User blog:ADour/Some CRITICISM against criticism against Iron Man 3



I decided to create this blog today because, as most of us know, it's the date Iron Man 3 is released in Blu-ray and DVD. Let's say this blog was made in celebration of said date.

We all have watched Iron Man 3, right?

Some people loved it, some people liked it, some people disliked it, some people claim they hated it.

And most of the people that claim to hate it, say they hated it because of the whole Mandarin twist. I'm perfectly okay if you didn't like the Mandarin twist.

Some people can perfectly dislike a movie which is still good but it's not their cup of tea, and I'm okay with that. As an example, I didn't like The Dark Knight Rises, which was still a relatively good movie.

But I'm not okay if whoever didn't like the movie throws absurd and weak arguments to support their idea.

And this is the purpose of this blog: To criticize some of the most absurd or/and weak criticisms against Iron Man 3.

Take note, the following "plot holes" and "flaws" were taken from actual people around the web:

"The Mandarin was turned into a drug addict."

The first problem is that people react to the twist as if the Mandarin from the comics was revealed to be a drug addict. They think a powerful terrorist was turned into a drug addict, when there was no powerful terrorist to begin with. In retrospect, they turned a drug addict into the Mandarin, actually, they didn't even turn a drug addict into the Mandarin, they turned a drug addict into the façade for the real Mandarin, and incorporated classic concepts from the comics into it. The way I see it, you can see the classic appearance of the Mandarin in the movie as a homage to the Mandarin from the comics.

"The suits were made of cardboard/LEGO. In Marvel's The Avengers, Iron Man's armor could withstand an encounter with Thor."

First of all, is not like against Thor the Iron Man armor came out of the battle even polished. In Marvel's The Avengers, not only Iron Man and Thor barely engaged in hand-to-hand combat, but when they did, Thor almost broke Iron Man's wrist (as you can see here). Even after Mjolnir's first hit, the torso of Iron Man's armor was critically damaged (as you can see here, in Iron Man's HUD).

But here's another factor that many people didn't consider: the heat.

Extremis soldiers can heat up to 3000ºC, right? Well, the melting point of titanium (the component that makes up 95.6% of the Iron Man armors) is 1650ºC. As far as it can be recalled, Iron Man never faced enemies with such power over temperature, that's why in the previous movies the armor seemed more durable than in Iron Man 3.

"Eric Savin could control the Iron Patriot armor when it was only coded to Rhodey, but also the President couldn't control it when Savin could."

It's true that each Iron  armor is coded to only one user, but you should remember something that is not hard to miss: the War-Machine-to-Iron-Patriot rebrand was executed by A.I.M.. It can be perfectly implied A.I.M. reprogramed the Iron Patriot armor to let Savin use it.

"The Iron Legion wasn't used until the final battle."

This is a funny "flaw", because it's not like the previous three "flaws" mention where some logic was needed to get to each resolution. Also, no video could be found in order to easily remark this resolution. Before Tony controlled his suit to rescue the Air Force One, it was explicitly mentioned by J.A.R.V.I.S. there were news from Malibu, that the cranes to remove the debris from the mansion had just arrived. Tony couldn't use his other 34 suits after the attack on the mansion because the gate of the Hall of Armors was blocked by debris.

"It made no sense that Tony destroyed his suits."

The destruction of the twenty-two suits (yes, they were counted) left after the final battle wasn't just because. It was Tony's way to tell Pepper his suits were no longer a distraction, neither the main priority they had become after the Battle for New York.

It should also be considered that Tony can still build more suits, and that the Clean Slate protocol didn't blow up his resources, money, neither his ability to build more.

"Why did Tony Stark use the MK 42 even though it wasn't finished?"

Tony wears the MK 42 during the attack because, it was not only the nearest armor he could summon, but the easier armor to suit up with.

"It makes no sense that Tony threatened the Mandarin."

Tony was under a lot of stress, he suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, he felt he could lose his girlfriend to Aldrich Killian, and his best friend could die in any moment. What happened to Tony was something pretty common for people under a lot of stress to do, at one point, even the smallest thing, made him exploded. How did he explode? When he threatened the Mandarin and gave his adress. What was the small thing that made him explode? That jerk periodist who asked him what was he going to do about the Mandarin.

"Tony didn't protect his house even after he gave his adress."

Tony didn't expect the Mandarin to attack his house, but his persona. He gave his adress not as a way to tell him "Come to my house and destroy it" but as "Come to my house, I'm there". Tony still had his house in security lockdown, and wore his armor when he was not in his laboratory, but he was distracted by the arrival of Maya Hansen, in that moment, when he had his guard down, the helicopters attacked.

"This movie had too much Tony Stark and too little Iron Man."

This "flaw" is here because many people tend to list it as a flaw of the movie itself, when if they didn't like it, it's their own "flaw". Why? Because the premise of the movie was to show what could Tony Stark do without his Iron Man armor, no viewer should be surprised by the fact there was more Tony Stark and less Iron Man if it's told to you that's what the movie will be about.

So this "flaw" is listed here not per se, but because people consider it a flaw. When the only problem with this point is its encounter with the taste of the the viewer.

We should also consider in the comics Tony Stark numerous times found himself without his suit, even during Michelinie and Layton's classic run.

"Aldrich Killian tried to kill Tony when he needed him to complete the Extremis forumla."

Killian didn't know Tony was the key to complete the Extremis formula, Maya Hansen did.

"This is was just another villain with a grudge against Tony Stark."

False, unlike Obadiah Stane or Ivan Vanko, Aldrich Killian didn't care about Tony Stark. He tried to blow him up in his mansion because he threatened him/the Mandarin, not because he left him in the roof back then. It was when Tony was captured that Killian discovered Tony had to do something with the man he became. Also, Killian didn't want Pepper Potts because she was Tony's girlfriend, we are told Aldrich wanted Pepper since college.

"Why would Killian want Pepper if he didn't have any grudge against Stark?"

As we were told, Killian met Pepper in college, and never got to date her. Killian wanted Pepper because it was the only aspect of his past live unresolved. Killian still felt tied to the crippled man he once was because of Pepper. If Killian finally had Pepper, he would've triumphed over his past self.

"How could Pepper Potts survive the fall?"

This "plot hole" was listed because it was funny. Yes, I actually came up with a guy who told me this was one of the plot holes of the movie. This one is similar to the "The Iron Legion wasn't used until the final battle" because it appears when the viewer doesn't pay attention, but unlike said "flaw", where the viewer is told its resolution, this flaw's resolution is explicitly showed, and told to the viewer: Pepper Potts survives the fall because she had been injected with Extremis.

"It makes no sense that Killian would give Pepper, his enemy, the Extremis."

Killian was stupid for giving Pepper the Extremis, but he did it because he only saw Pepper as a trophy, not as a human, nor as an enemy.

"This was just The Incredibles all over again."

That's false, although it was a funny joke made by HISHE, it's completely false. In The Incredibles, Syndrome wanted to have revenge on Mr. Incredible, in Iron Man 3, it was already explained four points above that Killiand didn't care about Tony, neither wanted to have revenge on him. It might have been similar to The Incredibles, but the main aspect that would've made them similar is completely absent.

Updates might be expected.