want to further the cause of science. Not to mention that even throwing a cancer victim in there could have helped, not that I like that either, but the missing-limb thing is so visible it makes it easier to discriminate, which is why this is a problem. Anyway, having other people with other motivations could show that this group is doing this because they have INSANITY AND EVIL in common, not disability in common.
Also, there was a bit at the beginning, where Happy's tracking the dude who gets the suitcase from the other dude. I thought the thing in the case was Extremis, but they both already have Extremis, right? Does that mean you continue to need it? Is there addiction involved?
I did not realize Black had done Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang. It explains some things!
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Also I think Shane Black just has a thing for Christmas-- "Long Kiss Goodnight" and "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" are both set on Christmas or at least during the Christmas season, I think.
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But "the suits" plural are the thirty-odd variants Tony's apparently built in the months since the events of The Avengers, which I think the movie does want us to see as Tony not dealing with his problems: instead of working through his anxiety, he's slipping into a paranoid spiral of building suits equipped to handle weirder and weirder situations. A suit for every problem, and then there won't be anything left to hurt him or hurt Pepper. Total magical thinking. So when Tony blows up "the suits" at the end of the movie, I don't think that entirely reads as giving up superhero-dom, so much as attempting to reign in the paranoia that tends to be characteristic of the class.
no subject
Well, I had a few moments of "Is he giving up Iron Man?" at the end, but yeah, you're right, I don't think he is. I read it as you do--Tony is Iron Man, a creator, who tries to make the world better with his creations. But the suits themselves are in the end, just metal.
I also appreciated that there was no "will he give up his hero identity for his girlfriend?" I like that Pepper didn't like Tony being Iron Man in IM1. Who knows what she thought in IM2 because who knows what anyone thought in that movie. But I like that she accepts this parts of him; she just doesn't want him to get consumed by this part of himself. She's very good at keeping him balanced.
suits equipped to handle weirder and weirder situations.
Interesting! I read it as him trying to make better and better and better suits, not different suits for different situations, but I bet he's probably doing both!
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Fanfic posits that fictional people are real people who live in the real world who have to deal with things like PTSD. They also posit that Tony Stark could be a mermaid, but whatever.
<3
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. . . Like a mechanical hybrid mermaid because he has to launch soooper heat-sinking missiles at submarines idk
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I came out of the movie basically feeling neutral about it, since I didn't walk out of the movie cheering like Avengers (tho that could have partly been the crowd's mood infecting me.) but I love how you picked out all the awesome stuff here in a coherent manner. Pepppppppppperrrrrrrrr! She made every scene 20% cooler.
I do think the way the action was shot was not particularly well done, even if the timing and emotions was impeccable. Anytime there was serious hand-to-hand stuff I lost track of the physical through-line. :P
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Our crowd was awesome. 25% of the theater had been reserved by a frat. Which on some levels is sort of annoying, but on the level of audience response is awesome.
You're probably right about the action, but I was sitting really close to the front (because the frat was taking up so much of the theater!), so everything was kind of hard to follow. Anyway, I feel like there have been very few movies in the past 10 years with clear action sequences--they seem to think if they just cut quickly enough and jostle the camera a lot, we'll believe cool stuff is happening. But I just loved that Tony got to do new things with his suit, that there wasn't much CGI, and the fact of the hand-to-hand, so I was generally happy.
Totally agree about Pepper. She's so awesome.
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*sigh* True. Too many directors are taking their actions cues from Bay.
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Oh. That's smart!
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(Anonymous) 2013-05-09 08:37 am (UTC)(link)I have mixed thoughts on the handling of disability. As someone whose disabilities are all hidden, I'm aware of the tension between disabilities like the soldiers' missing limbs and Tony's PTSD and anxiety but PTSD is a disability in itself. I don't want to get into an argument about who has it worse and I definitely don't like the way that the only people we saw with unhidden disabilities were working for the villain.
I thought that the third one made it more explicit but in the previous two movies, the Iron Man identity is Tony's way of handling his PTSD. I saw Tony's need to control his inventions as being a continuation of his PTSD symptoms. His suit is the superweapon he built to get himself out of that cave. It's the lifeline he always goes back to because it's what gave him any shred of control over the first situation where he thought he was going to die. Any chance of that control slipping makes him panic at least in part because he's still traumatized. He tries to assert more control through shutting down production on the reason he was kidnapped and by trying to work his way up the chain of his kidnappers' command structure. Instead of being able to wipe out the threat and make sure they never come after him, he discovers that danger is everywhere and he needs to be even more vigilant to deal with it. I think his flippancy toward Steve pushing him was a result of both of them having PTSD with Steve's driving him to refuse to humor what looked to him like Tony's delusions of invincibility and for Tony meant he had to project a façade of invincibility or admit that he could end up back in a cave. I'm not sure Tony is entirely self-aware about the extent to which his PTSD influences him and I'm not always sure how aware the creative team has been. I'd argue that New York was more traumatizing because he was using the Iron Man identity as a crutch for dealing with his previous trauma and it didn't save him.
Speaking as someone with PTSD, I don't mind that they gave Tony anxiety attacks but it does bug me that so often characters need to be given a flashy symptom like that before people notice the character has PTSD. Tony's behavior during most of IM1 is pretty typical PTSD; sudden shift in interests, hypervigilance, attempting to control the uncontrollable (trying to completely change direction on the company, trying to wipe out terrorism, trying to prevent his tech from ever leaking out), distancing himself from people he'd been close to, and insomnia.
I agree with you on most of the rest of your meta and I think you make some really good points.
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I don't want to either. The argument isn't about that. It's also not about whether the disability is immediately visible or not. It's about the fact that we're shown at least four different people with the same family of disability: damaged or missing limbs, and they (or someone related to them who seems to think he's acting on their behalf) are all evil. If there were four people who were bipolar who turned out evil, I'd be making the same argument. If there were four people with PTSD, the argument might be a little different, because the movie might then be showing two different sides to how people with PTSD can act.
it does bug me that so often characters need to be given a flashy symptom like that before people notice the character has PTSD
Which people are you talking about? I think you're right that audiences are less likely to notice such a disorder until given a flashing neon sign, but I also think writers/creators operate on the same principle, which is a shame. That is, many writers will shy from giving a fictional hero--particularly action heroes and super heroes--a really textbook symptom of a mental disorder, because that's a label. And when you label it, they're "pinned down" to writing someone who actually has real world problems. E.g. they often don't want to write someone who has PTSD; they just want to write someone who's angsty and guilty and doesn't deal with his past or problems, because as soon as they label it, they have to do things like research and deal with audiences who have experienced it and who can identify; they have to make it realistic--and they have to deal with the stigma, with the audiences who don't want their super heroes to have mental disorders.
Real conditions don't always have neon signs, and it's important to have realistic portrayals of disability. However, I think big blinking-light symptoms may be important, so that writers cannot deny the real-life issues with which they are dealing, and so that audiences become familiar and accepting of the label and those who are labeled as such.
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(Tony doesn't need a *dishwasher*, Bruce. He has a combination dishwasher-water purifier-virtual aquarium that also calculates trajectories for his trash-catching trash can. What is this, the Eighties?)
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I know I gush at you endlessly on AO3, but I have to do it here too. I saw IM3 about two weeks (??) before it got released in America and it was killing me having to wait around for people's reactions and I was SO EXCITED when it finally came out...
And then I poked around tumblr and heard from friends that people hated Pepper and didn't like the Mandarin and wished it had more this, that and the other in it. I was devastated and took a huge step away from fandom.
And now of course, I come across this and I remember every reason why I came out of the first viewing absolutely giddy. You've touched on everything that really made this a great movie for me, I think it really was a good character study. There were parts that bothered me, but overall I felt the movie had a lot to say about who and what Tony Stark is (compared to who and what he thought he is).
I sort of want to link your meta all over my tumblr because I haven't seen anything like it showing up on my dashboard.
And I am also dying for fanfiction that addresses Tony's decision to part with the arc reactor and what that says to other characters. Pepper and Rhodey obviously support him through that. But the arc reactor has been such a symbol for Bruce/Tony fic (friendship and romantically) for Tony to make a connection about that whole "terrible privilege" deal.
I will die if someone doesn't write an AU where Tony's cure for Pepper is actually giving her the regenerative capabilities without the fire-breathing and therefore removing his fear of ever losing her.
And increasing chances of her and Banner living out a very weird and long life together.no subject
But anyway, yeah, I loved this movie! I thought it was awesome. And if you'd like to read more from people who liked it, I could probably find you some links, because most of the people in my neck of the woods felt like I did. (They just didn't go on about it for 8,000 words.)
the arc reactor has been such a symbol for Bruce/Tony fic (friendship and romantically)
Yeah, it would be really interesting to see fic about that. I felt like Tony trying to say his reactor was the same as Bruce's Hulk was disingenuous. I mean, Tony wasn't trying to equate them exactly, but in some ways he just didn't really seem to get what Bruce's actual problem is. And Bruce's feeling that Tony doesn't get it would be reinforced by Tony getting the reactor taken out--it's something that Tony can take out, and Bruce never can.
increasing chances of her and Banner living out a very weird and long life together.
I hadn't thought of this at all! Wow. Now I want a really sad fic with Tony dead and Rhodey and Jane dying of old age, with just Hulk, fire!Pepper, Steve and Thor left behind. I'm imagining each of them slowly winking out like lights. In the end there is only the Hulk . . .