Iron Man 3

School is out for me, just waiting on grades and so my weekends, apart from housework are pretty open.  I better enjoy it because summer school starts in about 3 weeks.  Don't get me wrong - there is a lot of housework to get done.  Especially with the move coming up.

Anyway, today, Paula, Xander and I took a break from housework to go see Iron Man 3 at the local theater. We went with one of Xander's friends, Dylan, and his dad to a early afternoon showing in 3-D.  Xander really prefers to see movies in 3-D.  If they are done well (which more are) 3-D adds to the enjoyment of the movie.  Done poorly and it adds to the annoyance.  This one was well done and I tended to enjoy the movie.

Iron Man 3 is a typical Marvel movie.  It picks up at some point shortly after the events in the Avengers.  Tony Stark is suffering from PTSD after the events of that movie and is afraid to sleep.  During his downtime he has built a small army of Iron Man outfits.  While this is going on a terrorist known only as 'The Mandarin'  has emerged threatening the safety of the United States.  Meanwhile, a woman (and honestly a man) from Tony's previous life as a booze hound has reentered his life.  If you did not think all of those items were related, well you just having been paying attention.  That is about all the plot I am going to go into but I will go into a couple of the problems I had with the movie.  Both happen in the last quarter of the movie after Tony has uncovered all the myriad plots going on.

The first is the neutering of 'the Mandarin'.  In the comics, Mandarin is one of Iron Man's chief villains.  He was rated as the 81st best villain of all time, regardless of comic.  In this movie he is a fraud.  An actor hired to play a part and that just seems shortsighted.  Here was a chance to give Tony a 'reuseable' villain in the same vein as Loki for Thor or Red Skull for Captain America (oh and raise your hand if you think we have seen the last of him).  Instead the makers of this movie decide to make him a pawn of the real villains.

The second is the ending itself.  Tony destroys all the suits, has the bomb shrapnel removed from his heart, and chucks the miniature arc reactor into the ocean.  I know RDJ's contract is up after this movie, but did that mean they had to write themselves out of business.  I mean I am sure Iron Man will show up in Avengers 2 but the way they ended this movie makes me wonder if there will ever be an Iron Man 4 - or if he will show up in Av3.