Iron Man 3 Discussion Thread

[Natrix]

Come to think of it, Trevor said they did plastic surgery on him. Plastic surgery for what exactly? To look like the REAL Mandarim perhaps? I wish.

I said the same thing pages ago but it got quickly buried without anyone else noticing it or commenting on it since everyone is repeating the same things over and over.

 

[jye4ever]

I said the same thing pages ago but it got quickly buried without anyone else noticing it or commenting on it since everyone is repeating the same things over and over.

Many have brought up the plastic surgery bit.

But nothing can be proven what it meant.

 

[IrishJedi]

They should make Pepper a full-on villain. Now that would be "ballsy".

 

[jye4ever]

They should make Pepper a full-on villain. Now that would be "ballsy".

Ohhhh, I like that.

 

[Natrix]

Many have brought up the plastic surgery bit.

But nothing can be proven what it meant.

Show me an example.

 

[DinoLast]

Many have brought up the plastic surgery bit.

But nothing can be proven what it meant.

I guess people in Croydon might say "Hang on, is that Trevor?"

 

[jye4ever]

Show me an example.

huh

i'm not going digging for plastic surgery comments just to fulfill whatever ego trip you're embarking on.

ask Biojex, he's off today.

 

[Natrix]

huh

i'm not going digging for plastic surgery comments just to fulfill whatever ego trip you're embarking on.

ask Biojex, he's off today.

Not an ego trip, but this is a discussion thread (not a joke thread, BTW talking about egos, pot meet kettle) and I haven't seen that discussed.

 

[jye4ever]

Not an ego trip, but this is a discussion thread (not a joke thread, BTW talking about egos, pot meet kettle) and I haven't seen that discussed.

it's all good.

I don't remember what pages, but a handful of people brought it up already, it's not like I would just make that up.

sheesh, what's wrong with humor, you need more Trevor in your life.

btw, only "joking" about the ego trip thing.

 

[Mad Old Lu]

I guess I can kind of understand people's disappointment with how the Mandarin character was handled. Everyone's saying, "Imagine if they did that with Lex or with the Joker!", which I think is stretching it a bit. Maybe it would be more like Lex turned out to be a figurehead and it was really Braniac behind everything Lex ever did. Actually that doesn't sound half bad, does it?

I guess I'm lucky that I never had any stake in the Mandarin. Like I mentioned before, the run that I read in the late 70s, early 80s was about Hammer and Shield. I have some vague memories of watching the old 60s Saturday morning Marvel cartoons that basically took the golden age comics and made crude cartoons from the stories, and maybe seeing the Mandarin there as Tony's ultimate villain. But other than that, nothing.

But really, if they had done the reverse twist, I think it would have been extremely more frustrating. It definitely would have for me. It totally would have been like they wussed out at the last minute and didn't have the guts to carry the idea through. I'll be really disappointed if they reverse twist this in a later movie. I still think the revelation leaves the door open for someone else leading the Ten Rings. Not that it's important to me at all.

And it's not like the revelation robbed us of an exciting climax, either. Let's pretend the Mandarin was real. I certainly can't imagine a scenario where the Mandarin has magical rings and/or we have Sir Ben Kingsley fighting mano a mano with Tony. Or a Lo Pan kind of thing like in Big Trouble in Little China? Eh. So the next possible option is having the extremis army fight at the docks with a normal, super-powerless Mandarin safely escaping on his private yacht. Then what? Iron Man goes and gets a cranky old man and arrests him? That's fine I guess, but a little ho-hum. The only way it could have played out in order to satisfy all these apparent Mandarin super fans is how it actually played out, but just with Trevor instead of Killian. You could have had Ben Kingsley doing pretty much what Guy Pearce did--an all out battle with Tony--but with an old man instead instead of a younger, fit man. Is that really what everyone wanted to see?

Ultimately for me the movie was great, with strong dialogue, smart character moments, and exciting action. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie as a long time Iron Man fan and I look forward to getting the Blu Ray when it comes out!

 

[Biojex]

huh

i'm not going digging for plastic surgery comments just to fulfill whatever ego trip you're embarking on.

ask Biojex, he's off today.

I'm working on my Trevor Slattery cosplay outfit

Not an ego trip, but this is a discussion thread (not a joke thread, BTW talking about egos, pot meet kettle) and I haven't seen that discussed.

Just use the search function and type in plastic surgery.

You could have had Ben Kingsley doing pretty much what Guy Pearce did--an all out battle with Tony--but with an old man instead instead of a younger, fit man. Is that really what everyone wanted to see?

Yes....

 

[Viper245]

I guess I can kind of understand people's disappointment with how the Mandarin character was handled. Everyone's saying, "Imagine if they did that with Lex or with the Joker!", which I think is stretching it a bit. Maybe it would be more like Lex turned out to be a figurehead and it was really Braniac behind everything Lex ever did. Actually that doesn't sound half bad, does it?

I guess I'm lucky that I never had any stake in the Mandarin. Like I mentioned before, the run that I read in the late 70s, early 80s was about Hammer and Shield. I have some vague memories of watching the old 60s Saturday morning Marvel cartoons that basically took the golden age comics and made crude cartoons from the stories, and maybe seeing the Mandarin there as Tony's ultimate villain. But other than that, nothing.

But really, if they had done the reverse twist, I think it would have been extremely more frustrating. It definitely would have for me. It totally would have been like they wussed out at the last minute and didn't have the guts to carry the idea through. I'll be really disappointed if they reverse twist this in a later movie. I still think the revelation leaves the door open for someone else leading the Ten Rings. Not that it's important to me at all.

And it's not like the revelation robbed us of an exciting climax, either. Let's pretend the Mandarin was real. I certainly can't imagine a scenario where the Mandarin has magical rings and/or we have Sir Ben Kingsley fighting mano a mano with Tony. Or a Lo Pan kind of thing like in Big Trouble in Little China? Eh. So the next possible option is having the extremis army fight at the docks with a normal, super-powerless Mandarin safely escaping on his private yacht. Then what? Iron Man goes and gets a cranky old man and arrests him? That's fine I guess, but a little ho-hum. The only way it could have played out in order to satisfy all these apparent Mandarin super fans is how it actually played out, but just with Trevor instead of Killian. You could have had Ben Kingsley doing pretty much what Guy Pearce did--an all out battle with Tony--but with an old man instead instead of a younger, fit man. Is that really what everyone wanted to see?

Ultimately for me the movie was great, with strong dialogue, smart character moments, and exciting action. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie as a long time Iron Man fan and I look forward to getting the Blu Ray when it comes out!

Like you, I wasn't invested in the Mandarin character at all so the twist was great for me. As for the final battle, your assessment is spot on in my view. Having Tony fighting the BK Mandarin would have been anti climatic to say the least. I like the way they handled the final battle. Pretty epic imo. A great movie all in all and I had a blast watching it.

 

[Niltusk]

Many have brought up the plastic surgery bit.

But nothing can be proven what it meant.

That would be quite the hat trick if Ben were brought back and it was revealed that the Mandarin(Ben) played a double of a double and was the puppet master all along in a future movie. I'm not saying it couldn't happen either, because there are a lot of small Marvel Universe details in this movie that have gone unnoticed. Man Things wife, included for ****s and giggles or an inclusive clue (ie caps shield, or a shield agent with a bow). Its too easy to write this off as random events, but we may not know for a couple movies down the road how many things were placed to feed into future movies/ expansion.

 

[The Mike]

I sill believe Mandarin can be salvaged.

There are plenty of ways to do it, "The Mandarin" could be a figure head for the Ten Rings, a sort of title and not necessarily one person. The Mandarin could have not been in the film at all but instead we could have seen the rantings of a mad man who wanted to be The Mandarin fueled by his Extremis experiments and the real Mandarin is still safe and sound. If a writer wanted to it wouldn't take much to push him back in and I applaud Marvel Studios for being ballsy enough to take the top villain of what was a Tier 2 figure for them and play with him a bit.

Originally Stane was going to be working for a young contemporary "Mandarin" in Iron Man 1 up until 10 weeks before shooting so all of that could be laced together without much issue. Hell they could loop it through the next three Iron Man films as a backstory to have one real "Mandarin" battle come forth. As was stated before Trevor could have had surgery to look like the Real Mandarin and you could even have Kingsley back.

Maybe it would be more like Lex turned out to be a figurehead and it was really Braniac behind everything Lex ever did. Actually that doesn't sound half bad, does it?

This was actually the premise of a few Superman comics and even the Bruce Timm Animated series for the first real arc, the idea of Lex being puppeted (abeit sometimes unaware) by Brainiac. It's no different. I'm a huge Iron Man fan and have no issues to what has happened to The Mandarin. Realistically it beat the original idea for Iron Man 1 to have him be younger than Tony Stark and working with Stane on the inside to overtake Stark Industries AND what was pitch as Favreau's Iron Man 3 which was an armored Mandarin. At least this gives a bit of diversity to the Iron Man mythos.

Tony's biggest enemy was always and will always be himself. All the other villains are just either projections of things about himself that he hates or roadblocks and distractions to dealing with his own imperfect being.

 

[Uncanny Web-Slinger]

I'm chiming in a bit late but I have to say, This was the worst of the Marvel movies (starting from IM 1 when they got serious)

The Mandarin is not useable as a villian again. The shame of it is there was the hint of the Ten Rings in the first film.

Kevin Feige: "...have confidence in the characters, believe in the source material, don’t be afraid to stay true to all of the elements of the characters no matter how seemingly silly or crazy they are...."


.

Or more Accurately Ben Kingsley as Mandarin is unusable again.

And so much for the MCU being "the most accurate studio"

 

[Mad Old Lu]

There are plenty of ways to do it, "The Mandarin" could be a figure head for the Ten Rings, a sort of title and not necessarily one person. The Mandarin could have not been in the film at all but instead we could have seen the rantings of a mad man who wanted to be The Mandarin fueled by his Extremis experiments and the real Mandarin is still safe and sound. If a writer wanted to it wouldn't take much to push him back in and I applaud Marvel Studios for being ballsy enough to take the top villain of what was a Tier 2 figure for them and play with him a bit.

That's how I see it as well. I don't think this twist really ****s all over what was established in the first movie with the 10 Rings.

Originally Stane was going to be working for a young contemporary "Mandarin" in Iron Man 1 up until 10 weeks before shooting so all of that could be laced together without much issue. Hell they could loop it through the next three Iron Man films as a backstory to have one real "Mandarin" battle come forth. As was stated before Trevor could have had surgery to look like the Real Mandarin and you could even have Kingsley back.

I'm a huge Iron Man fan and have no issues to what has happened to The Mandarin. Realistically it beat the original idea for Iron Man 1 to have him be younger than Tony Stark and working with Stane on the inside to overtake Stark Industries AND what was pitch as Favreau's Iron Man 3 which was an armored Mandarin. At least this gives a bit of diversity to the Iron Man mythos.

I can see the logic in having Mandarin being the dark mirror reflection of Tony, but I don't know how I feel about an armored Mandarin. When all those spoilers and specifically the Iron Man 3 Spoiler/Figures Discussion popped up in the Marvel Figures section, I was dreading the possibility of exactly that. I thought, "how lame would that be that the Mandarin (as played by Ben) ends up donning an armor suit to fight Tony!"

And Killian did end up being the shadowy reflection of Tony. They are both scientific/engineering geniuses who used their technology to transform and "heal" themselves. I'm just glad he didn't have an armor. After the villains of 1 and 2, it was simply too repetitive to do that.

Tony's biggest enemy was always and will always be himself. All the other villains are just either projections of things about himself that he hates or roadblocks and distractions to dealing with his own imperfect being.

Well said.

This was actually the premise of a few Superman comics and even the Bruce Timm Animated series for the first real arc, the idea of Lex being puppeted (abeit sometimes unaware) by Brainiac. It's no different.

Interesting! And here I thought I was being original.

 

[iron.jedi83]

yes because Marvel Studios isnt part of the Marvel company

Marvel has never changed any of their characters in the last 70 years to fit with the times or change them to have the story make sense.

 

[iron.jedi83]

And Killian did end up being the shadowy reflection of Tony. They are both scientific/engineering geniuses who used their technology to transform and "heal" themselves. I'm just glad he didn't have an armor. After the villains of 1 and 2, it was simply too repetitive to do that.

this is why i loved what they did. based on how this movie was written Killian is the better villain than fake Mandarin would have been

 

[CelticPredator]

I bet you 20 bucks Trevor is going to grow a super ego, and try and go after Iron Man.


Hopefully the final battle is over in seconds with a swift lethal punch to the face.

 

[Biojex]

Instead of rebooting or james bonding the role when RDJ leaves. They should just have Trevor take up the mantle.