The Marvel Cinematic Universe

[Hime-Chan]

I'm just back from seeing IM3. I'm having a problem forming words, everything was just awesome and mind blowing. I love Pepper, she's so cool.

I nearly laughed at the opening, it was unexpected, and I'm a bit disappointed by the lack of AC/DC.

I'm having just a tiny problemm with the villain's motive, like, what the hell man?

Spoiler:

You stood on a rooftop in 1999, and decided to take over the world because Tony Stark didn't want to talk to you? Really? Knowing how unreliable he was, that's a stupid!


-Rhodey got some action, finally! He's usually not on the front for the intrigue, so really, I was happy with that!

-Speaking of Happy, his haircut of '99 was awful, gosh, it felt too 80's xD Otherwise he was generally great, and Tony knowing he watched Downtown Abbey made me awwww, he cares

- Tony and Pepper at the end, I was oddly turned on by Pepper, she looks like she trained, and I'm not talking about the abs!

- Tony and PTSD, it was necessary, and they have done it well, finally a film that adresses it that is not too obscure for the general public to watch.

-And the end was hilarious, oh Dr Banner, poor you

[mangaluva]

I'm just back from seeing IM3. I'm having a problem forming words, everything was just awesome and mind blowing. I love Pepper, she's so cool.

I nearly laughed at the opening, it was unexpected, and I'm a bit disappointed by the lack of AC/DC.

I'm having just a tiny problemm with the villain's motive, like, what the hell man?

Spoiler:

You stood on a rooftop in 1999, and decided to take over the world because Tony Stark didn't want to talk to you? Really? Knowing how unreliable he was, that's a stupid!


-Rhodey got some action, finally! He's usually not on the front for the intrigue, so really, I was happy with that!

-Speaking of Happy, his haircut of '99 was awful, gosh, it felt too 80's xD Otherwise he was generally great, and Tony knowing he watched Downtown Abbey made me awwww, he cares

- Tony and Pepper at the end, I was oddly turned on by Pepper, she looks like she trained, and I'm not talking about the abs!

- Tony and PTSD, it was necessary, and they have done it well, finally a film that adresses it that is not too obscure for the general public to watch.

-And the end was hilarious, oh Dr Banner, poor you

Spoiler:

From the second he turned up, Killian reminded me very strongly of Jim Carey's Riddler in Batman Forever (Drunk!me loves it, shut up), very obsessed with the importance of their own research and most definitely not mentally stable.

I don't know about Pepper, but Gwenyth Paltrow is extraordinarily hardcore. RDJ suffered immense physical strain whenever he wore the Iron Man suit; Gwenyth Paltrow strutted around in it like it was nothing.

Science Bros <3

Incidentally, my favourite thing just now is Mark Ruffalo's response to reading pornographic Science Bros fanfic: he loves it XD

[Jd-]

Off to watch it in a few hours, have remained entirely free of spoilers all this time. Marvel creates this minefield every year by releasing them a week earlier everywhere else in the world, but alas! I shall prevail!

[Hime-Chan]

Spoiler:

From the second he turned up, Killian reminded me very strongly of Jim Carey's Riddler in Batman Forever (Drunk!me loves it, shut up), very obsessed with the importance of their own research and most definitely not mentally stable.

I don't know about Pepper, but Gwenyth Paltrow is extraordinarily hardcore. RDJ suffered immense physical strain whenever he wore the Iron Man suit; Gwenyth Paltrow strutted around in it like it was nothing.

Science Bros <3

Incidentally, my favourite thing just now is Mark Ruffalo's response to reading pornographic Science Bros fanfic: he loves it XD

Spoiler:

The only batman films I watched were the Nolan's ones, the others are like, too old and too kitsch for me
Gwyneth Paltrow has a hardcore diet, and gave birth twice, so you probably can throw anything at her, I just wish she would look less like a malnourished woman, she could do with a kilo of 2 more. Also, she didn't wear the suit for very long, so I don't know, maybe it was easier for her also.

I would be weirded out by reading hardcore slash fanfics of myself, but I guess it's good if he takes it well.

[mangaluva]

Most Hollywood starlets could do with an extra couple of kilos. I still can't believe that Jennifer Lawrence gets called a "fat actress" >_> That said, in the movie at least, I thought GP looked fairly built compared to some of her contemporaries. Woman had visible ab muscles. I approve.

It always amuses me when actors are aware of the 34 side of their fandoms. Benedict Cumberbatch is reportedly quite fond of some of the porn drawn of him because it makes him look "very fit" and Eli Roth shares his favourite Inglorious Basterds porn with Christoph Waltz and Quentin Tarantino, although he objects to The Bear Jew being a bottom "because the Bear Jew ALWAYS tops. ALWAYS."

[Conan-chandesune]

Most Hollywood starlets could do with an extra couple of kilos. I still can't believe that Jennifer Lawrence gets called a "fat actress" >_> That said, in the movie at least, I thought GP looked fairly built compared to some of her contemporaries. Woman had visible ab muscles. I approve.

It always amuses me when actors are aware of the 34 side of their fandoms. Benedict Cumberbatch is reportedly quite fond of some of the porn drawn of him because it makes him look "very fit" and Eli Roth shares his favourite Inglorious Basterds porn with Christoph Waltz and Quentin Tarantino, although he objects to The Bear Jew being a bottom "because the Bear Jew ALWAYS tops. ALWAYS."

A bit off-topic, eh??

Also, rumor is that Chronicle's Michael B. Jordan will join the FF as John Storm. I am not racist or anything, but i really hate it when they change the character's gender (Jimmy in Man of Steel), race (Perry WHITE in Man of Steel) etc. I was looking forward to Fantastic Four (It's Trank and Vaughn, people) But i wont see it if they f*** around with one of my favorite characters.

[Jd-]

I finally was able to see Tony and crew back at work last night, and it did not disappoint!

Spoiler:

They played us so well at so many points in this movie. I never expected so many of the twists (like the result directly after the air sequence, which was thrilling to say the least), and it felt like at many points they were deliberately setting us up to not know what to expect or get too comfortable in our seats. Really expert writing and filmmaking on their part. For the Mandarin, I mean... no one expected that going into this movie. It is the most clever possible way to twist the way that Mandarin in the comics is known as a stereotype into something original, hilarious, and thought-provoking. I massively approve of this, and I actually think there's still plenty of room for an apperance of the Mandarin in the future.

One thing I really love is that they took a conscious step toward reconciling how Tony Stark is meant to survive on a day-to-day basis after everything he's been through. As he said in the movie, there are gods and aliens running about now, so his sudden insecurity that comes from being part of a world where literally anything is possible is quite a great step for the character, I think. They had to tie these things together somehow, so giving this one a more sci-fi angle was quite interesting and the correct move.

I always figured that their tagline of "Does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?" wouldn't really factor in too much and would remain a clever marketing angle. However, they really did explore that extremely well throughout the movie. Here, we have all the proof that we need that Tony Stark is Iron Man--Iron Man is whoever Tony Stark decides to be, however he decides to do it. I think that was a really brilliant way of letting that character naturally grow.

Another thing I really loved was the ending, with Tony hitting reset on everything. Not only is this a perfect set-up for his role in Avengers 2 where he'll have to confront even more, it's also entirely in character. Tony is the kind of guy that isn't satisfied until he feels fully prepared, and after this incident, he knows he has more work to do--better work, and healthier this time.

Annnnd, of course: That was one of the best stingers without any doubt ("I'm not really that kind of doctor..."). It really makes the whole narration thing work perfectly.

[mangaluva]

Spoiler:

Among the reasons that I didn't too much mind all of the suits getting blown up at the end is that, like the Mk 42, they were all built rapidly when Tony wasn't sleeping, and most of them probably weren't tested properly and were as buggy as the Mk 42, so while they looked cool it was probably good that they were taken out of commission and it probably partially explains how so many were getting broken relatively easily (I mean, Tony's previous suits have survived being in the middle of an exploding alien/battleship and being in space...)

If Tony is back for Avengers (I feel obligated to say "if" until RDJ signs a new contract, but HE HAS TO), it'll be with all-new suits along the same awesome design lines but built in a healthy frame of mind and properly tested, which experts say will at least double their awesomeness. I do like the idea of Tony using Jarvis to direct fleets of them; Iron Man 2 did make a point about a pilot's intuition trumping drone programming, but on the other hand, I don't doubt that Jarvis is significantly more intelligent than Vanko's drone programming.

I'm glad so many people like the movie; I loved it, but some of my die-hard comic fan friends hated it, especially for the Mandarin. Some of them have even said it's killed their excitement for Phase 2, which makes me sad, especially since Thor 2 looks like it's going to be fun. (Still trying to keep in mind San Rafael, California and Springfield, Missouri in case they're significant).

[Atraos]

Spoiler:

I've got to agree with Jd- the movie expertly toyed with our expactations, still I'm a little torn about whether I like it, I had a blast watching it, but I saw the "twist" coming from a mile away but that didn't make my inner nerd itch less for a true mandarin. Also I felt that the exposition was a little too hasty and made the PTSD less believable for me.

All in all, it was a really good action movie with awesome comedic elements, but it disappointed my inner comic book nerd, deconstructing the mandarin and replacing him with a rather generic villain as well as hand waving the shards being removable disrespecting not only the original character of Tony stark but their own continuity that established the shards as completely inoperable due to vicinity of the heart. Even then it raises the question, why he wouldn't have done this right after returning from his capture.

Sorry for the fanboy rant

All in all, it was a really good action movie with awesome comedic elements, but it disappointed my inner comic book nerd (Details in the spoiler above)

[mangaluva]

Spoiler:

I expect that the reason that Tony didn't get the shards removed immediately after returning from his kidnapping is because at that time he couldn't. The limits of medicine are constantly and rapidly moving. I don't think it's unbelievable that heart surgery techniques have advanced in the past five years to make the shards safely removable.

[Atraos]

Spoiler:

Granted, Technology marches on, but I think this is too big to be just dealt with in a 10 second scene without even a handwave a la "When a heart surgeon told me he was able to remove the shards, I departed from Iron man" (Can't remember his exact narration at that point, but you get what I mean)

[mangaluva]

Spoiler:

Granted, Technology marches on, but I think this is too big to be just dealt with in a 10 second scene without even a handwave a la "When a heart surgeon told me he was able to remove the shards, I departed from Iron man" (Can't remember his exact narration at that point, but you get what I mean)

Spoiler:

Like I said before, if it looks like that scene was rushed, it's because it was. Most of the ending wrapups were added and shot really quickly when shooting was nearly over and RDJ still didn't have a new contract negotiated. Without a complete guarantee that he was coming back, they were obligated to tie up all loose ends and had to add some scenes very quickly. So it was rushed, but there was nothing to be done about that and I think it was well-done for what it was (I was too busy d'awwwing over him rescuing Dummy to care about Tony's operation XD)

[Jd-]

For my bit...

Spoiler:

I honestly had no problem at all with that part of the ending. Tony, until this movie and everything he'd gone through in the course of it, had always been about not admitting to or submitting to being fragile. Putting his life on the line for that surgery that seemed unnecessary before now wasn't something he would go through without guarantees, since he had come up with his own way to resolve it. After this movie, he's clearly ready for a new start, and saw that he can rely on others even if they don't have actual superpowers, with many of the battles he can't win thanks to being Iron Man coming far outside of the suit. Here, we got to see him really confront that fragility, and after conquering it once, he didn't have anything to fear anymore. I mean, it showcased well in Iron Man 2 that Tony obviously didn't care for his own health, so people asking, "Why didn't he go through with this sooner?" aren't really taking that into account I don't think. This entire movie was about him being unable to cope with solving his own health issues in a rational way, so him finally coming to that point as a character at the end and doing what was best for him and for those around him... I think that was a great way to put it together.

In short, I thought it was a great bookend and didn't mind it at all.

[Commi-Ninja]

I agree with all of Jd-'s spoiler boxes, as well as manga's. This movie was just plain fantastic.

[Conan-chandesune]

For my bit...

Spoiler:

I honestly had no problem at all with that part of the ending. Tony, until this movie and everything he'd gone through in the course of it, had always been about not admitting to or submitting to being fragile. Putting his life on the line for that surgery that seemed unnecessary before now wasn't something he would go through without guarantees, since he had come up with his own way to resolve it. After this movie, he's clearly ready for a new start, and saw that he can rely on others even if they don't have actual superpowers, with many of the battles he can't win thanks to being Iron Man coming far outside of the suit. Here, we got to see him really confront that fragility, and after conquering it once, he didn't have anything to fear anymore. I mean, it showcased well in Iron Man 2 that Tony obviously didn't care for his own health, so people asking, "Why didn't he go through with this sooner?" aren't really taking that into account I don't think. This entire movie was about him being unable to cope with solving his own health issues in a rational way, so him finally coming to that point as a character at the end and doing what was best for him and for those around him... I think that was a great way to put it together.

In short, I thought it was a great bookend and didn't mind it at all.

Exactly my point.