Civil War Countdown: Iron Man 3

So, it was announced a while before Avengers that the MCU would be taking place in, "phases." Phase 1 started with Iron Man and ended with The Avengers, so what did Marvel start Phase 2 with? Iron Man of course.

Yes, the golden money maker boy lifted the helm of the first phase, and he'd be kicking off the second as well in the form of Iron Man 3, a movie that had gained a huge hype before release for the dark tones that the trailers were promising, with many people speculating that it'd be Marvel's answer to The Dark Knight. It was promising to be a brilliant start to the next phase, with us getting the long-awaited battle of Iron Man vs. The Mandarin on the big screen. Did it deliver? If I tell you, you won't want to read the rest of this review.

Taking place after The Avengers, IM3 obviously follows Tony Stark again. It turns out that he's having a lot of PTSD and anxiety after the New York battle and it's making him suffer, which is no good. At the same time, the whole world is on the fritz because a new terrorist known as the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) is running amok and bombing cities all over the place. With all this said, Tony has found himself his new, "hobby," tinkering with new suit ideas in his lab at home all the time, while Pepper takes care of the company.

One day, Pepper receives a visit from Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), an up and coming philantropist who was shunned by Tony 13 years before the events of this movie. In the meantime, he has started up his own research firm, AIM, who has created an all new biologic device known as Extremis, which he claims can help people heal faster than their bodies would normally allow. Pepper turns him down though, and at first, he seems okay with it. Meanwhile, Pepper's head of security Happy (Jon Favreau) becomes suspicious of Killian's bodyguard, and trails him to Los Angeles, where we see the bodyguard give a suspicious device to a homeless veteran. Soon afterwards, the area becomes another victim to an explosion. Happy survives, but is severely wounded due to it.

Enraged, Tony Stark challenges the Mandarin to a fight between themselves to avenge Happy. This turns out to be a bad idea, as the Mandarin soon sends missile-stocked helicopters to Stark's house and starts blowing shit up. Stark can only act so fast, managing to get Pepper and Maya (Rebecca Hall), an old girlfriend of Tony's who has come to him with Mandarin information, out of the house before he dons the Iron Man suit to fight back. He manages to win against the two of the helicopters, but the third manages to completely destroy the house, plunging Tony into the deep depths of the sea below. With everyone believing him to be dead, J.A.R.V.I.S. flies the suit to Rose Hill, Tennessee, all the while Tony is passed out.

We learn from Maya that Killian is in fact working for the Mandarin, possibly making the bombs that he uses in the attacks. Pepper and Maya look into going after him. Meanwhile, in Tennessee, Stark is hiding out in a little boy's garage, the boy promises to help Stark momentarily as he finds his way back to civilization. Meanwhile, Rhodey, donning a new red, white, and blue suit, taking up the mantle as the Iron Patriot, is sent out by the president after the Mandarin makes another attack to find the Mandarin. He's caught by one of Killian's goons and brought back to his base, where he is also holding Pepper to bring Stark out. Stark has no choice but to leave his suit behind with the boy as he fabricates weapons to attack Killian's hide-out. There, he learns two things: the first, is that the Extremis program that Killian is working on produces a harsh reaction in the host's body, causing them to explode, causing the vast terrorist attacks around the globe.

The second, however, is the one thing that makes Iron Man 3 so...terrible. It turns out that the Mandarin is all an act, done by Trevor Slattery, placed under hire by Killian. I'll get back to my feelings on this eventually...anyway, Killian captures Stark and reveals his plan to kidnap the President, kill him, and control the US, giving him the power he's always wanted. He takes the Patriot armor after the President, while Tony breaks free, rescues Rhodey, and grabs his own armor to chase after Killian. Killian infiltrates Air Force One and kidnaps the President while blowing the plane up, leaving Tony to take care of the wreckage and survivors.

Tony and Rhodey find out that Killian has taken the President and Pepper to a nearby oil rig, where they are being held hostage, waiting for his final plan to take place. Killian reveals himself to be the Mandarin, as the final battle starts, with Tony bringing in every single one of his Iron Man suits to back up. After a great amount of time fighting, he manages to free Pepper, who turns out now has the Extremis inside of her, and they both kill Killian, ending the fight. To promise his devotion and time to fixing Pepper, he blows up all the suits, and the movie ends on a much brighter note. The post credits scene shows that the entire movie was actually being told to Bruce Banner by Tony, who dozed off during the whole thing.

So...wow...okay, like wow, this movie has some problems. Or does it? Taking out that one gigantic issue about the whole thing, I really didn't have a problem with this one. In fact, if you'd erase that one whole twist, it would be a pretty solid film. I'll explain in a minute though, I first need to get it off of my chest.

WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU MAKE THE MANDARIN SOME SORT OF CHEAP SMOKE AND MIRRORS TRICK? WHY? That's like if the Joker in the upcoming DC Universe turned out to be some basic pawn. Or if Kylo Ren was actually just Ben Solo  going undercover and the rest of it was all made up. You don't make the biggest villain in a franchise some one-bit joke. You don't fucking do it. Back in 2013, when I was going to see this movie, I was pumped to see the Mandarin, finally, and then this happened. There was a long time that I denied that this movie existed. You fucked up, Marvel...at least you made up for it with that hint that the real Mandarin is out there somewhere...motherfucking...

Deep breaths.

Yeah, so I'm not exactly happy about that, but as I said, with this viewing, I found that apart from that blunder, it's actually quite entertaining. The plot is very straightforward, and it brings Iron Man down to a severe and deep, realistic level. It kinda did turn out to be Iron Man's Dark Knight, in a way, talking about how Tony has to discover the fact that Iron Man isn't some facade or alter-ego, it is him, and it really adds some nice character to the whole movie. Not to mention the fantastic acting all across the board, and the gorgeous cinematography from Shane Black. I'm actually quite surprised to say I'm gonna stick up for this film. It's not as bad as I once thought.

If you cut off about halfway through, skip about 15 minutes of story, and then resume, Iron Man 3 would probably be the best Iron Man movie ever made, showcasing what really can happen when you drag a formerly outlandish character down to our level. I'm gonna give Iron Man 3 a 3.5 out of 5 because I'm not letting it off that easy. And soon, we'll be returning to Asgard, so I'm okay with that.