We watch Marvel movies for a number of regular features. Check out our previous articles on Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger and The Avengers. Today is the turn of Iron Man 3. Coming soon: Thor: The Dark World (uh-oh). How do you master the Avengers? In 2012, the MCU seemed to have reached the highest point possible and was telling a story that couldn't be topped. Marvel has managed to show the world that you can unite characters from several different movies to tell one epic adventure. So what happens after you make a major crossing? How do you create captivating single player adventures after proving that these heroes are at their best as a team? Well, the MCU mastermind had a plan: reverse expectations.
Iron Man 3, the end and the beginning
Iron Man 3 has the pleasure of being many things. This is the last movie in the Iron Man series (and the first full MCU trilogy), and the first movie to take place after The Avengers. The film picks up a year after the events of the Battle of New York. During this time, Tony Stark has been a busy guy, almost obsessively. He developed 42 sets of armor and developed them so that he could summon them from anywhere and move on his own. Unfortunately, Tony's hard work is the result of residual trauma from the Chitauri alien invasion, where he was nearly killed in space. Whether he wants to admit it or not, he suffers from severe anxiety attacks and post-traumatic stress disorder. It couldn't have happened at a worse time because, once again, the sins of his past caught up with him. The Mandarin arrives, threatening America. With him are a scientific collective known as AIM and a group of individuals empowered with the Extremis formula, transforming themselves into human bombs. When Tony's loved ones are attacked, he is thrown into a battle for which he is not fully prepared.
Tony Stark's trauma
Iron Man 3 is a strange movie. Like Iron Man 2, it struggles to surpass the heights of the original film. However, what a lot of people don't realize is that he's not trying to do this. Also, the movie doesn't feel like the end of a trilogy either. No, if you go back to Iron Man 3, you'll note that it's the start of a long arc for Tony Stark that continues in other MCU movies. The Avengers are the driving force behind Iron Man 3, and that sets Tony Stark on a path that he never lets go. Stark discovers that after fighting aliens, the world is sadly not equipped to defend against another alien attack. Iron Man 3 is the birth of this fear, and it is the main cause of his PTSD and anxiety attacks. If he's seen any of the movies that follow, he'll know it's this thought pattern that haunts him in the rest of the MCU. When you think about it, you start to connect the dots and see where Tony's whole "armor around the world" idea came from. This leads to the creation of Ultron, Tony's physical and idealistic battles with Captain America, and the evolution of Iron Man's armor. It's a fascinating character arc that transcends Iron Man 3 and is well worth watching for fans of the future movies, and is possibly considerably richer than the one the hero was born to before.
The MCU does things its own way
While Iron Man's armor is the most advanced there has ever been at this point in the movies (the armor's ability to magnetically float while donned is the best), Stark has the impression of being at the bottom of his game. His ego is still getting him into trouble, and combined with his anxiety issues, most of the movie feels like he's back in this cave years ago, gathering whatever scraps he can to save the day. .
This does not mean that the action is not satisfactory. The scene of the plane in the Iron Man armor saving 13 people free-falling out of the sky is still amazing to watch. Also, Iron Man 3 manages to provide excellent fan service at the end of the movie.
There's still nothing quite like seeing all the different Iron Man armors come out to play. It's even fun as a fan to recognize some of the comics.
After The Avengers, Marvel put a lot of faith in their audience's ability to follow all the movies in their shared universe. Using this to its advantage, with Iron Man 3, the MCU begins to blend elements from its various franchises seamlessly. In this way, the movie is not just another Iron Man sequel, but also a functional Avengers sequel. Iron Man 3 is drawn directly from this film to further its plot. In fact, Iron Man 3 doesn't really make sense unless you've seen The Avengers.
This is the case for many MCU movies to come. No matter how much Marvel wants each movie to stand alone, some background knowledge becomes a must if you want to fully experience an MCU movie. It's the gift and the curse of successfully creating a shared universe of interconnected movies. Despite that, Iron Man 3 is still pretty fun. It unwittingly ends up being a Christmas movie, a signature from director Shane Black, reuniting Downey Jr years after Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, providing viewers with hilarious banter and levity throughout the movie.
The most interesting thing about the movie is that it tries to feel different from the previous Iron Man movies. The movie subverts expectations and plays into what comic book fans expect. While many fans hate the Mandarin twist the film takes, where Guy Pearce's Aldrich Killian is the film's villain instead of Ben Kingsley's budding actor Trevor Slattery (they say it's Croydon's Toast), it's not nearly as bad as many have claimed. It's actually very funny, inventive, and perfectly sums up the MCU's knack for using humor to tone down the drama.
The twist works as part of this particular plot. More than that, it proved that while the MCU draws its inspiration from the comic book stories it draws from, it will always have some unexpected moments, even for the most hardcore fans. It seems necessary given that the Avengers gave us a movie full of fan service and non-stop action. As the MCU continues, like Iron Man 3, we see each movie get better at creating an identity of its own.