Iron man 3

Iron man 3

My opinion for the film itself is not terrible for 70% of the film. I understand that as a franchise the point was to end at 3 films, and for that I am fine. There are some glaring issues with their choices in how they decided to end this film (aka I have huge issue with the ending of the dark Knight rises for some of the same reasons).

Section A: the pros.

1) I liked the internal struggle with Tony. It showed evolution with the the character, especially if the plan is to end the series.

2) I did like the continued reference to Tony as "the mechanic".

3) The villains (the way that each was individually introduced) were crafted well as core characters.

4) The use of Rhodes as a core character was great, even if they stepped away from War Machine just to introduce Iron Patriot.

Section B: the cons (sorry this will be lengthy)

1) I say again I didn't hate this film until about the last quarter. So I will start small and build here.

2) AIM I liked building this reference, but I hate how they did not protect source material, and how short sided AIM was addressed.

3) Gravity. The plot lines built in this, while grand, I felt bordered on grand standing. Hot button topics such as terrorism, and the middle east, oil companies, etc etc etc.

4) I am just going to say flat out the president strung up like Jesus over a Christmas tree. (that is all)

5) A childish fireworks display at the end of the film as he destroyed ALL of his suits, something Tony Stark would never do in the first place, maybe some but not all! Plus they showed the hulk buster and said nothing about it!

6) Why introduce the iron patriot? They (marvel studio's) need a whole lot of of franchise rights back before that even makes sense (aka fantastic 4, spiderman, and X-Men)

7) Tony had his chest piece removed!

Section C: failure

1) The mistake of playing with two huge arches at the same time. (Tim Burton made this mistake, Christopher Nolan made this mistake, and now the Iron Man franchise is guilty as well.) This is exasperated by throwing AIM into the mix.

2) Extremis. This plot line alone could have carried the film, needed no real tinkering to make it work and really didn't need a huge group of almost indestructible super soldiers to make it work. It would have been compelling with just the patient zero case as it was originally introduced in the comics. I can also go on for 3 parts on this one subject but let's say I am ending with that as a core complaint.

3) The Mandarin. I really don't have words (as with the way Bane was killed) this was a slap in the face for anyone who knows anything about the source material! Seriously he as just a puppet! It was like they put a group of people together as said "Ok how can we completely alienate the fans of the comics, that also, through ticket sales, helped to build this entire universe!"  How are you going to give him 10 rings, how are you going to make him so brilliant, and so compelling, and just throw him away a patsy! For arguably one of Iron man's greatest villains (or marvel for that fact) how was anyone in the creative process ok with this? Again huge amounts of words could be poured into this subject but I will just leave it with the short version of how furious I was about this. I was literally sitting in the theater, mouth agape, in shock.

4) Marvel Studio's. How? How could you let this happen? Why would you do this to the fans that helped you build this house? Who approved this? How did it make it past Joss Whedon?

Section D: Summary

With such a strong commercial, and talent base this was such a disappointment to finish off on of my favorite comic franchises to be put to film. For a movie that started with such promise, and hope; just to have all of that dashed and destroyed by short sided endings to character/story lines. It truly was a huge let down to what "should" have been am amazing finale, as a nerd I was very disappointed.

Shep