Week 7: Iron Man Three

Iron Man Three: It's as fun as I remember, but more disjointed and choppy, like too many scenes were deleted that explain things. Where did Rhodey go after rescuing the president? How did Extremis's top operatives know to return to Rose Hill to fight Tony? How did Tony acquire a car in Tennessee? But if you ignore the gaps, it's pretty good. I really liked the theme of the movie about the conflict between Tony Stark and Iron Man and how they're not one man; I read that the movie was supposed to end with "I am Tony Stark" which would have been better. And the movie is inventive with its action, showing us new ways to use these same elements, like the airplane rescue, and the battle with just a repulsor and one boot, and the moving in and out of various suits in both the house attack and the finale. And after developing a great supporting cast, the film isn't afraid to minimize their screen time and really focus on Tony's psychological journey; the hero doesn't get lost in his own movie here the way that some MCU heroes sometimes do.

Miscellaneous thoughts:

- What was Killian's plan after he had control of the presidency and the Mandarin? Just endless war that he would profit from? It feels his lair should have a whiteboard with steps saying "????" and then "profit."

- This movie continues the Iron Man movie tradition of being a step forward and backward for women at the same time. Pepper gets in on the action, even dispatching Killian and rescuing Tony at the end, which is thrilling to see and fits the themes in play. But I read that Maya Hansen was downgraded from being the chief villain because "female toys don't sell." Ouch.

- How many people don Iron Man suits in this movie who have no training in how to operate them? How heavy must any given suit be -- 1000 lbs? 2000? --- despite Tony being able to drag one into a garage? When Tony instructed JARVIS to blow up all of the suits at the end, did he know that either Rhodey or President Ellis was wearing one?

7/10

Agent Carter: WTF? Who makes a 15-minute film about the insulting sexism that women face every day, and then ends it with a post-credits joke about men ogling women in bikinis? And here I was trying to figure out if Dum-Dum Dugan's most annoying quality is that stupid nickname or that stupid mustache or that stupid hat, but he's gone and topped them all. Anyway, other than that terribly misconceived final scene, this little movie is pretty good, and you can easily see why it inspired a whole TV series. One of the pleasures of spy movies for me is seeing the hero think their way through problems instead of relying on force, and Peggy's clever take-down of the thugs was fun. I'm excited to see more like this. (6/10)