Comments on: Mars Needs Podcasts #211- Iron Man 3, No Jokes.

By: Peter Ash

Peter Ash — Mon, 20 May 2013 05:05:21 +0000

cool dude

By: Sharp-O

Sharp-O — Sun, 19 May 2013 19:29:24 +0000

Tony’s wifi was being spotty, that’s my headcanon and I love the Striker suit! Piledriver arms FTW

By: Will

Will — Sun, 19 May 2013 14:37:55 +0000

Yeah, especially since one of the suits has GIANT DRILLS FOR ARMS. I think it’s supposed to be that the rubble is blocking the servers or something but, yeah, having only watched it once (and being pretty distracted by kids in the cinema) I’m willing to accept that there’s probably an explanation in there somewhere, even if it’s just “sometimes, robots be crazy”

By: Jason Wood

Jason Wood — Sat, 18 May 2013 11:35:27 +0000

I didn’t catch the blocked-by-rubble part either until I saw the movie a second time. My problem with the rubble is, I have a hard time believing 40+ Iron Man suits combined can’t move a little rubble out of the way to get free. In the first movie the Mach 2 armor fell and broke through the ceiling, the floor, and crushed one Tony’s cars just by it’s weight alone. I mean if these things couldn’t blast their way out of a hole, what kind of POS suits was Tony building during his off-time anyway?

By: Joshua Mosteit

Joshua Mosteit — Fri, 17 May 2013 22:30:13 +0000

Hate? No. Indifferent? Most definitely.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Fri, 17 May 2013 21:49:17 +0000

You clearly hate the Mandarin character.

By: Joshua Mosteit

Joshua Mosteit — Fri, 17 May 2013 01:11:47 +0000

They DID do that to the Joker. Nolanverse Joker resembles next to nothing of his comic counterpart save themes and motivations; beyond that, the character was completely reinvented from the ground up. No Ace Chemical Plant accident. No Red Hood. No chemical scars. Only a distillation of core principles epitomizing what that character represents on a thematic level: elemental chaos.
Which is essentially what they’ve done with the Mandarin in Iron Man 3: a Cold War villain recontextualized for a post-Soviet, post-9/11 world. JJ’s explanation of how the movie reflects the U.S.’s state of mind vis-a-vis terrorism sums this up perfectly. To play the character straight in this day and age would be damn well disingenuous, a reinforcement of America’s disillusioned, paranoid state of mind, regardless of what Matt Fraction did with the character (ONE good turn doesn’t make up for fifty years of mostly crap, not to mention). He’s Iron Man’s arch-nemesis strictly by default because the rest of his rogues gallery sucks on toast. And comparing him to the Joker is downright laughable.
Now, if what you meant was if they used the exact same “twist” behind the Mandarin but with the Joker: The Joker’s very existence being…a JOKE would actually fit the character. It’s the exact kind of lunatic mind game native to Batman comics and the Gotham City setting. Not to mention you’d have the inevitable double twist of a night in Arkham Asylum ironically turning the “fake” Joker into the REAL Joker. Yeah, I could totally see that.

By: Richard 'Sharpo' Sharpe

Richard 'Sharpo' Sharpe — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:53:40 +0000

Aaron’s nerd-rage is delightfully sweet. While there are a couple things that I didn’t like (Ill-timed jokes, not enough armor time, not enough Codey), I enjoyed it. The Mandarin was an amazing character, and they hid his reveal very well (But in retrospect, I kinda want to see the climax where Iron Man chases the Mandarin round in a go-kart like the LEGO sets foreshadowed.) He may not have been a Magic Asian or the delusional apostle of some mysterious alien menace like Fraction portrayed, I felt his character worked in this movieverse and Trevor was a fun guy! You leave him alone.

It was funny, entertaining and made me want to buy a shit ton of toy armors and that’s good enough for me. What’s not good enough is that there’s no decent action figures for the armors! *rabble rabble rabble*

Also, weren’t those some fantastic credits?

By: Aaron

Aaron — Thu, 16 May 2013 09:54:42 +0000

If Matt Fraction can make a perfectly acceptable Mandarin in the last 5 years, in an Eisner winning series no less, I don’t see why they needed to make their choices in this film. If they did the exact same thing with The Joker in Dark Knight, people would be storming Nolan’s house. Say what you will about his origins, he’s still Iron Man’s arch villain and something better could have been done.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Thu, 16 May 2013 09:50:52 +0000

Yeah, I didn’t notice either of those things Leslie. Thanks for the head-up! Although, I think a line earlier in the movie addressing the rubble issue would have been required, but at least they did say SOMETHING about it that I just didn’t catch.