20 replies to this topic

[DarkJuno]

So this movie is being filmed right now, in the mdist of The Avengers' success. Not a whole lot known beyond being based on the Extremis storyline from a few years back and a couple actors hired (Ben Kingsley? I assume as a villain) and it's being filmed on-location for parts in China. Oh, and a couple pictures - spyshot of....




....Iron Patriot? Gwah? Well, in just as cool and less baffling pictures, officially:





Hall of Armor's filling up Tony. Though did he just steal War Machine back from Rhodey?


Ah well. Obviously super early to know a whole lot, but eh, nice to see Marvel's not resting on its laurels and going onw ith the cinematic universe. I'm somewhat optimisstic that they're going to keep this train going at a good quality since Thor 2 is also supposed to be filiming later this year. The television side of thigns might be a gigantic trainwreck with cancelling really good shows for new ones for the sake of it, but the movie side of things is going pretty well.

[Game Master JRPomazon]

Jeez, this is sooner than I expected for anything regarding a Marvel movie. Still, I'm kinda excited about this movie. Iron Man is by far my favorite marvel movie series so far.

[Sir Turtlelot]

I'm really liking what they are doing with the Avengers series, binding all of the separate movies together for one movie, just to let them go their own ways again, and then presumably bring them back together again later on. I look forward to all of the upcoming sequels. I also really hope that they incorporate the new Spiderman and Wolverine into the next Avengers movie.

[Sir Deimos]

Unfortunately that'll never happen. A different studio owns X-Men, and Spider-Man, and I doubt they'll be letting those licenses go.

[Leo Crimson]

It should be interesting how Shane Black turns out as director of this movie.


Also, Andy Lau appears as an "old friend of Tony's from China". Hmm.

[DarkJuno]

Hmmm...

AIM, eh? Makes a lot of sense. Plus, I can't tell if a couple of those shots of Gwyneth Paltrow are of her really on the phone or of Pepper.

And that banner with the golden Iron Man kinda does seem like Extremis, though to be fair the MKIII from the first movie was basically the Extremis armor from the comics.

[Chief Fire Storm]

That's supposedly a different paint job for War Machine and not the actual Iron Patriot.

[Game Master JRPomazon]

OK, so I know next to zip about Iron Man's list of villains. Are they all technological battle weapons suits or is there a little variety to be had here? Also, who could we be expecting for this movie?

[Sir Deimos]

Based on the fact that some of the filming is in China I'm guessing we're going to see Mandarin. As for his powers, well, I actually don't know much about what he can do...

[DarkJuno]

Yeah, most of Iron Man's villains are basically just other guys in armored suits (Crimson Dynamo, Titanium Man, Iron Monger) other businessmen who can hire other guys or have enough wealth to harass Iron Man (Justin Hammer) or magical guys, basically Mandarin for the obvious Technology vs Magic thing.

Also Fin Fang Fong, but I doubt they'll use him, though if they go the mystical route with The Mandarin (however they use the name) who knows - may even open the door for Dr. Strange later on.

[Sir Deimos]

I think that (depending who heads the project) a Doctor Strange cameo to spin off movie would be wonderful.

[DarkJuno]

Arise, thread, ARISE! LIVE FOR THE TEASER TRAILER.



So there ya go. Huh, maybe this time we'll actually have character growth as opposed to Iron Man 2 (Which I still liked fine, to be fair) becuase, damn that's a lot going on. Kingsley sounds kinda odd with the inflection he's using in his voice, and it kinda hurts to see the armor destroyed like that. I note that it is the Mark VIII damaged here, so I wonder if we'll also get a Mark IX by the end of the movie.

Nice nods to the Avengers, and Stark's home being destroyed seems like a way to "force" him to move into a future Avengers mansion in the rennovated Stark Tower.

Well, I'm interested.

[Leo Crimson]

For me, this trailer kind of gives off TDK Rises vibe with all the suits being destroyed and it being sort of given he has to, dare I say, rise back from the disaster.

Definitely gonna aim to see this opening night.

[DarkJuno]

So, Super Bowl The Football Championship Game Trailer. Just a few snippets of footage with the Air Force One sequence, but yes, it's pretty much Robert Downey Jr. trolling.

[Leo Crimson]

Cannot wait until June for this line to come out omg


brickset.com/news/article/?ID=5713


P.S. Not sure whether anyone would consider these images to be potential spoilers but I thought I'd just add a fair warning just in case.

[DarkJuno]

Trailer #2:







So yeah. Hmmm. When they started talking about drone armors I was thinking they'd all be identical, so I'm happy to see it isn't. In the last shot I see the Ultimate armor, space armor, and of course the Hulk Buster, and a bunch of others I'm sure the itnernet has already deciphered. Looking good.

[DarkJuno]

...So, anyone? Anyone!?


All right, got back, and it's a good movie. Not as good as the first, but certainly better than the second, though full disclosure, I thought the second one was still fine. It's a really logical conclusion to Iron Man's story if this is it (except we know it's not, hey there Avengers 2) and it does wrap everything up reasonably nicely, save one thing I'll go into in the spoiler section. It's definitely a bit mroe of a personal story than before, and it does a believable job of being a "small" story even after the world changing chaos of The Avengers. The references to that film and the other members of the team are also small and subtle enough to not break up the pacing or seem weird and out of place. Stark's interactions with people are great without being forced or artificial, and his quipping and random snarking/arguing with others in bad situations continues to be well done without taking you out of the movie.

Spoiler

Kudos to the movie for "spoiling" a lot of things in the trailer...but than it turned out it wasn't what it looked like at all. The Mandarin being just an actor was a good twist I didn't see coming, and while I'm disappointed we didn't get the "real" Mandarin with the rings and whatnot it was well executed. I still would have prefered if he were a real and flat out warlord who ran a terrorist organization as was implied by the Ten Rings in the first movie. I have to ask now though, does this mean Gillian was always in charge of the Ten Rings since the first movie, or did he just co-opt the name and logo to use here?

Similarly, spoiling how Pepper put the Mark XLII Armor on in the trailer to hide how she ended up getting the Extremis virus put into her, and her being the one to basically rescue Tony at the end was a nice surprise. He does say that he "fixes" her in the ending monologue, but I have to wonder if that's a possible tease for something in the future, maybe we'll get both a War Machine and Rescue cameo bit in Avengers 2? Speaking of Extremis, and the sentient armor for that matter, great way to introduce both while not playing them the exact way most fans assumed they'd be used, while at the same time keeping them fairly true to what they are. It's no "cancer suit Venom" that's for sure.

While I definitely fanboy'ed out over the armors showing up at the end and was pleased that he put on the friggin' Silver Centurion Armor on to have his showdown with Gillian, I was actually disappointed by how they ended up being just kinda meh with no build up whatsoever. I realize they were all prototypes and not fully operations like the III, IV, VI and VII's but man, it was really underwhelming how he puyt ons aid Silver Centurion armor and proceded to get it ripped off of him in pieces in the fight, along with the Space Armor and Hypervelocity armor and everything else. Iron Man ended up seeming kind of weak compared to the Extremis soldiers, which is weird since it seemed to me that the whole point of the movie was him coming to terms with who he is without the suit. While again I liked Pepper saving the day in a crazily violent manner, it kinda made Tony seem a little off. I understand the drone suits being dispatched easily, but Stark could barely even dent Gillian.

Anyway, my thing was....did they ever really resolve his anxiety and PTSD over what he dealt with in the Avengers? I assume that him building all the different armor was his weird crutch to deal, but not really deal with how small and insignificant he suddenly felt after the events of that movie, and his detonating all of them at the end was him letting go, but that seemed rushed and with no real resolution. I suppose him getting the shrapnel pulled out and his no longer needing the Arc Reactor is part of it too, but int hat case, him digging up his robot buddies from the sea with all the scrap and broken pieces of the Mark I - VII's at the end just means he's really not over it. It is fairly telling it specifically says "Tony Stark will Return" at the end instead of using his superhero name like it did for Captain America and Thor though, because as he says, he IS Iron Man regardless.

And of course, after credits scene. Just a gag, but it's kind of a nice payback for Downey showing up in the Hulk for Ruffalo to show up here.

Stan Lee, or whatever character he plays in these movies, appears as a perverted old judge at a beauty contest. Perfect.

Also, we get to see the meeting Yinsin was refering to way back in the first movie. Well done.

All in all, I liked it a lot, it was awesome. Looking forward to Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.


Maybe or maybe not noteworthy, but this movie uses Roxxon Oil as a company just like The Amazing Spider-man. Doesn't mean anything, but Fox, Sony, and Disney all seem really weird and anal about not sharing names. If Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch show up in Avengers 2 as rumored, they cannot be refered to as mutants and can't mention their parents either.

Edited by DarkJuno, 03 May 2013 - 04:37 PM.

[Sir Deimos]

Of course I saw it last night. I get all the hate, but come on. I loved it.


My biggest disappointment was that it was a much more lighthearted film than I was hoping for. I wanted pure alcoholic Stark in all his rock bottom goodness.


Also I adored the credit cookie.

[Moriatti]

Just got back.
Since I'm a huge nerd, this is a movie I have opinions on, so WORDS.
I'll try and put all major spoilers in tags, but... Minor ones may slip by me.

As a standalone movie
This does pretty well, with a strong theme of dependence throughout the whole thing. Stark's character works, and probably does the most growth we've seen out of him in the entire series. I thought most everything was done pretty well, especially....

Spoiler

with Tony's dependence on the armor being linked to his PSTD ("I NEED to get to the armor!") and both going away when he realizes he doesn't need it to be himself, he IS Iron Man.

the villains were fairly effective in this means,

Spoiler

"Mandarin's" substance dependence and AIM guy's dependence on anonymity/power, both of which they are unable to leave, so both of those lead to their downfall.

there were some really cool set-pieces, and it was much better then the trailer led me to believe. All in all a solid movie, my only complaint being that:

Spoiler

Pepper is played pretty much entirely as a damsel in distress, even when she dons the armor, or gains legit super-powers.

As a franchise movie
This movie felt more personal, and even with the bombastic ending, parts of it seemed smaller. In addition, the shady government stuff is coming more and more to the forefront. This bodes well for phase 2 movies in my mind, and makes me sad we won't get a Hulk movie in this phase, as the first one fits in better here thematically.
As I said before, Tony grew a lot in this movie. It also wraps up the Iron Man set nicely, which is neat. I didn't feel like Pepper got sufficient growth, but I went over that already. Rhodes didn't really grow, but his usage played to his strengths, a nice change from the past two movies. I liked the small name drops and the nod to the Avengers event. You didn't NEED to see Avengers for these to make sense, but it certainly would enhance your experience.
Also, we got AIM, and that could mean MODOK either in future Captain America or Iron Man movies. That's something I'd like to see.

As a comic book adaptation
All spoilers, I categorized them though.

Mandarin

Spoiler

Was VERY DIFFERENT. I mean, he was still powered by a dragon in a sense (dude legit breathes fire), but he was not what I was expecting. I did like this change, however, as despite being an iconic villain, Mandarin does not update well. This also leaves the door open for copycat Mandarins, which would be nice. I just wish they were clearer on the actual Ten Rings from the original Iron Man, were they part of AIM? Or did AIM just co-op their name and log?

Extremis

Spoiler

Tony didn't get any! I mean, I guess that makes sense, but it surprised me. I wonder if they thought the idea wouldn't float well with audiences, or if they just couldn't work it with the theme?
Also, the Extremis soldiers seemed weak to me compared to the one in the comics, though reading Juno's comment, he thinks they were over-powered. I guess we'll just have to disagree on this point.

Iron Patriot

Spoiler

I'm not really sure why this was here? To show Rhodes' dependency on his country? Vice Versa? It's not really resolved either way, and we don't get a crazy Osbourn type inside of it. (Well, not for long, anyways) so I'm kinda meh on the whole thing.

[Leo Crimson]

Watched it last night, great movie overall:

Spoiler

1. YINSEN LIVES. Jk, just a flashback and a nice reference to that Bern thing in the cave from IM1.
2. I really wish sometime during the whole sequence where the Mandarin is just an actor he casually slips on the Ten Rings and just whacks Stark or something. Kind of a letdown for that character.
3. Extremis dudes were way OP; I don't read much Marvel though, so I'm not sure how powerful they are in the comics.
4. Nice Mark Ruffalo cameo, "I'm not that kind of doctor", "don't have the temperament", etc.)
5. RDJ better return.

I'd put it about par with IM1 with the latter still being a little better.

[Moriatti]

Leo:

Spoiler

in the storyline, there was only one dude with Extremis, and he wiped the floor with Iron Man, who had to use a corrected version on himself. They were actually far LESS powerful in the movie.

I really loved the original Extremis story, it's been made as a motion comic on Netflix and is quite different, I'd look into it. Ellis seems pretty legit.