Iron Man 3 and spoilers ahead

[FatherXmas]

No, haven't seen it yet but the sneaks in my area are starting tonight at 9p.  I'll probably go to the midnight show because I'm a traditionalist.



Now I've been noticing a trend to eliminate lots of midnight showings by having a few theaters start showing sneaks from 9p on.  Oblivion was handled similarly.

Also I find it interesting, and about time, that the 2D version has more showings than the 3D tonight.  Well that's not quite true.  They split the 3D between regular and "IMAX" theaters.  Friday for instance is 15 showing 2D, 10 showings 3D, 5 showings IMAX 3D.  Has Hollywood start to realize that we don't want 3D if it's just throwing things at the audience or flying though things on screen?

[MaidMercury]

Yezz....I hope it's good....To be honest, kind of looks depressing.

[houtex]

Depressing builds characters better.  This is about Tony coming to terms with the fact he is not actually indestructable, and is more responsible than ever before, re: Pepper.  And balancing that personal side of him, and still being Iron Man.

Oh, and totally trying to save everyone and not die, that part is in there too.

/Totally guessing, but sorta looks like it's the things.

[Blondeshell]

Got back from my 9pm showing a little while ago. Definitely like it and am curious how it's going to tie in with Avengers 2.

[FatherXmas]

The Extremis story arc was after I stopped following Iron Man, which aligned with me getting into Anime, manga and assorted cons.

I enjoyed it.  The midnight 2D showing at my theater had a really large contingent of real geek girls who were nerding out over the various armors.

Interesting twist with the Mandarin.

I was disappointed at the post trailer scene.  Yes the one at the very end of The Avengers was funny but every other one before including the first one in The Avengers hinted at the next movie or beyond.  This was just "funny".

On one hand, this wraps up an Iron Man trilogy with a big bow and if they never make another one, it would be OK.  Sure I think there will be more RDJ as Tony Stark but it will require Disney to use an increasing number of dump trucks full of cash.

So thumbs up, enjoy, definitely better than IM2 and Thor (which felt rushed).

As for previews, all I can remember is After Earth, Thor 2, Hangover 3, FF6 and Lone Ranger.  The crowd openly mocked H3 and FF6.

[Mental Maden]

Meh for me.  There was a good movie in there, but it felt like those good parts (or at least informative ones) ended up on the cutting room floor.  I also didn't care for the kid storyline.  Overly saccharine, dealing with today's "trendy" topic about bullies and kind of semi-creepy.  I did like Ben Kingsley a lot, Rebecca Hall is always good and all the returning cast were great.  It was the story that left me meh'd.

Some weird choices in this one.

[The Fifth Horseman]

It was a cross between Extremis and The Five Nightmares arcs from the comics.
Not bad, though one quote from Extremis would really have worked better for the monologue at the end:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ZJ-ghF7ZAjM#t=104s

[Tenzhi]

I enjoyed the movie overall, but I hated the use of the Mandarin.  It was much better than the second movie though.  There was a decent battle sequence, and I actually enjoyed the bit with the kid.  The Mandarin thing was a big letdown, though.

[FatherXmas]

From what I've seen, most of the fanboy hate stems from the somewhat major rewrite of the Extremis story and the "twist" with the Mandarin.

Unless you except Killian's claim at the end that he was always the Mandarin.  Of course he's smote right after that so there's little to back up that claim.  Well he did have those dragon tats and could breath fire.  But would that make him more Fin Fang Foom-ish than Mandarin-ish?

[Olde Glory]

While I enjoyed the movie, what really struck me was how much the international market had an impact on the story. The Mandarin has always been a Chinese villain. Not in a general sense, but a very specific "from China" villain. The fact that he was completely rewritten (including a "southern-baptist" accent) really didn't make sense to me. China is a huge market and Marvel was never going to risk losing that by using The Mandarin in a traditional sense. It felt like they went to a lot of effort to explain the "twist" when the entire thing could have been side-stepped without him.

[FatherXmas]

While I enjoyed the movie, what really struck me was how much the international market had an impact on the story. The Mandarin has always been a Chinese villain. Not in a general sense, but a very specific "from China" villain. The fact that he was completely rewritten (including a "southern-baptist" accent) really didn't make sense to me. China is a huge market and Marvel was never going to risk losing that by using The Mandarin in a traditional sense. It felt like they went to a lot of effort to explain the "twist" when the entire thing could have been side-stepped without him.

Remember back last year when the remake of Red Dawn came out.  Now originally they filmed it so the Chinese were the bad guys.  The Chinese weren't happy.  So a bunch of money was spent to change all the flags and uniforms so the bad guys were North Korean.

So firstly, not so sure they wanted a native super villain.  Secondly since the Ten Rings were fighting in Afghanistan in the first film, it was implied that perhaps the Mandarin didn't have to be Chinese at all.  Of course he could have been a western educated Chinese tech mogul out to get Stark but we did the whole business rival thing with Iron Man 2.

And they could have had an awesome extra scene featuring AIM's shadowy "Board of Directors" discussing who will step in to take the title, Mandarin.  After all if they were going to do a throw away scene that has no bearing to Marvel Phase II, post Avengers movie cycle, throw the fanboys a bone.  I'm not talking including someone like MODOK but you could have set them up as an opposite number to SHIELD, tie them in with Hydra from the first Capt America movie.

[The Fifth Horseman]

What do you mean, "next"? Killian wasn't exactly shown to die last I recall...

[fdbryant3]

Overall I liked the movie.  My main complaint is that while I liked the storyline I wish they weren't using the character the Mandarin or calling the tech Extremis since that wasn't what it was.  Well it may be a moot point because who know if there will be an IM4.  If there is though perhaps they can set up the explanation of the Mandarin as being a title of a position within the Ten Rings organization and have the next one surface wielding alien tech giving him incredible powers.

On the other hand I think I'd want more time before they revisit the Mandarin.  Oh well.

Also it would have been nice to have Tony using the armor more (really kinda getting tired of story lines about lets take away this character base of power and see how they do, I want to see them using their power).  Could of used a little less goofiness (kinda had the some complaint about the Avengers), I'm not saying it shouldn't be in there but just hit me the wrong way.

I did enjoy it though, good action, bought the twist even to seeing it as something AIM might do, and liked that they were following up on the event after the Avengers.

[Mental Maden]

Also it would have been nice to have Tony using the armor more (really kinda getting tired of story lines about lets take away this character base of power and see how they do, I want to see them using their power). 

Completely agree.

[FatherXmas]

For me, Ironman was my favorite super hero growing up because Tony Stark's super power was his brain.  He wasn't a mutant, alien, got his powers through exposure to radiation, chemicals, insect bites, etc.  He built it.  So the best way to show off Tony Stark's "super power" is to take away the suit and show him improvising and out thinking the bad guys.

[JaguarX]

I liked Ironman 3.

Mind you, I have no idea about super hero lore and how it supposed to be outside Batman, and Watchmen.

The Mandarin twist was strange (funny as heck too) but good. It's one of the few twists in a movie in ages that I didnt see coming from a mile away aka super obvious.

From the little I think I know the Mandarin was supposed to be of Chinese origin or something but meh, they change origin in movies depending on time period. Plus getting tired  of the obvious the foriegner is always the villain kind and the American is the wholesome good old boy super hero. It was funny to see this big bad dude in the previews is nothing more than some actor putting on a show and the real villain is (or was up to that point) behind the scenes. That is pretty realistic how it works many times, especially in this time period of mankind, especially in the corporate world. Many corporations put on this image of clean wholesome, looking out for the people and the foreigner is the big bad villain but it's the american corporation that funded, gave them weapons, and gave them access to the local soil to do the dirty work so they can sell more, say for example, security systems or help push a law into being. Of course the face gets blamed, and the corporate suits walk away with lot of money and clean hands. Or like cheap products. Owned by american corporation, cheap easy to use but the dirt they hide is they contribute more to the economy to say China upper levels than they do to the American economy that bails them out while getting laid off so these corporations can go to Asia and have people 18 hour shifts for money where they cant even afford a roof in their own country with no benefits in conditions that would make the JP Morgan(the person) blush. Yet turn around on US tv saying they dont support the human rights issue of a specific Asian country work conditions when at the same time they own 85% of those places.

[Mental Maden]

For me, Ironman was my favorite super hero growing up because Tony Stark's super power was his brain.  He wasn't a mutant, alien, got his powers through exposure to radiation, chemicals, insect bites, etc.  He built it.  So the best way to show off Tony Stark's "super power" is to take away the suit and show him improvising and out thinking the bad guys.

I get that.  My main problem is they make the suits so self reliant why even put people in them?  It may be canon (I'm not a comic reader) but I don't like it.  It's Iron Man, not Robot Maker Man.  Yeah, yeah, I get it.  The point is he needed to find out even without the suits he's still Iron Man.  Meh.  It feels like the Marvel answer to the third Nolan Batman movie.  Which was also pretty meh.  Both movies had good moments, but overall missed the mark.  (My opinion of course)

[FatherXmas]

Well more times than I can count in the comics Tony's been laid up and can't be in the suit so he came up with a way to run them remotely while bed ridden/not quite entirely dead.  In the past before he got his own suit, Rhodey would be the guy in the suit when Tony wasn't able to.

[Ad_Astra]

I thought the wrap-up was too rushed. Pepper has the extremis stuff in her. Tony hugs her and says he will fix it. Then the voiceover says "I fixed it".

I'm glad he did so, although having Pepper become "super" and dealing with that complication would make a good story (not necessarily a good movie, though). But I hate movies and books where a complication is dealt with by saying "I fixed it".

[TimtheEnchanter]

I liked the plot overall. And the Mandarin stuff was enough to give me a nightmare about bio/chemical terrorism last night.

Could've done without the fleet of automated suits though. Something about that detracts from the superhero archetype for me.

And the Tony Stark humor was lacking somehow. It was still funny, but it didn't give me the laughs that the first two films did.

[houtex]

It wasn't supposed to be terribly funny, I think.  It was exactly what I said it was above: 

"Depressing builds characters better.  This is about Tony coming to terms with the fact he is not actually indestructable, and is more responsible than ever before, re: Pepper.  And balancing that personal side of him, and still being Iron Man."

And since I've seen it, I was right.  This is the penultimate issue of being a big target/damn hero.  There ARE others in your life who are also at risk.  And your possessions, if that matters.  Your very life... soul even.

This is what I wanted to see.  It think they got it pretty well.  Some cheese, sure, and jokes here and there, but this was about Tony being all grown up for a change... Or finally growing up, if you will.  Still brash, but with a side of responsibility.

Whether that jibes with the comic book?  Don't care.  Books <> Comics <> Movies <> Radio Programs <> Plays <> Books.  They all 'play' different, and if you read about how Douglas Adams thought about the Hitchhiker's Trilogy re: Book, radio, TV, Movie... He knew this and made changes to all of them.  On purpose.  This is what Comics to Movies is about, they're GOING to be different.  Enjoy it for what it is... not a complete copy of what was previously written/drawn.  Like the new Trek, I simply don't expect them to be perfect, but at least get the basic principles enough to make it a good show.

Lookin' forward to Friday night, btw.

/By the way, spoilers. Although if you're in here, and you haven't seen it, you shouldn't have opened this up, dummy.  GO SEE IT.

[MaidMercury]

Kind of came here late...however, does anyone still have the file laying around: 

ironman_screensaver_pc.exe ?

This was free on the 2008  movie website...I'm kind of looking for this screensaver.

It's on Google but always comes with spyware,tracking, etc, if you download it.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I liked the movie better than Ironman II.
I was very disappointed the Mandarin was not the villain, per say.
The posters, promos....Felt cheated.
Why waste 2 stories in one?
Extremis could've worked without the Mandarin on it's own.

I also didn't care for America bashing, yes, we have skeletons in our closet-so does every country.
I'm also sick of losers like Bill maher, Joan rivers sticking their unsightly noses into ironman movies.
I watch these movies to get away from trash like them.

Guess Ironman is so coOL it 'everybody wants to get into the act.
Yes, i agree, it looked like a wrap up of Robert Downy jr.....

I think Marvel would be better off to hire unknown actors for these parts.
These guys ask too much money it is nauseating to see in this economy.
Avengers II most likely won't happen, unless they do it with other (cheaper) heroes. 

[FatherXmas]

Kind of came here late...however, does anyone still have the file laying around: 

ironman_screensaver_pc.exe ?

This was free on the 2008  movie website...I'm kind of looking for this screensaver.

It's on Google but always comes with spyware,tracking, etc, if you download it.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I liked the movie better than Ironman II.
I was very disappointed the Mandarin was not the villain, per say.
The posters, promos....Felt cheated.
Why waste 2 stories in one?
Extremis could've worked without the Mandarin on it's own.

I also didn't care for America bashing, yes, we have skeletons in our closet-so does every country.
I'm also sick of losers like Bill maher, Joan rivers sticking their unsightly noses into ironman movies.
I watch these movies to get away from trash like them.

Guess Ironman is so coOL it 'everybody wants to get into the act.
Yes, i agree, it looked like a wrap up of Robert Downy jr.....

I think Marvel would be better off to hire unknown actors for these parts.
These guys ask too much money it is nauseating to see in this economy.
Avengers II most likely won't happen, unless they do it with other (cheaper) heroes. 

Well America bashing is the kind of rhetoric we have come to expect to hear from an international terrorist.  I didn't look at that negatively, I looked at that as the Mandarin being in character (that turned out ironic didn't it).

Why do you think other heroes are cropping up in Avengers II?  The Avengers were always a rotating cast.  This way in the future if they have conflicts with actor's shooting schedules or negotiations, they will always have other heroes they could rotate in.

Yes RDJ made a supertanker full of cash but that's because he wisely took a cut of the sales before accounting movie magic happens.  Avengers - $1.5 billion worldwide.   Iron Man 3 - $1.1 billion so far.

[MaidMercury]

I can see your point about the mandarin...I am sensitive about the United States I suppose.

I think Tony Stark having nightmares about the 'worm hole' was also a ploy to excuse
him from Avengers II. As well as cost savings
It will give opportunity to new cast members- which I think will be QuickSilver/Scarlet Witch
and AntMan (Giantman) not sure what he is called these days.


But that's all the more the Mandarin should have been the main villain.
I think it wasn't done because China owns our deficit.
....(and who knows what else politicians sold out for.)

That aside....It did keep the movie plot 'a secret' doing that. Perhaps it was clever...
Pepper Potts does get to shine in the movie.

[FatherXmas]

I can see your point about the mandarin...I am sensitive about the United States I suppose.

I sense that.

I think Tony Stark having nightmares about the 'worm hole' was also a ploy to excuse
him from Avengers II. As well as cost savings
It will give opportunity to new cast members- which I think will be QuickSilver/Scarlet Witch
and AntMan (Giantman) not sure what he is called these days.

Yes and no.  It was RDJ's Iron Man that made all these interlocking Marvel Universe movies work.  After The Avengers and the 3 Iron Man movies,  Thor was next in box office totals and it was only 60% of Iron Man 2 which was the movie before it.  Capt America and the Incredible Hulk were even less.  Disney not stupid.  RDJ/Iron Man is money.  RDJ not stupid either.  He'll be back and they will gladly pay for it, especially if it's an ensemble part.

Also except for the Hulk, all the movies did better overseas than in the US.

But that's all the more the Mandarin should have been the main villain.
I think it wasn't done because China owns our deficit.
....(and who knows what else politicians sold out for.)

I see you got your tin foil hat on.  Yes it was likely political but not in the sense you mean.  Disney is a big international company and China is one of the fastest growing economies in the world representing 1 in 6 or so people currently walking about on this rock.  It would be stupid not to take China's "feelings" into account on any movie they are doing so they don't do anything that could get them kicked out of China.  I'm guessing that's why they came up with such a twist on the Mandarin.

That aside....It did keep the movie plot 'a secret' doing that. Perhaps it was clever...

Almost too clever.  It did ticked off a lot of Marvel fanboys because Ellis's story was so good and the trailer looked as if they were following it to some extent.  Plus we get the Mandarin.  Instead they turned the story on it's head and faked use all out.

Pepper Potts does get to shine in the movie.

I would say more of a smoldering glow. 

[MaidMercury]

Tin foil hat? Is that an insult?

I'm pretty grounded in history and Government. I know reality.

'Tin foil hat' usually is a term for people that believe in Chem trails, Illuminati, Masons.
Which I am not into.

If you meant to say I am completely off on my guess about why the Mandarin was watered down
from his original 60's origin, I understand.

Movies usually are made with less logic behind them than I think, and I may have read too much into it.

If you did mean to insult, then 'good day' to you.

[FatherXmas]

Sorry if you thought it was an insult, perhaps it was because I don't read political conspiracy into everything and it seemed to me that you were.  It's a phrase I use any anyone who attributes everything first to a conspiracy rather than more mundane causes like Hanlon's Razor or simple personal/corporate self interest.

Just today in Guild Wars 2 they nerfed the drops at one segment of a multisegment event because it was being used by bots to farm indefinitely.  Sort of like how way back in CoH you could farm critters popping out of portals indefinitely.  Leave the portals untouched, infinite spawns.  Players of course caught on as well and farmed the John Deer out of it.  Of course this broke how the whole event is suppose to play out, stopping other events from spawning, etc.  So what did the players who were farming this event concluded as the TRUE reason?  ANet is denying them a source of gold so they will be forced to pay cash for cash shop items rather than with gold.

This is why I've been asking for a tin foil hat at the cash shop, I think it's sure to be popular.

[Battlechimp]

But that's all the more the Mandarin should have been the main villain.
I think it wasn't done because China owns our deficit.
....(and who knows what else politicians sold out for.)

That aside....It did keep the movie plot 'a secret' doing that. Perhaps it was clever...
Pepper Potts does get to shine in the movie.

One of the main reasons for the change was money. And its a fact that they never tried to hide.  The film was partially subsidized by the China film industry.  They'd never allow the Mandarin to be portrayed like he is in the comics.  That's also why the Chinese version of the film has some extra scenes (don't worry about seeing them, you can find the scenes online and about the only thing they add to the movie is pacing issues) they are mostly up with china type messages.  But what this get Disney is they are now allowed to have a wide release of the movie in China. Legally.  China only allows less than a dozen 'western' films to be released in wide distribution a year.  And by working with the Chinese film industry it gets them around that restriction because by Chinese law IM3 is now considered a Chinese produced film and not limited in where it can be distributed.  And as mentioned before, China is a huge and growing market.

And another reason is quite frankly the Mandarin as he's imaged in the comics can be considered a bit racist. His design is heavily influenced by the Yellow Menace propaganda. And he was created in a time when that kind of stereotype racism wasn't frowned upon in general media. But now that's a much touchier subject. 

Now yeah you could take those wrappings and make him just a Chinese terrorist, rings etc. But then see original point :-)

And the way he's used in the movie becomes a study in the fear of the Other. How when handed what we expect to see we don't always look further.  It bacame 'oh no gu who hates America <insert random political topic>'. He's claiming responsibility for those explosions and everyone shuts their brain off and reads no more into it.  Killian uses that to cover his little failures and potentially drives up prices for his melty soldiers for when he sells them to fight this menace that he's created.
 

[TimtheEnchanter]

Politics have a pretty darned big hand in filmmaking. A lot more than many like to think (and in some cases, a lot less). Allegedly, Hollywood folks to some extent actually have some degree of a conscience. And with all the ranting and raving about how much money they rake in, one of the ways this gets balanced is by promoting a lot of popular messages. This makes them feel like they're leading the herd towards a better tomorrow. A couple of major examples off the top of my head.

Star Wars prequels: In interviews with George Lucas, during the few years after Jedi was released, his plan was to make a trilogy that focused on the Empire, giving us an equal look into their motivations. The idea was that neither the Empire nor the Alliance was the "good guy", and after being shown both perspectives, it would be left to the audience to form their own conclusions. In the post 9/11 world, Palpatine got transformed into a reflection of what the conspiracy theorists thought of President G.W. Bush. Elements of the more relativistic take of the war remain in the plot (probably by accident), but you have to look harder to spot them.

Pirates of the Caribbean 3: "Right to Habeas Corpus Suspended" as part of a campaign to put an end to terroris... I mean piracy. This film was released less than a year after the Military Commissions Act, which many feared would abolish the very same right.

The Abyss: If you haven't seen the uncut version of this film, watch it. In mid-production, the 1990 Gulf War began, which was hailed as a freedom mission to liberate Kuwait. The preachy anti-war message was removed as much as plot integrity would allow. At release, it didn't take a brain surgeon to realize that something in the film was blatantly missing.

[FatherXmas]

I on the other hand believe reviewer read to much current events into a movie and then interpret it though the filter of their own political beliefs.  So unless you can point to be interviews where the writer/director says that making a commentary about current events was their intent, it's all observational error to me.

[Golden Girl]

Star Wars prequels: In interviews with George Lucas, during the few years after Jedi was released, his plan was to make a trilogy that focused on the Empire, giving us an equal look into their motivations. The idea was that neither the Empire nor the Alliance was the "good guy", and after being shown both perspectives, it would be left to the audience to form their own conclusions. In the post 9/11 world, Palpatine got transformed into a reflection of what the conspiracy theorists thought of President G.W. Bush. Elements of the more relativistic take of the war remain in the plot (probably by accident), but you have to look harder to spot them.

The portrayal of Palpatine/Sidious and the progression of his plot to overthrow the Republic in Episode 1 (filmed 1997-1998, released 1999) and Episode 2 (filmed 2000-2001, released 2002) are not only one of the most consistent aspects of the prequels, but were also well in place before 9/11.

And if you want to go further back, the prologue to the 1977 novelization of A New Hope, a lot of the basic prequel meta-story is already laid out, although without the Sith elements:

Another galaxy, another time.
The Old Republic was the Republic of legend, greater than distance or time. No need to note where it was or whence it came, only to know that... it was the Republic.
Once, under the wise rule of the Senate and the protection of the Jedi Knights, the Republic throve and grew. But as often happens when wealth and power pass beyond the admirable and attain the awesome, then appear those evil ones who have greed to match.
So it was with the Republic at its height. Like the greatest of trees, able to withstand any external attack, the Republic rotted from within though the danger was not visible from outside.
Aided and abetted by restless, power-hungry individuals within the government, and the massive organs of commerce, the ambitious Senator Palpatine caused himself to be elected President of the Republic. He promised to reunite the disaffected among the people and to restore the remembered glory of the Republic.
Once secure in office he declared himself Emperor, shutting himself away from the populace. Soon he was controlled by the very assistants and boot-lickers he had appointed to high office, and the cries of the people for justice did not reach his ears.
Having exterminated through treachery and deception the Jedi Knights, guardians of justice in the galaxy, the Imperial governors and bureaucrats prepared to institute a reign of terror among the disheartened worlds of the galaxy. Many used the imperial forces and the name of the increasingly isolated Emperor to further their own personal ambitions.
But a small number of systems rebelled at these new outrages. Declaring themselves opposed to the New Order they began the great battle to restore the Old Republic.
From the beginning they were vastly outnumbered by the systems held in thrall by the Emperor. In those first dark days it seemed certain the bright flame of resistance would be extinguished before it could cast the light of new truth across a galaxy of oppressed and beaten peoples...

The closest to any direct influence of 9/11 on the prequels is probably the brief "Twin Towers" shot of the Jedi Temple on fire the morning after Anakin's attack on it.

[TimtheEnchanter]

The closest to any direct influence of 9/11 on the prequels is probably the brief "Twin Towers" shot of the Jedi Temple on fire the morning after Anakin's attack on it.

What I'm talking about isn't a specific moment, but the more generalized concept of inciting a war for the sole purpose of declaring "martial law" in order to deal with said war.

As for one of the probably inadvertent remnants of the less black&white outlook on the Empire, you have the portrayal of the Jedi in Episode 3. Sure, they could've taken it a step further and actually tried to find proof of their allegations. But the attempted 'arrest' of Palpatine by the Jedi was purely for religious reasons, not for suspected political treachery or war crimes, as was the attempted assassination that followed.

[Golden Girl]

What I'm talking about isn't a specific moment, but the more generalized concept of inciting a war for the sole purpose of declaring "martial law" in order to deal with said war.

The creation of the Clone Army/Grand Army of the Republic, the Separatist crisis, the the outbreak of the Clone Wars and the granding of emergency pwoes to Chancellor Palpatine all happened in Episode 2, written and filmed before 9/11 and the Iraq War.
Unlike the 1977 ANH novel prologue, where Palpatine ends up as a puppet of "power-hungry individuals within the government, and the massive organs of commerce", which makes for a reasonably good fit for one view point of the Bush adminsitration, in Episode 3, it's Palpatine who's the puppet master, and the "organs of commerce" - the Trade Federation, the Techno Unio and the InterGalactic Banking Clan - are all wiped out by Vader once they've served their purpose to Sidious in funding and supplying the Separatist cause.

As for one of the probably inadvertent remnants of the less black&white outlook on the Empire, you have the portrayal of the Jedi in Episode 3. Sure, they could've taken it a step further and actually tried to find proof of their allegations. But the attempted 'arrest' of Palpatine by the Jedi was purely for religious reasons, not for suspected political treachery or war crimes, as was the attempted assassination that followed.

The plan to remove Palpatine from office was already discussed by th Jedi Council before they knew he was a Sith Lord, and the arrest party was already on the way to Palpatine's office when Anakin told them that he'd discovered that the Chancellor was a Sith Lord.
The decision to kill Sidious was made on his own my Mace Windu, and only after Sidious started using his lightning - up until that point, he was still trying to arrest him, even though that tactic had resulted in 75% of the arrest party being wiped out by Sidious when he attacked them.

[houtex]

Palpatine was SUCH a bad 'swordsman' (if you will let me use that term... 'saberman' sounds wrong)... I found his defeating most of the arresting party so... weird.  I mean, just bad slash after bad slash... And no force chokes, no throwing litterally his entire desk and all the crap on it/in it towards them at hella velocities... nope, just 'I'm Sidious now, you all die because you're all freakin' out about my 'Taxi Driver'-ing a 'saber in my hand and then jumping at you like a crazed weasel.'  So... disappointing.  I expected a much more drawn out battle there.  Perhaps Anakin comes in and picks a side right then.  Would have been MUCH more believable.

His battle with Yoda was more in line with what I'd expect Sidious to be able to do... literally throw a senate chamber at Yoda.  The top Sith versus the top Jedi... and the Sith Lord is just that much more.

Yep.  That arrest scene should have been better.  Much better.  Sadness.

/If I may continue the sidetracking.

[Tenzhi]

I was more disappointed by Darth Tyranus' fighting.  Here's a guy who is supposed to be difficult to fight because his style is supposed to be more like fencing with lots of thrusts, and then he mostly fights pretty much like every other Jedi with whirly twirly slashes.

[houtex]

Yeah, I gotta agree with that.  I mean, Anakin and he fighting in the cave in II... just a bunch of flashing swords and lighting effects on their faces... then *thwip*, Anakin sans arm and it's over.  Nice.

[TimtheEnchanter]

Interestingly, just like Palpatine, both got better once they were fighting with Yoda. Which is sort of backwards since they would've been fighting an invisible foe during the shoot.

Could it be they intentionally downplayed the other fights because they wanted the ones with Yoda to look blatantly more epic?

[eabrace]

Could it be they intentionally downplayed the other fights because they wanted the ones with Yoda to look blatantly more epic?

Of course.  You step up your game when the playoffs start, man. 

[Pinnacle Blue]

This ain't gonna be a popular post, but here goes: I gotta say I hated this movie.  The plot holes were tremendous, and the whole movie seemed to flow out of Tony Stark making incredibly stupid decisions (and he's supposed to be a genius).

[houtex]

Oh, but besides it being fiction, and therefore "stuff ain't real", anxiety and other emotional/mental issues can put the most intelligent and/or wise people into a crater in the ground, sobbing and making SUCH bad decisions...

The solution to Tony's anxiety, "build something"... novel.  Wouldn't have worked in my case. 

I could talk more, but I think this is about Iron Man and not me.  Suffice to say, I'm intelligent, I can work, and yet, anxiety is a bitch in the way of getting things done.  So what Tony was going through?  Yeah.  Pretty much sometimes.

[FatherXmas]

The only real stupid decision is to publicly threaten the Mandarin.  Pretty sure up to that point the tabloid press and every other major media outlet knew where he lived but once it declared it on live TV it was okay to invade the privacy they once voluntarily gave the heavily armed flying man with impulse control issues.

He didn't know that Pepper would be targeted.  He didn't know that Maya was involved so he assumed they were both safe.  He figured as long as he kept his distance the bullseye will remain on him and not Pepper.

A second stupid decision, if you want to call it that, is not sharing with Pepper earlier about his Avengers flashbacks.  Just like in IM2 where he kept his health problem to himself while setting up his friends to take over after his death.  It's the whole "I don't want to be a burden on you so I will let you believe I'm just being a bit more dickish than my usual dickish self."

As for "make something", that's his modus operandi.  IM1, builds suit to escape.  IM2, builds particle accelerator in basement to complete his father's work and save his own life.  Why should IM3 be any different?  That's actually Tony's superpower.  So he was able to invade the Mandarin's compound with gizmos he built in a motel room, "FROM SCRAPS".  And he succeeded, or would have if the Mandarin was the actual big bad.

Yes he ended up putting Pepper in harms way.  Yes, he put the kid in harms way.  Yes, maybe he should have called SHIELD once he met the Extremis soldiers (you can't tell me that power wouldn't constitute an international threat).  And speaking of SHIELD why wouldn't Capt. America be all over this Mandarin problem.  Isn't tracking down and punching guys like this repeatedly in the face his bailiwick?  I digress.

I can't think of any other "stupid" decisions he made other than the two I outlined.

[TimtheEnchanter]

If I had the kind of resources Tony did, I'm sure "build things" would help with my anxiety too.

[The Fifth Horseman]

The solution to Tony's anxiety, "build something"... novel.  Wouldn't have worked in my case.

It's not "build something" it's "focus on something you CAN solve".

[Pinnacle Blue]

The only real stupid decision is to publicly threaten the Mandarin.  Pretty sure up to that point the tabloid press and every other major media outlet knew where he lived but once it declared it on live TV it was okay to invade the privacy they once voluntarily gave the heavily armed flying man with impulse control issues.

Threatening the Mandarin wasn't in and of itself a stupid decision. The stupid decision was to not immediately get in one of his suits, and to have a buggy prototype on standby instead of a fully functioning one.

<snip!>
Yes he ended up putting Pepper in harms way.  Yes, he put the kid in harms way.  Yes, maybe he should have called SHIELD once he met the Extremis soldiers (you can't tell me that power wouldn't constitute an international threat).  And speaking of SHIELD why wouldn't Capt. America be all over this Mandarin problem.  Isn't tracking down and punching guys like this repeatedly in the face his bailiwick?  I digress.

The existence of S.H.I.E.L.D. is why the this movie's premise falls down immediately.  What happened to Nick Fury?  Was he golfing?

I can't think of any other "stupid" decisions he made other than the two I outlined.

Okay, here's one: destroying all his suits at the end of the movie.  What's he going to do in the next Avengers movie?  Consult?

Here's another: his combat tactics were just plain baffling.  The first time somebody melted off a piece of his armor, he should have never gone toe-to-toe with them ever again.  He was in a flying suit with ranged weapons, and yet he chose "punching" as his main combat offensive.  And then when he remembered he had ranged weapons, he decided to use them up close (ahh, memories. "Does anyone have an Awaken they can spare?").  The delay it took for a repulsor to charge up, announced by an escalating whine, meant the folks with the superhuman reflexes could see this telegram coming, read it, ball it up, and attack first.

Then there was the whole "not seeing a therapist for my anxiety attacks, even though I could pay one for a year with the interest I earn in a minute."  Yeah, I get that he likes to shoulder burdens on his own.  That strategy nearly killed him in IM2.  He's supposed to be an off-the-charts-level genius, so making the same kind of potentially fatal mistake twice shouldn't be something he does for that reason alone, let alone this thing called "character development" that the scriptwriter apparently never heard of.

The plot holes were even worse, but that's another post. 

[FatherXmas]

This is Tony Stark.  How many times did he climb in and out of the bottle, ruin serious relationships and lost his company again and again in the comics?  Ego can sometimes be a terrible thing.

And given Tony's resources he could whip up a custom suit for whatever threat in what, a day.  Plus he blew up the suits, not the plans.

Sure he kept going toe to toe with the blowtorch people.  But that's because movie goers didn't pay to watch someone bring a sniper rifle to a fist fight.  Now considering the number of Extremis soldiers crawling all over that boat plus his need to rescue Pepper, until he didn't need to, it required him to get in close.  Plus due to his previous battles he discovered that his gauntlet repulsors wouldn't keep them down.  Plus they have an unfortunate tendency to explode killing everyone in 15 to 20 yards without cover.  Also they have combat jump six slotted ED be damned.  Enemy who can jump up or down 2 stories can be disrupt standard tactics.

Sure those one off gauntlet lasers or the anti-tank micro missile could make quick work of a few of them (but they wouldn't show that in a PG13 Marvel movie) but again rescuing Pepper (and the President but that was Rhodey's job) was priority one.  Couldn't really bring out the big guns until he got her safe.   In the end he also didn't want Killian to get away and hanging back increased that possibility while getting in his face kept him from escaping.

And did you see the HISHE for Iron Man 3?  "Hey I just realized, Disney recycled the plot of The Incredibles.  You're Syndrome and I have a black best friend with his own super suit."

[Codewalker]

Okay, here's one: destroying all his suits at the end of the movie.  What's he going to do in the next Avengers movie?  Consult?

Build more? He's always building newer, better ones. It's what Tony Stark does.

[eabrace]

Build more? He's always building newer, better ones. It's what Tony Stark does.

That and very nonchalantly just throws away anything that's out of date.

"What, this old thing?  I made another one with a better paint job." *toss*

[TimtheEnchanter]

"What, this old thing?  I made another one with a better paint job." *toss*

...Apple?

Tony's entrepreneurial spirit is just so unwavering, he even builds planned obsolescence into his own private toys.