My Review of Iron Man 3 (slight spoilers)

I know my blog is titled "Gaming with Ryu2388," but, I just feel the need to post my quick, two-cents on the movie.  Here it goes:

Iron Man 3 is the epitome of wasted potential.  There is so much that could have been built upon (post traumatic stress, events from the Avengers, Mandarin), but sadly they decided to waste not only the possibility of a good story regarding Tony dealing with PTSD over the fact that there are uncanny things in our world, but the Mandarin as well.  The Mandarin was the villain we needed and deserved.  The Mandarin encompasses the uncanny while encompassing a closer to home villain; he is a terrorist and alien at the same time (due to the rings, not because he himself is an alien).  The overall idea/moral of Tony being Iron Man with or without the suit would have been pulled off better if he fought and overcame the very thing that he is losing sleep over.

Iron Man 3 was also the epitome of false advertising.  I cannot help but feel that they tricked me into watching their movie.  The movie was marketed as a darker Iron Man story, with Tony on the verge of destruction.  The whole movie played out in a more comedic way, a complete opposite of the "serious" tone the trailers implied.  The Mandarin was also advertised in a different way, in that he was actually portrayed the way he is in the comics (minus the ring powers, which would have been fine because they could have found a way to give him the powers in another movie; the core of the character would still have been present).  I find it amazing that the promotional items (I would know because I work for a movie theater) portrayed him better than the movie ended up doing.  Everything that sold me in the trailers was not present in the movie.

The last thing I would like to talk about is the comedy.  I love the comedy in the first one, but, I feel that this movie went the "Michael Bay" route and added too much.  The new armor, which is advertised as his brand new, bad ass armor, was primarily a tool for humor.  Almost every line in the movie was written to be funny it seemed.  To me, the Tony that first appeared is gone.  In the first movie, Tony was not laughing in the cave, he was trying to find a way out.  When he fought Obadiah, he was serious.  When he did make a joke, it was in a way that said "hey, there is light in darkness."  Now the comedy in the movie really is not bad,  but, it has so much of it that it pulls you away from the serious parts.

All in all, I would say Iron Man was entertaining at best.  The constant comedy routines and the wasted potential that ties into false marketing lead to me feeling let down.  I hope that they listen to community (I have found that there are a lot of others who were let down by this movie, as well) and go forward into the future with lessons learned.  Unfortunately, money talks, so, if this movie makes a ton of it, they will take what was done and use it as the standard for the next movie.