After the credits rolled in my sold out 6:20PM showing last night for Iron Man 3, I have to say that I’ve never been more proud of myself of staying spoiler-free for a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie. In what I consider Robert Downey Jr.’s finest outing as Tony Stark, the big (and even the subtle) reveals are genuinely exciting, and completely unexpected based on the marketing for the film.
With Director Shane Black at the helm (who also co-wrote) there is in fact more Tony Stark “man of action” than Iron Man through the first two acts of the film, which carries us up to the huge reveal about The Mandarin and his nebulous terrorist organization. There are things that I absolutely loved about Iron Man 3, while there are some nitpicks that I’ll discuss after the jump. BE WARNED — Spoilers From This Point Forward –
Did Thomas Jane just make a Punisher fan-film with Ron Perlman? Holy shit snacks! I enjoyed Jane’s spin on The Punisher (2004) but I think there were greater problems with the film specifically setting it in Tampa, FL instead of New York City and casting John Travolta as your villain (with a terrible hair piece).
The interesting tidbit here via SlashFilm is that Marvel quietly got the rights to The Punisher back. Could Janes’ fan film spark another entry into film or possibly television? Or could Marvel look at rolling at short films in front of their coming features as a way of expanding their universe? Only time and nerd derision will tell.
Thoughts? Concerns? With the caliber of villains we will be seeing in Iron Man 3, it makes sense to see a change in Tony Stark’s weapon of choice. According to Wikipedia, the Bleeding Edge armor is an upgrade to the Extremis where, the armor exists within Stark himself.
The neurokinetic user-controlled morphologic nanoparticle bundles that form the suit reside in Stark’s body, and form a fibrous wetweb of iron and platinum, that can be commanded to form any type of structure upon Stark’s skin, such as large boxing gloves,or weapons, including large guns extending from his armsor a lightsaber-like energy sword with which Iron Man was actually able to harm one of the Worthy during the 2011 “Fear Itself” storyline. The nano-machines can even mimic the appearance of clothes, and then dissociate to transform into the Iron Man armor whenever Stark wishes. The suit adds less than twenty-five pounds to Stark’s body mass, and can stop a howitzer shell.
I’ve pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I will never be able to obtain a Mondo print at the time of the release (I came *this* close during their Planet of the Apes series). As much as I love the work of the artists, I can’t bring myself to pay the huge markup on the secondary market.
Despite my previous bouts of bad luck, I will be making an effort to pick up Hawkeye. Tom Whalen is a favorite of mine, a local guy who I’ve bought various pieces from over the years at different conventions. I just love the composition and the color palette.
That’s it. With two words I’m totally down for The Avengers. I’m really liking the tone they are setting with these new trailers, and I’m very impressed with the CGI Hulk renders. It looks as though third time might be around for the big green guy. Also, I would like to take this time to acknowledge that I may have been hasty on calling for Skrulls … I now subscribe to the Krobonite Theory, but again I may be wrong.
I’ve been going to Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Con for quite a while, and I’ve never seen a lineup like the one they’ve amassed for the 2012 incarnation. It’s pretty damn heavy on the celebrities with William Shatner and Stan Lee being the headliners… but that was until the most recent announcement that Chris Hemsworth would be in attendance. Yeah, Thor is coming to Philadelphia this June.
With The Avengers opening a month before, I expect the only day he is attending, Saturday to be a total madhouse. Now, if you wanted to get an autograph from Mr. Hemsworth, that will set you back $125.00. Want a photo? That will be $100.00. Or if you really wanted to meet him, you could shell out $350.00 for the VIP experience. So with Hemsworth in town, you can be sure that no one will be visiting Virgil’s booth this year.
You can check out the full press release after the jump:
The Skrulls — they can shape change. That’s a whole thing,” he said. “I’ve already got Loki. He’s got magic. Once you got magic along with your Iron Man and your Black Widow — it’s a real juggling act.”
Whedon also pointed out one of the big problems of involving an alien species like the Skrulls is that they have such a rich mythology on their own. He wouldn’t want to shoehorn them in (i.e. Galactus in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.)
Those two aliens are Marvel mainstays and have enormous backstories … they have a big life of their own that just could not be contained in a film where I already had seven movie stars
I for one am a little relieved, although if this holds true my wild speculations and musings will have been found to been wholly inaccurate.
Since I read this I went back and review the latest trailer for The Avengers, and I’m really going to go with the magic angle. We have Loki on Earth, messing with the members of the group turning them against each other. When that won’t work … he brings some Asgardian magic/tech to reign death and destruction. But again, this is all speculation and Whedon could just be throwing us off in the build up to May 4th.
What media announcement had you throwing fist pumps and doing roundhouse kicks in the air? Did the final result live up to your dreams?
I still find it hard to believe that It’s 2012 and we are on the cusp of a full fledged Avengers movie. Five years ago during Comic Con foundation was starting to take shape when Marvel Studios rolled out a teaser trailer for Iron Man. The attendees at Hall H lost their minds and took to the internet spouting their unrequited love for director Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayal of Tony Stark. Up until that point, there wasn’t much buzz on the project and Iron Man walked away the fan favorite of San Diego Comic Con 2007.
Leading up to Iron Man’s release in May 2008, there were rumors of a super secret cameo that would be dropped in after the credits. As press screenings were rolling out, it was very difficult to remain spoiler free … but I prevailed. Those who had seen it said it was absolutely mind blowing.
I took in a Friday night showing of Iron Man battling the crowds. When the credits finished about 75% of the theater remained seated, waiting for this cameo. And then it happened … NICK FURY!!! I howled with fan boy delight as my wife just looked at me sideways. “Avengers” I exclaimed, “they’re talking about the goddamn Avengers they’re going to do this”.
It wasn’t until that point that I sat back and was floored that Marvel was committed to making a series of movies that would lead up to a movie about their flagship super team. In the time since Iron Man was released, we’ve almost taken for granted that an Avengers movie was coming. Five years ago, none of us had an inkling as to what Marvel was planning.
