Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Iron Man 3 - Two Out of Three Is Okay

CAUTION:  This post is full of spoilers.  Read at your own risk if you haven't seen the movie.
 
I saw “Iron Man 3” on opening day.  I went in looking forward to seeing Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin.  I went in looking forward to Robert Downey, Jr. making his fourth (fifth, if you count his cameo in “The Incredible Hulk”) appearance as Tony Stark/Iron Man.  I went in looking forward to great special effectsa and amazing action.  Since seeing it, there have been three things on my mind:  the question of whether Tony Stark is Iron Man because of the suit, or if the suit is Iron Man because of Tony Stark; how the Extremis story compares with its origin in the comic book; and how disappointed I was by the major change made to one of the characters.

Superheroes without superpowers are fundamentally different from those with super powers in an obvious way.  For superpowered heroes, a fairly common theme in comic books is to take a hero’s superpowers away and then to put them in a potentially life-threatening situation.  For example, in “The Flash” #19, Flash lost his powers just as he was he was trying to retrieve police-confiscated supervillain weapons before other supervillains could get to them.  After he got his powers back, he had a greater appreciation for heroes like Batman and Green Arrow.

On the other hand, a superhero without superpowers like Batman is still Batman even when he’s in his Bruce Wayne persona.  He still has the same skills, even if he isn’t wearing his costume.  He’s trained himself so well that even without his gadgets he can get out of just about any situation relatively unscathed and without revealing himself.

Tony Stark is a little bit different.  He is extremely intelligent and a very talented engineer.  He started out as a weapon’s designer.  He created the Iron Man to survive and escape captivity.  But he doesn’t really have any combat training other than the experience he’s had fighting in the Iron Man armor. In “Iron Man 2” he described the Iron Man as an advanced prosthesis.

One of the themes of this movie was Tony’s struggle to define himself.  The movie starts our with Tony Stark suffering anxiety attacks and sleeplessness due to the events of “Marvel’s Avengers”, when he almost died.  He took refuge in what he knew: tinkering with his suits—upgrading them and designing new ones.  During his panic attacks he retreated into his suit, hiding from his friends.  He was relying more and more on the armor to get through daily life.

When Tony found himself without his suit in “Iron Man 3”, he had nowhere to retreat to.  He went back to his roots.  In a scene that is reminiscent of the original movie, Tony Stark built several weapons using supplies purchased at a local hardware store.  He was able to infiltrate the enemy stronghold with only his homemade gear.  And when he finally did get access to his suits again, he treated them as disposable.  The final line of the movie is “I am Iron Man.”  And that is after he apparently destroyed all of his suits.  He came through this adventure with more real confidence in himself (versus the affected bravado he sometimes displays) and his identity.

Point one in favor of “Iron Man 3”.

One of the major plot lines regards a substance known as Extremis.  This was something that was introduced in the Iron Man comic book in 2005 and 2006.  In the comic book, scientists Aldrich Killian and Maya Hansen were developing it for medical purposes—though, since they had military funding, it was also being developed as a new super soldier serum as well.  A dose of Extremis was stolen and administered to a domestic militia man named Mallen.  He went through a painful 2-day transformation and emerged changed in several ways.  He became relatively indestructible (able to withstand small and medium arms fire), very strong and fast, and able to breathe fire.  At one point, Mallen walked into an FBI office in Houston, TX and killed at least fifty people barehanded.

Maya Hansen was one of Tony Stark’s ex-lovers.  She contacted him after the theft of the Extremis and they met up.  They heard about Mallen’s rampage in Houston, and Tony, as Iron Man intercepted him.  Iron Man was severely injured in the fight, and went back to Maya for help.  He made some changes to Extremis to make it safer and to tailor it to his needs.  Maya administered it to him.  It healed him and enabled him to have a better, faster, stronger interface with the Iron Man armor.  In the end it was revealed that Maya Hansen had a hand in the theft of Extremis, and she was sent to prison.

Many elements from this arc remain intact in the movie, with a few key changes.  It was still developed by Aldrich Killian and Maya Hansen.  Instead of a single dose of Extremis, several doses were administered to injured vets.  They did not act independently, but were part of a private army.  They were sent after Tony Stark, all but destroying his life in the process.  One significant change is that Pepper Potts was given the Extremis.  She survives the process and saves Tony’s life.

On the whole, I think these changes work very well.  The overall nature of Extremis is preserved.  Tony did not receive Extremis, but at the beginning of the movie he was implanting subcutaneous interfaces into his body, serving somewhat the same purpose with respect to the Iron Man armor.

Point two in favor of “Iron Man 3”.

I understand that not everything from a comic book translates well to a live-action movie.  For one thing, a comic book audience is relatively small.  A movie is targeted for a much larger crowd.  Changes are made to further a story, or to tailor the parts to the cast, or to make the film more approachable by more people.  For example, Justin Hammer of “Iron Man 2” was based on a character from the Iron Man comic book called Justine Hammer.  Colorful characters from the comics are often toned down in movies, such as the Wolverine’s bright blue and yellow spandex being exchanged for black leather or Joker’s bright green hair dulled to a bad dye job.

Usually these changes don’t bother me too much.  They’re mostly cosmetic.  And even if they’re a bit deeper than that (in the comics, Bucky was several years younger than Captain America, and they never knew each other before WWII), I can get past them and go with the flow of the story.  However, there are instances when the changes really get to me.  I had to see “The Fellowship of the Ring” a second time to get past the changes that were made in translating that story to the screen.  And ultimately, those changes were also mostly cosmetic.

The changes made to one key character in “Iron Man 3” are far from cosmetic.  They are also much more drastic than giving Captain America and Bucky a backstory that didn’t exist in the comic book.

In an article by Joal Ryan of Movie Talk, he says, “Imagine if, in a Batman movie, the Joker wasn’t really the Joker.”  That is a very good comparison.  Joker is Batman’s archenemy.  More than any other character in Batman’s rogue gallery, Joker is the villain you think of when you think of Batman.  What would happen if the writers decided that Joker was just a front?  What if Harley Quinn was the real bad guy and Joker was just someone she found on the street and dressed up?

That scenario is similar to what the writers of “Iron Man 3” did to the Mandarin.  In the comic book version, he lays long plans to wreak havoc on the Marvel universe in general and Tony Stark in particular.  He is a skilled martial artist and an accomplished scientist.  He has ten rings of alien origin that also give him various powers, including control over matter, minds, light, and time.  In one story arc, he took control of Tony and forced him to build a mechanical army with the goal of world domination.  In short, he’s a very dangerous man.

In the movie he is a drunken actor named Trevor Slattery, cast to play a part and to be the face of a terrorist organization that does not exist.  To me, that is a much bigger distraction than Arwen rescuing the group of hobbits rather than Glorfindel.

I can accept the casting of Ben Kingsley as a character called the Mandarin.  (Maybe the name was more about the image and methods than actual ethnicity.)  I could accept the lack of alien power rings.  (They are a bit over-the-top and hard to explain to people whose only experience with Iron Man is the movies.)  What I can’t accept is the change to the essential nature of the character.

Yes, Aldrich Killian eventually stated that he was the true Mandarin.  But that doesn’t make up for the shock of the original revelation.  Slattery’s Mandarin persona was truly cold, sinister, and frightening.  Killian, while strong and angry, just didn’t have the same malice.

Maybe I saw “Iron Man 3” a second time, just like I had to see “The Fellowship of the Ring” a second time.  The revelation wasn’t nearly as upsetting or distracting.  I definitely enjoyed the movie more on the second viewing.    Tony’s struggle with his identity and the introduction of Extremis were well done, but I still have to say that the Mandarin is one major point against “Iron Man 3”.

(By the way, I know that what upset and distracted me probably won’t have the same effect on others who aren’t as familiar with the comic book as I am.  The twist regarding the Mandarin was really well done, and I didn’t see it coming.  So if all you know about Iron Man comes from the movies, maybe the title of this post should be “Three Out of Three Is Awesome!”)

References:

1.       “The Flash” #19, Brian Buccellato, Francis Manapul, Marcio Takara, DC Comics, April 2013

2.       “Iron Man”, Vol. 4, #1-6, Warren Ellis, Adi Granov, Marvel Comics, January 2005 – April 2006

3.       “’Iron Man 3’: Mandarin Blowback?”, Joal Ryan, Movie Talk, May 6, 2013.

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