It might perhaps be too early to anticipate IRON MAN 3

All depends on what you think of Shane Black.

really? :(

The slavering comments on the story are a bit weird.

would be more interested in seeing his Doc Savage movie tbh

shane black owns, should be cool

If he writes, then YES YES YES. If he only directs, then YES. Also if he brings in Kilmer and him and RDJ go improv crazy so it's like "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Iron Man 3" would be my dream that will never happen, of course

But Black is great. I can't see this being a bad thing.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/drew_pearce_will_write_script_for_iron_man_3_not_shane_black/

genius

shane black just screams 'helmer of empty event movie', but all these rumours about him being allowed to WRITE it? crazy talk. thank god the studio has seen sense.

Anyway, things are starting to get a little clearer now, thus:

James Badge Dale will play Savin, a villain in Iron Man 3. Robert Downey Jr stars and Shane Black is directing. Badge Dale just finished The Lone Ranger for Disney, and will next be seen in the Robert Zemeckis-directed Flight with Denzel Washington and World War Z with Brad Pitt. Marvel Studios has just gotten underway with the film. Ben Kinsgley has been rumored as The Mandarin, and Gwyneth Paltrow and Rebecca Hall are also in the film.

...hm.

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/JakeLester/news/?a=60689

And it's...a photo! Of something!

http://www-deadline-com.vimg.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/im3__120604171341.jpg

Also:

The gang’s all back with Robert Downey Jr. once again playing billionaire Stark as well as the Amored Avenger himself. Gwyneth Paltrow returns as Pepper Potts, Don Cheadle as James “Rhodey” Rhodes and Favreau himself, who is also one of the executive producers on the flim, as Stark’s driver Happy Hogan.

Gee given the Avengers you would have thought they could just name him Hulk...

I love how that picture really emphasizes that Iron Man is Barbie for Boys

io9 clarifies a thing:

It seems we may have jumped the gun with all those rumors saying Rubicon star James Badge Dale was playing the Iron Patriot in the movie. But, perhaps you're saying, didn't we actually see set photos of just exactly that? Well, it looked like we did, but the latest reports suggest what we actually saw was the new costume War Machine wears in the movie, and Iron Patriot isn't in the movie at all. (Dale, by the way, is supposedly playing Coldblood, which seems like a better thematic match for Ashley Hamilton's fellow villain Firepower anyway.) The fact that a white guy was in the suit instead of James Rhodes actor Don Cheadle is simply because, well, the stars don't actually walk around set in those giant suits unless they absolutely have to. So, that was just a stand-in. The rumors add that War Machine's armor is now ready for military use, which is why it has the new all-American look.

We got Mandarin:

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/182ym113iczs1jpg/original.jpg

Trailer tomorrow, etc.

And behold

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CzoSeClcw0

Extended look trailer worth at least the first 30 seconds of your time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl-pn7ADx1c

haven't detected any Shane Black in the trailers so far

maybe he came up with that opening though

"Make him look EXACTLY like he was drawn by Bryan Hitch."

http://spinoff.comicbookresources.com/2013/02/18/iron-man-3-poster-introduces-guy-pearces-aldrich-k*ll*an/

Trailer out.

uhhhhh Ben Kingsley...?

This was fun, crowd literally screaming in the cinema I was in.

Really enjoyed this, thought it was better than the second one, though I suspect fans of the comic might not.

and since Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was mentioned upthread... really, Guy Pearce's character may as well have been played by Val Kilmer. Not sure if it was intentional, but his introduction was essentially a tribute to Kilmer's performance in The Saint.

Really enjoyed it myself too. Might even be tempted to see it again.
Can't really talk about it without giving spoilers which might be a bit early just yet. Assuming that the preview day here was in sync with elsewhere around the globe. But this is a 2ary town, not the capital so I could be a week out.

But did like the joke of the end scene talking about Tony Stark as narrator., whcih I assume that was about.

Also really like the end credit sequence, but think I may have missed the couple of cameos from other Avengers at the end.

This was fun, crowd literally screaming in the cinema I was in.

― stet, Friday, April 26, 2013 6:05 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark

what were they screaming?!?

"Eeeeeek!", "Aaaaaaargh!", "Whooooooo","Gadzooks!" Etc.

This = great! Scary, funny, increasingly ridiculous as it gets closer to the end.

I'm not sure that being a bigger fan of the comic would cause you to prefer the strained father-son relations and over-stuffed sausage of the second film to this - but then I'm not sure what would.

I don't know that there was any obscure Avengers cameos, Steveo, though you've reminded me that I went to check the IMDB trivia page, and one of the items, probably stuck in as early as Ned's first post here, relates to the role of an established Marvel supervillian, mentioning who was up for it first, who was considered, and who eventually got it. Dude is in the film for literally 5 seconds :)

I also noted one or two other places where the bones of a previous script seemed to be sticking through, but I'll shurrup for a bit until more people have seen it.

Also I really want to watch this in Croydon now, which is not to be honest something that I could say about the first two.

I'm not sure that being a bigger fan of the comic would cause you to prefer the strained father-son relations and over-stuffed sausage of the second film to this - but then I'm not sure what would.

Yeah I kinda phrased that earlier sentence wrongly... I just meant that comic fans might not be too happy with this movie's version of a certain character's backstory.

@Andrew re: established Marvel villain: wasn't Andy Lau originally supposed to play that role? I mean it turns out to be nothing, but still.

Yeah looking around it was apparently a bigger deal at some point - there's a on-set shot of character + Rhodey + Pepper in a hospital ward which is completely absent from the movie, I was just amused because literally 5 seconds.

Roz - verging close to spoilers, but I think playing that character the way they did is the only way to play them in 2013 (as well as being fecking hilarious)

Man I need to see this

an established Marvel supervillian

please please please be MODOK

Yeah, I was going to bump it for the weekend, saying dudes: if you are thinking about seeing this film, go out and see this film.

i am thinking about seeing this film

i will go out and see this film

Indeed so. (Plans to see it on Tuesday in place.)

wondering abt seeing it on Sunday morning

*wonders*

Thought this was pretty solid. Best of the Iron Man films, though I'm not really a fan of them so it isn't saying much. Dargis was pretty off the mark in her NYT review.

i'm tbh v excited for this

looking forward to some Kingsley action

Going to see this tomorrow -- pretty stoked.

this was enjoyable (not great), loved just how little it was an iron man movie, a brief bit at the beginning, an awesome scene about an hour twenty in and then the deus ex machinas overload at the end. thought they handled the mandarin pretty brilliantly, kingsley was awesome. when cheadle and downey were on the docks w/ handguns i was grateful and happy that shane black had managed to almost completely turn this superhero flick into another buddy action film and then stark calls in 'backup' and i'm thinking 'omg superheroes are awesome'. it doesn't feel as fresh as the first one did but i'd definitely agree that this is the best iron man movie.

Saw this last night and loved it, great dialogue, RDJ's scenes with the kid are top notch, the Mandarin is a stroke of genius. Honestly does more to interrogate the US mindset re: terrorism than The Dark Knight did, and I really like TDK. An uncomfortable bit of "too-soon"-ism re the scene at the Chinese Theater, but that's not the movie's fault.

Jon Favreau got swole, btw.

shane black factor has got me super-stoked

Without meaning to get into spoilers (for a couple of days) the whole "No, Jon, you're not the director any more but you are totally in the cast, we have a very special and important job for you" angle is pretty lol.

this is the best marvel movie by a large margin. i was afraid that black's voice would be diluted by all the marvel machinery, but it's really A Shane Black Film through and through... just pg-13

when cheadle and downey were on the docks w/ handguns i was grateful and happy that shane black had managed to almost completely turn this superhero flick into another buddy action film

otm

Quite surprised at the uniformly positive reaction. I didn't think it was Shane Black enough. A damn sight better than the second one but decidedly average

there were some points where you could tell SB was on a leash, like when a certain character is cracking budweisers when you know he should be snorting coke and dropping f-bombs... it feels like tony stark was meant to be even harder edged too and disney probably wanted those corners smoothed down a bit. still i think the best instance of an authorial voice coming through clearly with one of these flicks

God save us

lol

hang on to yr petticoats, morbs

okay, y'all sold me

H4A OTM, IMHO. LOL

you're forgetting most ilxors are unfamiliar w/ the concept of 'bury yrself in work'

I really enjoyed this. The fact that they squeezed a buddy cop movie out of a Marvel superhero flick is quite entertaining.

Yeah he seemed pretty aight from the moment he raided that home depot, but a bunch of tools can sooth a man like that

I didn't think the suits at the end was a big deal. When else was he going to call them into action? You mean when his mansion was getting destroyed and he was busy struggling to keep his girl alive while he was being dragged underwater and came up after the bad guys had left and was unconsciously flown to Tennessee? Cause I mean:

he should have just called up the rest of the Avengers imo

Like, these heroes are already walking, talking, flying deus ex machinas, all of them!

Yeah but comics

the suits were disappointing because of how easily they were destroyed... i don't recall his suits being so vulnerable in the first two movies

my favourite bit is how the whole story was narrated to the hulk who didn't give one shit and fell asleep

Well, zactly, Plot holes in these things begin and end with "if this were real he would be dead." The rest is flying and quipping and blowing up and stuff.

I mean, isn't the belated removal of his heart shrapnel a thing, too? Like, why did he wait, if it was that easy?

xpost They were all prototypes, not fully functional.

Do love Hulk falling asleep.

IM3 basically like a stand-alone issue.

Hahaha oh shit I forgot he was the hulk, I just thought "what's ruffalo doing there, why is downey talking to this random dude". I'm too senile for these long game movie series.

my favourite bit is how the whole story was narrated to the hulk who didn't give one shit and fell asleep

― not lazy but clowning (Suedey 2), Thursday, May 23, 2013 4:43 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

i enjoyed that esp as a justification for the narration

oh shit i knew there was some post credits stuff, but i had to piss

its not that funny a scene tbh... not as funny as this anyway http://www.vulture.com/2013/04/mark-ruffalo-science-bros-avengers-robert-downey-jr.html

I mean, isn't the belated removal of his heart shrapnel a thing, too? Like, why did he wait, if it was that easy?

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, May 23, 2013 4:44 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

apparently there was a bombass chinese heart surgeon (cut from the american version) who i think would have been the one responsible

lol @ this btw:

HONG KONG – As the houselights dimmed in cinemas across mainland China at around midnight on Tuesday, audiences attending the first wave of public screenings of Iron Man 3 fell silent with apprehension as a question appeared on screen: “What does Iron Man rely on to revitalize his energy?”
After a three-second blackout, three big Chinese characters appeared onscreen: “Gu Li Duo."
The Marvel fanboys shouldn’t bother to rummage through their libraries to solve this riddle, because Gu Li Duo isn’t a a mystical power source in the original comic series — it’s a milk drink which is on sale for less than $1 a carton in convenience stores across mainland China.

calcium man

Thought this was okay-to-good, not great. Loved it every time it just swung for over-the-top ridiculous like Don Cheadle's awesome rescue of the President, or the big airplane scene. But in lots of places it skipped past things that should have been emphasized (the "dragging Iron Man through the snow" thing seemed like it was going to be a key character moment from the trailer but it was over in like two seconds) (or all of Maya Hansen's character beats) and then ran into the ground things that were clear from the get-go or didn't need to be spelled out quite so much. Like, I sort of got the idea of the Extremis secret project after Tony had watched one of the hacked videos - did I need to see him clicking and opening three more and going HMM I WONDER WHAT THESE BAD GUYS COULD BE UP TO??? Once the Mandarin's real status has been revealed, does the scene need to play out that long with that many jokes hinging on the same idea? How many suits can blow things up in the big climax before it stops being exciting? And wasn't the President in horrible danger the whole time? The exact geography of that whole sequence was hard to keep straight which didn't help either.

The biggest problems for me though had to do with tone. So Tony sees the woman he loves fall to her apparent death and is shocked and overwhelmed. This is a big character moment for the guy whose last movie revolved around him having to face his own mortality (versus his sense of his own invulnerability and eternal youth douche thing), and who has now established that, sod the cars and the house and the super suits, this woman is the one thing I can't give up!! And yet fifteen seconds later he's being mister clever-clever wisecracks with the bad guy. It was like the backwards version of the Bane/Batman thing, where the second time they fight Batman doesn't appear to have wised up or be fighting in any way 'smarter' - here the story seems to be suggesting this time we'll see Iron Man fighting on passion rather than wanting to prove to the person he's fighting that he's smarter than them, and yet, no. I admit it's more satisfying to see Iron Man outsmarting the bad guys but maybe that could be saved until later in the sequence when the Pepper crisis has been resolved.

Also think these movies are really struggling with basically telling the same story over and over: Tony grows up a little, says he's sorry a lot, and Pepper forgives him for endangering her, himself, and everybody else. Isn't this kind of icky? Would have been okay with this being the movie where Tony starts out with most of his immaturity stuff resolved and his main character arc having more to do with the anxiety attacks and such carrying over from the Avengers climax. (Which btw I was hoping would be played less as PTSD and more as, this is the guy who thinks he can science his way out of any problem, and now he's just barely survived bluffing his way past an encounter with an Asgardian god not to mention an extra-dimensional magical wormhole gateway thing that is way out of his league as a 'mechanic'.) Similarly I didn't find the way he treated the kid funny, at all. Couple of good lines in there but he sort of just seemed like a shithead. You could have given a lot of those lines to a slimy villain character and they'd have worked. Thought it was a missed opportunity to do, like, he's still witty snarky Tony but he's a little more grown up now, and checks himself enough to give the kid some real encouragement and approval. They sort of tried to do that but it didn't work, for me.

All that being said - - - I did think this was tons of fun! Better than the second one for sure.

Also think these movies are really struggling with basically telling the same story over and over: Tony grows up a little, says he's sorry a lot, and Pepper forgives him for endangering her, himself, and everybody else.

Iron Man comics -- hell, Marvel comics -- in a nutshell, really. Hard (for this Marvel Zombie) to fault the studio for successfully bringing that to the screen.

Similarly I didn't find the way he treated the kid funny, at all. Couple of good lines in there but he sort of just seemed like a shithead. You could have given a lot of those lines to a slimy villain character and they'd have worked.

I believe this was the entire point of the kid interaction

I mean, don't get me wrong - I was thrilled not to see the stock movie-kid-bonding thing, but they could have done this in a way that didn't make me resent the main character at the point in the story where he should be most sympathetic.

the suits were disappointing because of how easily they were destroyed... i don't recall his suits being so vulnerable in the first two movies

exactly what I thought ! they really seemed disposable whereas he was (almost) invicible previously. and blowing up all the suits at the end was really a pity/waste.
the movie was fun, if not great, though.

apparently the original version of the movie was like 3 hours and 15 minutes (!) so that might explain stuff like rebecca hall's character not making a lot of sense

i liked that stark called mandarin "ringo" at one point, cos that's the first thing i thought of when he appeared onscreen.

I mean, don't get me wrong - I was thrilled not to see the stock movie-kid-bonding thing, but they could have done this in a way that didn't make me resent the main character at the point in the story where he should be most sympathetic.

― Doctor Casino, Friday, May 24, 2013 12:28 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark

no way, it made him MORE sympathetic imo

everyone hates kids in movies

word

the more i think about it and the more i read other people writing about it, the more i appreciate this movie. maybe the only superhero movie i can think of that incorporated Real Life Stuff (capitalists using racism as a tool for warmongering! a full PTSD story arc!) with so much grace and accuracy and humor.

embarrassment of riches imo. justifies the first two. not only better than it had to be but genuinely felt like talented people cared about it standing with their best work.

plus kingsley doing dudley moore i just. and ruffalo doing woody allen.

Okay so sad RDJ for new meme:

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18qpz1n3jxvn9jpg/k-bigpic.jpg

This was a bore except for Ben Kingsley doing his I'm-in-a-Simon-Pegg-flick bit.

much better than the first two tho

Disagree. I liked the first two equally; I regarded the second one as an excuse for funny actors to swap lines.

how can you like that piece of shit second one

the first was great, this is great, the second is a turd.

how can you consider any movie that starts with eiffel 65 a bore i mean

wtf second was way better than the first. hammer was hilarious.

wtf at all this second movie challops

u_u

the first had them dancing in an airplane disco

come on

I thought IRon Man 2 was fairly mediocre. Love 1 + 3

got around to watching this - it was okay, plenty of enjoyable bits, a fair amount of stupid stuff, but all delivered well. There is a glibness/blitheness to the Marvel films in general that I find distancing, or maybe distracting. It's not entirely unfaithful to the general tone of Marvel comics (ooh look hamfisted contemporary cultural/political references + soul searching protagonists w snappy one-liners!) but it prevents me from feeling invested in the movies, I don't actually care about what happens to anybody or anything, it's just a lot of nodding + winking. Which is not to say that DC cornering the market on being ponderous and dour with their superheroes is any better but it's weird how there's no middle ground.

guardians of the galaxy seemed to be fun/winky and still managed to make the characters likable, i dunno

Cap 2 seemed pretty into its characters (and has reaped the whirlwind of fanfic - I'm sort of curious of what happens when Cap 3 isn't just "2.5 hours of Cap and Bucky boning")

I think you mean "if"

fun/winky and still managed to make the characters likable

I find the Iron Man characters all pretty likable generally - as noted RDJ's banter with the kid is v entertaining. I don't find them or their dilemmas particularly compelling - nothing has any weight to it, nothing feels "real" for lack of a better term, I always feel very conscious of the fact that I am watching a Marvel Universe(tm) Movie

watching this now, it really hits home how fucking long ago 2013 was, in about a zillion ways.

curious what you have in mind. skimming over my comments upthread i realize I remember almost nothing about this movie except the mandarin review, a little of the kid stuff, and flashes of the airplane scene.

It's possible that Tombot is referring in part to superheroes risking their lives to save the president from a supervillain instead of grabbing some popcorn and watching from the sidelines as the dude gets obliterated.

Not really a Gwyneth fan but I rewatched this recently and feel she's kind of an underrated part of these movies - just lights up every scene with RDJ. And who knew she could be badass? The last bit when Pepper uses her Extremis powers was surprisingly impressive + hot.

yeah, she's def a talented actor cuz she's really super-charming in these movies but every time i see her interviewed in real life i want to self-harm

lol otm

She's the anti-Natalie Portman for me - I always think I'm not gonna like her whenever I see her name come up in a movie, and then I do.