*wink* "You'll never see me coming..." *wink*
Take a look at that picture above. I made it larger than usual so you can really get a good look at it. Take a good hard look. See how Tony Stark is falling from the sky, smoking, on fire, destroyed, beaten, defeated? That's your dreams. That's your expectations. That's this movie. Think about how hard this film has been hyped for God knows how long, and try to imagine how sad you would feel if it turned out to be a sloppy mess with no context what so ever. Wouldn't you feel let down and disappointed? Sadly, that's exactly what the latest Iron Man movie is; a let down and a disappointment.
I was so exited for this movie, I literally could not wait to see it. I loved the first Iron Man movie, I didn't think the sequel was as bad as people made it out to be, and the fact that Shane Black, the director of the Lethal Weapon series and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, one of the most underrated movies of all time, had been hired, not only to direct it but also to write the script, only served to get me even more exited for Iron Man 3. But man. Oh man. This movie has so many flaws that I hardly know where to begin. Explaining what's so bad about it without spoiling too much of the plot might become a challenge, but I should be able to give you a general idea of what you should expect from this movie without spoiling anything.
Frankly, the movie is a mess from the very beginning. Iron Man 3 takes place after the events of The Avengers, and Tony Stark is suffering from post dramatic stress syndrome. Saving the world from an alien invasion proved to be a little more than he could handle, and the first third of the movie shows how his life has taken a change for the worse. He can't sleep at night, Pepper and him have begun to drift apart, and his competitors in the technology business have begun to catch up to him. We're also introduced to the the main bad guy/bad guys in this first part, and the foundation for the main conflict is constructed. Sadly, all these things happen in a very convoluted and weird way, and I never really got on board. The movie goes in a million different directions right form the beginning, and they never manage to sort of reconnect and make sense compared to each other. This tendency continues in the second part where the plot kinda starts to escalate, but still, a lot of things just happen without much reason or explanation, and this sadly carries on throughout the movie. Things just happen, and they don't make sense.
By far my biggest problem with Iron Man 3 is the plot. If I had to compare it to a dairy product, I'd probably say that its closest comparison would be a Swizz cheese; stinky a full of holes. There are so many "but if that's possible, why can't they do that?"-moments, even more "why do these people care about each other?"-situations, and almost just as many "OK, what does that thing that just happened have to do with anything?"-scenarios. This movie is so poorly put together, so many things are never explained, so many things just happen for no reason, and I found myself not caring about what was gonna happen next way too many times, because I knew it would have nothing to to with anything that had already taken place. I sadly can't explain what my biggest problem with the plot is without spoiling some of it, but what I can say is that one of the big important story lines, the most important one actually, the one that the whole movie relies upon to make it interesting, gets completely and utterly ruined half way through. Tony Stark's character progression gets completely swiped under the rug by something way too simple and minor that makes no sense what so ever, and from that point on, I didn't give two shits about his character progression any longer. Everything the trailer and the fist half of the movie had build up about his battle within himself, was just completely shrugged off as a joke. Tony Starks character progression basically got Boba Fetted.
Another thing I absolutely have to touch upon is the villains. Ben Kingsley and Guy Pierce are fantastic actors, that goes without saying, but they were completely miss used in this movie. Especially one of their characters take a completely unexpected turn for the bizarre in the latter half of the movie, people who have watched it will know what I mean. There are many different opinions on this twist, and I personally found it kinda hilarious and well though up. That being said, it completely smashed the villain concept of the entire movie, and gave the other guy about 20 minutes to become an astablished character worth fearing, before the final showdown. I love when a movie has an awesome and respectable bad guy, but in that department, Iron Man 3 went down a road that just did not work at all. None of them had any credibility, and the small amount of motivation they had for doing what they did seemed weak and confusing.
The final showdown of this movie is bad, it just is. Sure, the pyrotechnics and the explosions are impressive, but it fell through completely. The setup was poor and the execution was worse, but what irritated me the most about it was the emotional bait and switch half way through. The creators had an opportunity to do something extremely cool and surprising, but in the end, they chickened out and made the safe decision anyway. At no time was I emotionally invested in this movie, even in the final moments of the big confrontation between good and evil. On top of that, when the thing that really was supposed to make the audience shudder in grief happened, I just didn't care. I own a big werehouse where i store all sorts of things, and no matter how hard I searcheh it, I literally couldn't find a single fuck to give. It just didn't phase me in the slightest, because of how badly it was handeled.
I personally think that special effect and cool looking CGI should be used as a tool to improve something that is already great, add a little bit of seasoning to an already finished product, and not as a foundation or something that everything else is based upon, as it sometimes is the case in Iron Man 3. Sometimes things happen just to look cool and awesome and impressive, which they admittedly do, but they just don't fit into the context of the movie. It's as if they were put in just so the editors had something cool to put in the trailer. The fact that the two coolest things in the entire movie were in these trailers as well, isn't exactly a plus either. Speaking of editors; another major complaint I have about Iron Man 3 is the way it's edited. Often times it's way too easy to see when a scene is filmed in two or more takes and clipped together afterwards, and it feels too rushed and incomplete at times. Sometimes when I actually got close to getting invested in the story, I'd suddenly snap out of the experience because of some jumpy or clumsy piece of editing.
Most people will go easy on this movie and say things like "it's a superhero movie, what did you expect?" or "for what it tried to be, the movies was awesome!", but I strongly disagree. Yes, I realize that all movies can't be like Schindler's List or a Taxi Driver in terms of storytelling, emotional appeal and character development, and I know that Iron Man 3 is based on a comic book for children and young adults, but that doesn't mean it isn't meant to be taken seriously. A movie can have as many sparkly explosions and as much good looking action as it wants to, but if it has no structure or integrity, it becomes a sloppy mess that true fans of the superhero genre aren't going to enjoy at all. I liked The Avengers because it knows what it is and doesn't try to be something it's not, I love the first Iron Man movie because it was simple, had a great plot and some amazing character development, and both of those movies have great special effects and tons of action, just like Iron Man 3 has. The latest addition to the marvel movie universe just doen't have that solid base and structure that good movies have to fall back upon, and it suffers tremendously because of it.
In the end, no matter haw many hilarious oneliners Tony Stark has or how likeable Robert Downey Jr. is as an actor, In a world where we have comic book movies like 300, V For Vendetta, Iron Man 1, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, Iron Man 3 sadly just isn't worth anything more than a silent facepalm. (2/6)
Take a look at that picture above. I made it larger than usual so you can really get a good look at it. Take a good hard look. See how Tony Stark is falling from the sky, smoking, on fire, destroyed, beaten, defeated? That's your dreams. That's your expectations. That's this movie. Think about how hard this film has been hyped for God knows how long, and try to imagine how sad you would feel if it turned out to be a sloppy mess with no context what so ever. Wouldn't you feel let down and disappointed? Sadly, that's exactly what the latest Iron Man movie is; a let down and a disappointment.
I was so exited for this movie, I literally could not wait to see it. I loved the first Iron Man movie, I didn't think the sequel was as bad as people made it out to be, and the fact that Shane Black, the director of the Lethal Weapon series and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, one of the most underrated movies of all time, had been hired, not only to direct it but also to write the script, only served to get me even more exited for Iron Man 3. But man. Oh man. This movie has so many flaws that I hardly know where to begin. Explaining what's so bad about it without spoiling too much of the plot might become a challenge, but I should be able to give you a general idea of what you should expect from this movie without spoiling anything.
Frankly, the movie is a mess from the very beginning. Iron Man 3 takes place after the events of The Avengers, and Tony Stark is suffering from post dramatic stress syndrome. Saving the world from an alien invasion proved to be a little more than he could handle, and the first third of the movie shows how his life has taken a change for the worse. He can't sleep at night, Pepper and him have begun to drift apart, and his competitors in the technology business have begun to catch up to him. We're also introduced to the the main bad guy/bad guys in this first part, and the foundation for the main conflict is constructed. Sadly, all these things happen in a very convoluted and weird way, and I never really got on board. The movie goes in a million different directions right form the beginning, and they never manage to sort of reconnect and make sense compared to each other. This tendency continues in the second part where the plot kinda starts to escalate, but still, a lot of things just happen without much reason or explanation, and this sadly carries on throughout the movie. Things just happen, and they don't make sense.
By far my biggest problem with Iron Man 3 is the plot. If I had to compare it to a dairy product, I'd probably say that its closest comparison would be a Swizz cheese; stinky a full of holes. There are so many "but if that's possible, why can't they do that?"-moments, even more "why do these people care about each other?"-situations, and almost just as many "OK, what does that thing that just happened have to do with anything?"-scenarios. This movie is so poorly put together, so many things are never explained, so many things just happen for no reason, and I found myself not caring about what was gonna happen next way too many times, because I knew it would have nothing to to with anything that had already taken place. I sadly can't explain what my biggest problem with the plot is without spoiling some of it, but what I can say is that one of the big important story lines, the most important one actually, the one that the whole movie relies upon to make it interesting, gets completely and utterly ruined half way through. Tony Stark's character progression gets completely swiped under the rug by something way too simple and minor that makes no sense what so ever, and from that point on, I didn't give two shits about his character progression any longer. Everything the trailer and the fist half of the movie had build up about his battle within himself, was just completely shrugged off as a joke. Tony Starks character progression basically got Boba Fetted.
Another thing I absolutely have to touch upon is the villains. Ben Kingsley and Guy Pierce are fantastic actors, that goes without saying, but they were completely miss used in this movie. Especially one of their characters take a completely unexpected turn for the bizarre in the latter half of the movie, people who have watched it will know what I mean. There are many different opinions on this twist, and I personally found it kinda hilarious and well though up. That being said, it completely smashed the villain concept of the entire movie, and gave the other guy about 20 minutes to become an astablished character worth fearing, before the final showdown. I love when a movie has an awesome and respectable bad guy, but in that department, Iron Man 3 went down a road that just did not work at all. None of them had any credibility, and the small amount of motivation they had for doing what they did seemed weak and confusing.
The final showdown of this movie is bad, it just is. Sure, the pyrotechnics and the explosions are impressive, but it fell through completely. The setup was poor and the execution was worse, but what irritated me the most about it was the emotional bait and switch half way through. The creators had an opportunity to do something extremely cool and surprising, but in the end, they chickened out and made the safe decision anyway. At no time was I emotionally invested in this movie, even in the final moments of the big confrontation between good and evil. On top of that, when the thing that really was supposed to make the audience shudder in grief happened, I just didn't care. I own a big werehouse where i store all sorts of things, and no matter how hard I searcheh it, I literally couldn't find a single fuck to give. It just didn't phase me in the slightest, because of how badly it was handeled.
I personally think that special effect and cool looking CGI should be used as a tool to improve something that is already great, add a little bit of seasoning to an already finished product, and not as a foundation or something that everything else is based upon, as it sometimes is the case in Iron Man 3. Sometimes things happen just to look cool and awesome and impressive, which they admittedly do, but they just don't fit into the context of the movie. It's as if they were put in just so the editors had something cool to put in the trailer. The fact that the two coolest things in the entire movie were in these trailers as well, isn't exactly a plus either. Speaking of editors; another major complaint I have about Iron Man 3 is the way it's edited. Often times it's way too easy to see when a scene is filmed in two or more takes and clipped together afterwards, and it feels too rushed and incomplete at times. Sometimes when I actually got close to getting invested in the story, I'd suddenly snap out of the experience because of some jumpy or clumsy piece of editing.
Most people will go easy on this movie and say things like "it's a superhero movie, what did you expect?" or "for what it tried to be, the movies was awesome!", but I strongly disagree. Yes, I realize that all movies can't be like Schindler's List or a Taxi Driver in terms of storytelling, emotional appeal and character development, and I know that Iron Man 3 is based on a comic book for children and young adults, but that doesn't mean it isn't meant to be taken seriously. A movie can have as many sparkly explosions and as much good looking action as it wants to, but if it has no structure or integrity, it becomes a sloppy mess that true fans of the superhero genre aren't going to enjoy at all. I liked The Avengers because it knows what it is and doesn't try to be something it's not, I love the first Iron Man movie because it was simple, had a great plot and some amazing character development, and both of those movies have great special effects and tons of action, just like Iron Man 3 has. The latest addition to the marvel movie universe just doen't have that solid base and structure that good movies have to fall back upon, and it suffers tremendously because of it.
In the end, no matter haw many hilarious oneliners Tony Stark has or how likeable Robert Downey Jr. is as an actor, In a world where we have comic book movies like 300, V For Vendetta, Iron Man 1, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, Iron Man 3 sadly just isn't worth anything more than a silent facepalm. (2/6)
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