I was a Senior Concept Artist on this movie. Among my many concepts on this movie, I was tasked with destroying Stark's house. Initially, the helos that attacked were stolen Army Apaches, but I felt stealing them would be ridiculous. So I invented a helicopter that had collapsible armament wings. And to disguise them, I made them all news helicopters. One of the coolest concepts I ever came up with. Loved seeing it on the big screen.
I never understood the hate for that twist. I've always loved that bit, and thought it was the best part of the movie. Maybe it was because I had no prior knowledge of the Mandarin in the comics to go in with any preconceived notions.
Steve Rodgers also forgets that he's a basically a mutant with and almost indestructible shield... So take that away and he's literally just a skinny weakling with a good heart...
Tony's line "I loved you in a Christmas Story" is particularly funny because the actor who played Ralphie in A Christmas Story was also the Stark employee in Iron Man 1 who wasn't able to build the arc reactor for Obadiah.
Peter Billingsley played Ralphie in A Christmas Story and A Christmas Story Christmas. He also played William Ginter Riva in Iron Man and Spider-Man: Far From Home.
@@donnieboughton1730 Google is your friend. But Jenna Ortega is most recently known for playing the title role as Wednesday Addams in the show Wednesday on Netflix. I believe they are preparing season two now.
Iron Man 3 was actually somewhat divisive among the fans. Some of the hard-core comic fans hated the twist that the Mandarin was actually an actor playing a part because the comic Mandarin character was Iron Man's greatest nemesis in the comics - though how he was portrayed in the beginning could never be portrayed on the modern screen - think "Yellow Menace." Then there was the other half of the fans who knew more about Marvel from the MCU than from the original comics and loved the twist with Trevor Slattery. Yet most of those fans still consider the first Iron Man to be the superior film with 2 and 3 coming close in people's opinions. As time has passed and the MCU has expanded, it has made Iron Man 3 more popular with the MCU fans than it originally was.
As long as Thor 2 doesn’t break her. I know it looks good compared to Secret Invasion, but it turned a lot of people off during the time and it’s guilty of a lot the tropes that Shanelle HATES. It’s gonna be a fun watch. 😂
This movie gets varied popularity depending on the mood of the fans. I will always love it for its depiction of complex PTSD in a hero. Lethal Weapon for the same reason. The hero can be emotionally vulnerable.
The Skydiving rescue looks so good because it's mostly done using real skydivers, and some wire work for the shot where they're dropped into the water. CGI was only used to replace the skydiver who was a stand-in for the Iron Man suit.
In the comics the Mandarin is wizard of sorts, he uses magic rings to produce all sorts of magic effects. I think he was portrayed the way he was in this as a way to get around the ethnic stereotype stuff while still (sort of) featuring one of Iron Man's most prominent villains. I as a comic fan thought it was clever and funny, but there were a lot of comic fans who were outraged that we didn't get a real Mandarin.
The funny thing to me is that what they did to Maya was way worse. Aldritch Killian was a minor character who died on like the first page. Maya was the actual mastermind behind everything.
@@donnieboughton1730but a far larger number are aware of the comic characters through cartoons and even some older video games (The Mandarin was THE villain of the Iron Man cartoon series), so there was still an expectation even for non-comics readers
"I loved you in 'A Christmas Story' by the way" That's an in-joke referring to the fact that Ralphie from "A Christmas Story," Peter Billingsley, was executive producer of the first Iron Man and had a walk-on as the tech who tells Jeff Bridges "I'm not Tony Stark"
(Copy-pasting this from another reaction I commented on because I think it's neat trivia) The Battle of New York takes place in May of 2012, which is where Tony first puts on the Mk. 7. This movie takes place around Christmas the same year, 7 months later, and he's putting the finishing touches on the Mk. 42. That's 35 suits, which comes out to about 5 suits a month. About one suit every week. Iron Man 1 takes place in 2009, so it took him 3 years to build 7 suits, meaning after being traumatized by the battle, he's producing suits _thirty times faster_ than he ever has before. In his obsession to have a backup plan for every possible scenario (notice how individualized each of his new suits are), he sacrifices quality for quantity. It's a great reflection of how shaken he is from his experience, that he can't even stop for a moment to try and improve on a basic draft, because he can't stop thinking about what else he might need a suit for.
@@davismccardle1 Sure, but Tony still had to design the thing. Plus, each successive Iron Man suit is undeniably more complex than the last. The Mark II was essentially just a prototype designed for flight and nothing else.
Absolutely my favorite Iron Man movie and like top 5 of Marvel in general. Love the focus on Tony's mental health. Love the kid. The Extremis soldiers are really good looking. The Mandarin is an awesome twist, it's not like that in the comics but I think this is much better. And I love that we see Tony 'In A Cave With A Box of Scraps' Stark guy full Macguyver.
Some comic fans were mad at the use of The Mandarin as a red herring since the character was a major Iron Man villain. This prompted Marvel to put out a featurette on the DVD (later to be called One Shots) telling a bit more about what happens to Trevor after the events of the movie. This featurette, along with other One Shot DVD extras are streaming on Disney+. For me personally, Sir Ben Kingsley commits grand larceny with how he steals scenes in this movie. His performance is incredible.
Still pissed they changed the character. As a fan from '68, loved the Mandarin as a villain, and was so totally pissed they took artistic license and made him a buffoon
@@xJRx77 Ultimately I think they did well correcting that mistake. But never having Iron Man vs The Mandarin is a travesty. But that's another phase for Shanelle.
@@MetastaticMaladies I know for a fact some of the filming locations were Rose Hill North Carolina Cape fear River Wilmington North Carolina and the climax was filmed at one of the loading docks at the Wilmington shipyard
You've gotta remember that Iron Man has been around as a character since 1962. His orgin from the first movie was more or less comic accurate. But in the comics, Stark was captured touring Vietnam, not Afganistan. Going through the years, the original character of the Mandarin really was Chinese and was actually a HUGE racial stereotype. At one point, there was also a "Soviet Iron Man" character called the Crimson Dynamo. What you see in the movies today has been through a lot of evolution! Mostly for the better, I think. Although, I admit, seeing the "Mandarin" in this movie took some getting used to from an old comic book guy like me. Loved your reaction, Shanelle!
Indeed Vanko in Iron Man 2 is a hybrid being part Whiplash and part Crimson Dynamo. It's a pity that Marvel and Downey didn't want to go the miniseries route, the Armor Wars storyline would've been fire with RDJ. Best of luck to Don Cheadle.
@@StarkRG Probably not here. :) Many reviewers and commentators are calling out that twist and the portrayal as bad. As funny as it it. I think it pushes Ben Kingsleys range as an actooooor.
There is such an incredible cohesion between the initial run of Iron Man, Captain America, and Avengers movies especially. Tony's and Steve's development across all films is like nothing achieved before. Even the new capabilities of Tony's suits in each movie are based on things that went wrong or he found a lack of in previous movies. Everything is incredibly deliberate. Also, I definitely thought Iron Man 3 was the best of the trilogy. It's crazy how much more Tony there is after this despite no more Iron Man movies specifically.
Now would be a good time to start watching "Agents of Shield". The first 7 episodes take place right after the events of this movie. Then, "Thor: The Dark World", Episodes 8-16, then "Captain America: The Winter Soldier", followed by the rest of season 1 of "Agents of Shield". You will not be disappointed if you start watching "Agents of Shield".
There's a short film you need to watch next, to discover the fate of Trevor. Otherwise the next time you meet him might be a bit discombobulating. It's called "All Hail The King"
Tony learns from his mistakes and improves each iteration of his suit to be capable of defeating whatever was his last vulnerability. Whiplash overloaded his suit with electricity (Iron Man 2), the next version could not only withstand an electrical discharge but absorb the power for its own purposes (The Avengers - Battle with Thor). Gets thrown out of a skyscraper window without his suit (The Avengers), the next version can be called to him remotely (Iron Man 3). Every time Tony perceives a weakness, his next suit overcomes that weakness.
41:49 Shane Black is an awesome director. He did "The Predator" which was perfect because he was IN the original "Predator" as the guy who kept telling Billy the p*ssy jokes.
It's almost vital that anyone who watches this should have first watched Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang from the same director (who also wrote Lethal Wepon) starring Robert Dopwney Jr.. This movie wouldn't be what it is if they hadn't made that movie, which was part of RDJ's resurgence alongside Iron Man (though one obviously played a bigger part). Plus Val Kilmer is also incredibly funny in it!
Visually, I really couldn't tell that this movie was by a different director. The only ones that have stood out to me so far are Eternals and Multiverse of Madness.
I think you would enjoy "Chef" (2014); written, directed by, and starring Jon Favreau. Solid writing and acting, some light drama and comedy. Fairly classic mid-life crisis, but punctuated by one bad moment that goes viral. Just 'bout a dude finding his non-romantic love in life again.
The Mandarin was a Marvel villain back when racist stereotypes like this were more normalized. It was shocking to learn they intended to use him in the MCU. However, I think they really salvaged the character(s) in this movie and in .
The comment where Stark says "I loved you in A Christmas Story" is an inside joke call back to the first film. When Obadiah Stane was yelling at his Engineers that "Tony Stark made this in a cave in the desert" the engineer who replied "Well I'm not Tony Stark" was played by Peter Billingsley, who also played Ralphie in A Christmas Story
Coulson's story continues in Marvel's Agent's of SHIELD... That's as much of a spoiler as the trailers for the show gave us at the time they advertised the show, which premiered in September of the same year Iron Man III hit theaters. Watch Agents of SHIELD season 1 episodes 1-7 Then Thor the Dark World Then Agents of SHEILD season 1 episodes 8-16 Then Captain America the Winter Soldier Then Agents of SHIELD season 1 episodes 17-22 From there, you're free to watch Guardians of the Galaxy, then on to season 2 of Marvel's agents of SHIELD ENJOY!
Very unpopular opinion but I completely agree that this is my favorite Iron Man movie. Nice to know that there’s someone out there who really likes this movie. It’s definitely one that I sometimes revisit around Christmas time 👍
I really don't think it's that unpopular. This is the "deepest" of the IM films, the one that really delves into the character. Some comic-book fanboys didn't like that the Mandarin didn't match the comics. But I can't think of any way that this movie isn't an improvement over that. I suspect that many of them were annoyed more by the switcheroo than by the changed depiction. They go in feeling superior to all the non-comic-book-readers because they "know" who the Mandarin is, only to find out that they don't.
@@PhilBagels That.. is actually pretty accurate. I was an old-time Marvel fanboy, I knew all about The Mandarin as he appeared in the comics and was SO ready for a big time super power smack down! And when I didn't get that, I did feel kind of cheated. But on my second viewing of the movie, I love how brilliant it is. The subversion of the expectation is awesome. And The Mandarin was a major comic book figures originating in the 60's and 70's which was a very racist depiction, it really couldn't have been done in modern film. I have seen this a few times and it is one of my favorites.
This is my favorite IronMan movie too! All I heard were bad things about it and for the longest time I never watched it but when I finally did I was blown away by how good and genuine it was :) I agree it makes a great Christmas movie 🎄🎄🎄🎁🎁🎁
I love how much you love this movie, and I loved it too! But at the time, I remember a lot of people around me saying it was their LEAST favorite. The Mandarin is a pretty significant Iron Man villain in the comics, and there was a lot of hype knowing Ben Kingsley was playing The Mandarin, so a lot of fans felt the new twist was a "waste" of both the actor and the character. But after watching several reactions on youtube, it really feels like without that prior knowledge the movie can just be appreciated for what it is, which is pretty darn compelling!
I remember reading Iron Man comics in the 80's and early 90's, and I never once saw the Mandarin in all that time. I knew who he was, from various references, as a "classic" Iron Man villain, but it seemed at the time, they had pretty much phased him out. Which was probably just as well.
There’s a short film that follows up on Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley) called All Hail the King. You could watch it at any point as long as it’s before Shang Chi, which is _waaaaaaay_ down the line Comics Mandrin was a chinese man who found some alien technology that resembled rings (hence the Ten Rings™️) with capabilities that resembled magic, and he became a villain. He’s a pretty big classic Iron Man villain. Ben Kingsley’s casting and moments from the trailers were received positively. The twist was not, at least with comic book fans, and especially not with Aldrich claiming the title.
Yep. Comic fans were not happy. But Shan is not big on the comics, so it makes sense that she thought it was fun. We'll see what she thinks when she gets to Shang Chi but as you said, that's awhile from now.
Funny thing is, the Mandarin reveal seriously ticked off some massive backlash from purists that it wasn’t regarded favorably for a while. I maybe wrong, but I think the criticism has softened some. Personally, I wasn’t wed to the idea nor a comic purist so I actually enjoyed this one a lot. edit: clarification: the old, comic book Mandarin can be pretty problematic, but I think the purists were disappointed bc he is a serious, major adversary that they turned into a “punchline”.
I forgot how intense that was. I’m gonna have to watch it again. I think it just felt like Tonny broke free of a mental breakdown and I didn’t want to see him go thru it again.
This movie is about mental illness and trauma. That said, so are a buttload of MCU movies. Thor’s dad issues (also Gamora’s and Shang Chi’s). Cap’s losses and relationships. Widow’s traumatic past and regrets. T’Challa’s difficulty with duty. Oddly, not Banner’s personality disorder.
@Shanelle_riccio-s1v I'm an avid fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe- this is one of my favorite movies from it and I can't wait for more!!!! I'm also a huge fan of yours. Any other movies you're gonna react to in the future, I'm checking those out as well!!!!💖💖💖💖💖
Originally Maya was going to be the Big Bad of the movie instead of Killian, but Perlmutter vetoed having a woman as the villain because he didn't think that would be marketable.
A lot of people didn't care for the handling of the Mandarin, but honestly there's no tasteful way to handle what's basically Fu Manchu with a green lantern ring, so i thought the fake out was a solid option.
Yeah, all the comics fans who wanted a ‘real’ Mandarin didn’t seem to understand that that wasn’t going to fly, especially when there’s such a huge market for these films in China. Of course, they could’ve just not used the character. It wasn’t critical to the film, but I felt it was handled pretty well.
@@matthewdunham1689 that isn't the mandarin tho. There's a connection but they're distinct, and if they'd hauled out that character for IM3 you know people would have complained that it's not the same as the 1960s racial stereotype from the comics.
@Vaishino it is just modernized. China is the enemy of the United States of America, and Hollywood wants those dollars, ugly stereotypes aside the Mandarin or more accurately the Ten Rings of Power are Iron Man's arch nemesis.
It's great watching you get so excited about an MCU movie before you hit Play, and it's even greater watching you get even more excited as it runs. The girl who didn't think "superhero movies" had any depth is now officially hooked to this superhero universe. Excellent.🤘😄
This movie pissed off a lot of comic fans because the Mandarin was a big arch foe of Iron Man with 10 alien/magic rings in the comic and the 90's animated series. This film is so underrated. Shane Black is a mad genius. If you haven't seen Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang or the Nice Guys, do yourself a favor. Brilliant.
I always felt this movie was really underrated, so I’m glad to see you loved it! I particularly like that Iron Man has a theme in the soundtrack for this film, which he didn’t in the previous MCU appearances and was something that felt like it was missing. Looking forward to the next one!
I just love how much she loves Tony/Iron Man and Pepper. It makes the journey so much fun to follow. I really like this movie and I can’t figure out why people dislike it.
Totally agree on the Tony/Pepper love, they have incredible chemistry. That and the PTSD/who is Tony without the suit? storylines were executed really well, unfortunately the other plot ideas didn't quite work well enough to make this a well rounded film. None of the Iron Man sequals were terrible, they just had the potential to be as good as the first and didnt pull it off which was a little dissapointing. They're still significantly better anything from Phase 4 onwards.
It's funny, it's aged rather well, and I ADORED that Air Force One Rescue sequence, but that Mandarin twist is REVILED. the Mandarin is a classical yellow peril villain yes, but he's also Iron Man's NUMBER ONE villain. In the 90s Iron Man cartoon The Mandarin was the boss of all his other rogues. And the Mandarin was actually Asian. Updating him as a Middle Eastern style terrorist was a stroke of GENIUS. Then it turns out he's not even the real guy. More damning is that the Mandarin had alien magical rings. So Mandarin vs Iron Man is magic vs technology. The Ten Rings, which is the name of the terrorist organization that initially kidnapped Tony, so The Mandarin was baked in from the beginning and then Marvel flaked on it. They would make good later on, but we never actually got the Iron Man vs Mandarin story we deserved. It's like a Superman story that never touches on Lex Luthor. That's what pissed everyone off. The ultimate Iron Man adaptation doesn't use the ultimate Iron Man villain. Iron Man 3 is a good film maybe great, and the PTSD story pushes deeper into that Demon in a Bottle that Tony's impending death from Palladium poisoning in Iron Man 2 was touching on, but it wasn't what people wanted or expected. Not being what people expect can be a fatal blow.
Underrated movie. Same director of Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang, also with RDJ. (The chest piece didn't make him Iron Man, it kept shrapnel from entering his heart and killing him. He had the shrapnel removed. I powered the Iron Man suit, but it didn't have to be installed in his chest.)
In the comics, Stark himself has acknowledged that Rhodes' skill and experience make him a much better flying combatant than Stark is. The only major difference is that Rhodes is a Marine aviator in print, not an Air Force pilot.
Gotta watch the marvel one shots! You see a little more of coulson before avengers, and some more of Trevor the actor too. Also hope you start agents of shield some day🙏
DON'T FORGET TO WATCH - All Hail the King. You've been skipping all the little short films so far, and that's fine, but All Hail the King is legitimately important, and it should've really been the ending of this movie. It makes it FAR more obvious how this movie connects to Shang-Chi.
I think Rebecca Hall wanted to be the villain but certain dinosaurs at Marvel (or Disney) were very resistant and completely reduced her role. I love Trevor and this film has great ending credits with great music over them.
15:25 -- when it comes to the capabilities of the suit, Tony does have the advantage of knowing the script in advance. So he can design them so they can deal with whatever comes up next :-) That also gave him an edge when he had to build little individual toys to get into the mandarin location -- he knew exactly what to expect. No movie villain will ever get this kind of intelligence; there just aren't enough script copies for everyone...
Iron Man 3 was co-written by Drew Pearce and Shane Black. Drew Pearce went on to write the screenplay for Mission: Impossible 5 after his work on Iron Man 3. He also wrote the screenplay for the sci-fi action film Pacific Rim, directed by Guillermo del Toro.
If you know the webcomic "Garfield Minus Garfield" then you might get why I call this movie "Iron Man Minus Iron Man". Definitely the best of the franchise for my money, by quite a margin. RDJ does such a great job bringing Tony Stark to life, and frankly I think the dumbass ill-conceived unphysical STEM-defying suit detracts too much from the character. Happy to see it sit this one out for much of the movie.
Iron Man was never a particularly popular comic, so in the '60s and '70s the character was used to tell all the international political stories that Marvel used to flesh out the world. Since this was during the Red Scare, there's a lot of racist stuff in the old comics. The Mandarin isn't even the worst of Iron Man's villain gallery. We're talking Fin Fang Foom (an alien that looks like a dragon), the Crimson Dynamo (Russian version of Iron Man), Spymaster (corporate spy turned supervillain), Count Nefaria (socialite crime boss), and Wong Chu (North Vietnamese Commander). There was even a fictionalized version of Nikita Khrushchev. "This is the best I've ever seen." -- Get used to that feeling. Phase One has some connective tissue, but it's mostly an illusion after the fact. The early films were mostly made independently of each other as an experiment, Phase Two is where Marvel starts really pushing the whole shared universe concept as more than just films with a few bonus scenes. "Final film produced by Paramount." -- The other way of saying this is that when Disney bought Marvel in 2009 there was already a multipicture deal in place. In 2013 Disney bought the rights to all prior films in the MCU from Paramount and started making films in-house.
A Christmas Story is a bit of an Easter egg. Peter Billingsley who played Ralph in that film was a producer on the first Iron Man movie. He also played the engineer that Stone chews out for not being able to miniaturizing an arc reactor
4:57 - Advanced Idea Mechanics. A. I. M. One of the worst terrorist organizations in the Marvel Universe. They are to the villains of Marvel what Destro was to COBRA, or like the Black Hat Organization from the cartoon Villainous. 7:17 - The Mandarin is (or at least WAS for a long time) Iron Man's arch villain. He was an ancient Asian warlord who built a secret criminal empire based the ten ancient rings which gave him control over elemental forces. The terrorists that captured Tony in the first movie, The Ten Rings, were an allusion to The Mandarin (which went nowhere). The revelation that The Mandarin was going to be the villain of Iron Man 3 got EVERYONE hyped. Then the movie came out... 10:21 - It's just a little PTSD. I'm sure it's not going to be important at all later on... 14:11 - Well, it IS hers. That's the suit Tony built for Pepper. It's called the Rescue Armor. 24:54 - And THIS is the moment old-school Iron Man fans lost faith in the movie. You M! U! S! T! see the Marvel short Hail to the King before you get to Phase 4. It's required viewing. Here's a link to it on RU-vid. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VhANcsaMOdk.html
Did you miss Yinsin in the 1999 scene, paying off his comment in the cave about how they met once before, but Tony was probably too drunk at the time to remember?
It's also a bit of a theme. What makes them a hero instead of a guy with powers? Captain America TELLS US he's just a guy from Brooklyn. Thor of course loses his hammer. That's central to The Hulk. And now we get it with Iron Man.
I have to be honest - I think the first MCU movie I watched was...well, way deep in Phase III (not naming it to avoid spoilers). Before then, I was probably a little like you - superhero movies, whatever - I was not and still not into fads, so I just never watched them. After that, though, I didn't miss a single one in theaters, and wished I had seen the earlier ones. It was a happy day (for me) when Disney+ started streaming them so I could watch them whenever I wanted. What I like about the entire first 3 phases is just the tale of growth - not in the characters, but in the film making. The stories, the challenges, the effects - all of it. It's like watching Star Wars IV - VI - you see a history of film making, and they just get better and better. And you see this same ramp up in the first 3 phases of the MCU. You end up loving these characters, and, at least for me, I grew with them. I related to them. This is a long comment to express the idea that Iron Man III was kind of divergent in my eyes. It didn't have the same feel as Phase I did, and I think some were turned off by that maybe, but it ended up being kind of a cool movie, exploring new ideas about super heroes and consequences for their actions. I think this is where some of that depth of character and stories started coming - we saw it sprout in Avengers, and it became a teenager in Iron Man III. We are now in the second act of the first three phases, and we are growing. It is fun to watch.
Definitely one of my favorites from this phase, and a film that gets somewhat divided reactions, probably since certain other films of this phase are so hyped up.
I like this one, it was my favorite up until I found out they faked The Mandarin. Because in the comics The Mandarin is an actual Iron Man villain and he is supposed to be god-like, a villain to show that through Iron Man's ingenuity he can even go up against godlike beings like the Mandarin. But in this he was a complete joke and that ticked me off enough to bump it down to my second favorite Iron Man movie.
Therapists are just like any other doctor, there’s no incentive for them to get you better because if you get better, you don’t keep coming to them and spending money.
BTW, I love seeing how you are keeping track of important stuf like "Odin's element" (the Tesseract), etc, since I believe that's why Marvel isn't the same since Endgame. Earlier in the MCU it used to be so rewarding to pay attention. Keeping track of things payed off big in the end, and there was a lot of room for theorizing and keeping the fans excited for future events. Nowadays I feel like the latest MCU movies don't reward paying attention as much. Many things don't ever come back, so it feels like nothing matters (Eternals for instance). For all its ups and downs, the Infinity saga is something really worth watching, and I'm glad you started watching it even when you famously don't really watch action movies or superhero movies
This one was actually pretty divisive. First, it isn't an Iron Man movie. It's a Shane Black movie starring Tony Stark. Second, this version of the Mandarin is a huge departure from the comics. Personally I loved it, but I'm a big Shane Black fan.