I saw the movie this afternoon and really enjoyed it. It doesn't top Avengers for me though as my favorite marvel film. It also doesn't top Iron Man 1 as my favorite Iron Man film, but ti was still good.
The Extremis story arc reinvented Iron man and Tony Stark. He no longer had to have his armor shipped along with him anymore. He could now materialize the under suit out of his bones and then call the armor to him with his thoughts. It was a major step forward in making Iron Man what he is today in the comics. I think the film adaptation of the Extremis arc did the same thing. It reinvented the character. He got rid of his Malibu house. He has to start fresh with suits as they were all destroyed. He is more prepared now to face this kind of a threat. He got over his trauma from the New York Incident in the Avengers (Which is why he never went to Stark Tower BTW, he was having panic attacks just thinking about it, and you expect him to actually go back to the city? Not happening.) He removed the shrapnel from his chest. The Tony Stark at the end of this film is a reinvented one. I'm sure that we will see more of that reinvention in future movies.
I wasn't bothered by the amount of humor in this movie as thats how Tony Stark is in the Cinematic Universe. He uses humor and sarcasm as a defense mechanism. Watch any fight scene with Tony in the Avengers. He's making jokes the entire time. "Doth Mother knoweth you wearest her drapes!?" I don't see a problem with the humor. If it killed the serious tone you expected then you came to the wrong superhero's movie.
As for the twist, it did shock me. The amount of attention they put on the Mandarin in the advertising was immense, but that was to hide the twist and make it more shocking. Yes it was very similar to the twist in DKR, but be honest if you are familiar with Talia you saw that coming. I know I did. The kid in the prison not being Bane did catch me off guard though. I was never a huge Mandarin fan so the fact that he is just a figurehead didn't bother me so much. The main thing that disappointed me with this twist is there is no connection to the Ten Rings from the first film now. Unless Tony's kidnapping was in fact orchestrated by AIM and Obadiah, but they didn't clarify that in the film so thats just speculation on my part. I would have liked to see if there was a connection with the Ten Rings or not though. Also while this Mandarin was exactly who we expected him to be, there is potential for him to become that as he was sent to prison. Perhaps the experience causes him to become the persona he invented as a way of coping with the prison life. I think that would be interesting. Aldrich was really the Mandarin though. That's why he had those asian dragon tattoo's. This concept of them combining two Iron man villains together isn't new. They did it last time in Iron Man 2 with Whiplash and Crimson Dynamo.
Overall though I enjoyed the movie. I look forward to seeing it again over the weekend.
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