[This is a re-post of my retrospective series in which I take a look back at the Marvel Cinematic Universe. These articles do not contain spoilers for unreleased Marvel movies. If you know any spoilers about the unreleased Marvel movies, please do not post them in the comments section.]
Marvel’s Phase Two begins without a Marvel movie. It may have a “Marvel Studios” logo on it and technically follow the events ofThe Avengers, butIron Man 3is really aShane Blackfilm that stars Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.). Rather than invest further into the new world established byThe Avengers,Iron Man 3takes some big steps back and flies in the opposite direction by ignoring as much ofJoss Whedon’s film, and even the previousIron Manmovies, as possible.
After a prologue taking us all the way back to 1999 and Tony’s carefree, insensitive times, the movie does attempt to throw in a bit of post-Avengers“PTSD” by explaining how he can’t sleep and it’s caused by his near-death experience during the Battle of New York. The movie doesn’t really expand on this in any significant way, and it functions more as “Yes, we acknowledge there was a Battle of New York.” The movie doesn’t feel the need to constantly revisitThe Avengersor even examine the fallout of an alien attack. We’re pretty much back to Tony doing his thing, and the film disregarding the existence of other superheroes in the world.
When Tony speaks to Rhodey (Don Cheadle) about The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley), Rhodey says, “It’s not superhero business. It’s American business.” That’s the difficult line these movies need to walk now—there has to be more spectacle, but the problem can’t be at “superhero” levels, except Iron Manisa superhero. And if this problem were “American business”, wouldn’t it be a good idea to call in CaptainAmerica?
The Mandarin is basically Osama Bin Laden, but the movie doesn’t really want to wonder what it would be like if we had superheroes who could take out the FBI’s Most Wanted list. And why wouldn’t Tony do it himself? We already know he does what he wants. The film employs PTSD as a prop to pushThe Avengersaway and force Tony to act on his own, but Tony—being as selfish as he is—doesn’t act until he’s personally affected. In an interview withMarvel.com, producerKevin Feigesaid that he wantedIron Man 3to throw the character back to the first film and rely on his ingenuity and a box of scraps. This approach also throws the MCU back to the beginning by trying to avoid any person or organization that could conceivably help Tony.
Iron Man 3is divisive film because of this struggle.Iron Manpromises a much bigger world of superheroes.The Avengersshowed us an alien attack.Iron Man 3goes to Rose Hill, Tennessee. Black made a film that at times is both consciously avoiding and wholly indifferent to the fact that there’s a “Marvel Cinematic Universe.” Marvel’s gameplan—and remember, even though there might be writers and directors, this is still Marvel Studios’ show—for Phase Two began by taking a break from everything they had established.
So instead of being a new MCU movie,Iron Man 3feels like a Shane Black movie. Black had only directed one film prior,Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, and while that film has a visual style, Black’s personality comes through his screenwriting. The script he co-wrote withDrew Pearcefeatures all of Black’s trademark quips, comedy, subversions, and even setting the film during Christmas even though the movie came out in May.
Black doesn’t seem particularly interested in Marvel lore. He’s more invested in telling a story on his terms, and those terms don’t include S.H.I.E.L.D. or other superheroes. He’s still willing to provide some nice set pieces, but the comic beats hit as hard as the action. Marvel movies are about drawing us into a world filled with superheroes, and Black has way more fun pointing out action tropes like the nameless henchman who decides it would be better to quit than die for his job.
Then Black went one step further with The Mandarin Twist. To diehard comics fans, revealing The Mandarin as nothing but a befuddled, washed up actor was blasphemy. This was Iron Man’s archenemy, and Black and Marvel said, “So what?” That doesn’t mean anything in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it definitely means nothing to a director who’d rather make a comment on the optics of terrorism (as offhand and largely inconsequential as that comment may be).Iron Man 3is the irreverent child of the MCU, which is fitting for its cocky protagonist.
The movie’s flippant attitude is one of the reasons I enjoy it so much as it smiles a shit-eating grin through even its most muddled moments. It doesn’t really care that the “bad guys” inIron Man 3are disabled veterans. The film asks us to believe that Harley (Ty Simpkins) wouldn’t recognize Tony Stark on sight. This is in addition to ignoring S.H.I.E.L.D. to the point where I’ve formed a theory thatIron Man 3takes placeafterCaptain America: The Winter Soldier, so there is no S.H.I.E.L.D. to call. Black doesn’t even care about how the suits work. Every Iron Man armor should run off the arc reactor, but the Mark XLII’s lack of juice is an important plot point. You can argue that the Mark XVII runs on independent power, but that would be a poor design by a genius inventor.
Its plot holes and discarded mythology aside, I still findIron Man 3largely enjoyable, but I’m also a huge fan of Shane Black’s work. I love lines like “You have one minute to live. Fill it with words.” I love that the movie clearly wouldn’t mind being a more violent, R-rated affair, and goes for the darkest story in the MCU where Black isn’t afraid to let innocent people die in close up and his hero has lines like “We create our own demons.” Phase Two starts with an outlier, and while you can argue that it’s because Marvel wasn’t entirely certain how to begin Phase Two, I think that’s giving them too little credit. They have a gameplan, and while every writer and director has room to maneuver within that gameplan, Kevin Feige is still the one ultimately calling the shots.
I knowIron Man 3flies in the face of MCU fans who wanted to see how a post-Avengersworld would expand on the mythology, and I can sympathize to an extent. Desiring that expansion is a fair expectation, but I also feel like that’s not judging the movie on its own merits. However, new complications arise when you’re part of the larger mythos created by a “cinematic universe”. If the MCU is one big story, and Phase One was all about construction, then we should judge these movies on how they avoid that construction.
Marvel’s next film had a hero who was far more conducive to a standalone tale that built offThe Avengerswithout having to dwell in a post-Avengersrealm.
