Iron Man 3

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

OMG, a real leave the house movie in 3D.

I don't know why this film was in 3D. Especially since it wasn't shot in 3D merely post converted. Oh, wait, I do know why, they wanted to charge me $13 a ticket for the matinee.

What a really good film. Lots of story. Lots of explosions. Some good twists and turns to the story but nothing you can't see coming. There were a lot of chuckles along the way. What was nice that the trailers didn't give anything away. Most of what you see in them appears in the first ten minutes of the film. Whole chunks of story remain completely unspoiled. There is one big twist that I didn't like but I will wait until more of you have seen the film to bring it up. But it is a quibble. The other problem I have is that they need to explain Tony's motivations a bit more. They keep going on about how the activities of The Avengers changed him, but they don't say how or why. It is just kind of the story given.

The film works really well. I would say it lives up the hype. Go see it now before you learn too much. Stay through the murderously long credits for the post roll teaser.

Not a lot of bloodshed. No dancing. No hallucinations. No sword fights. Explosions and Mayhem make up for a lot of that.

[Drunk Monk]

This was my fav Iron Man so far, but keep in mind, I'm not a fan of IM. I like Downey a lot. He redeems it. He's funny and the opening scene with a Wing Chun dummy front and center in 3D and Downey throwing some Wing Chun moves - that was awesome. Whenever he wants to be on our cover, I'd stop presses for ol' Rob. Still hating on Gwyneth and the way this one ends (totally predictable) made me hate on her more. Kingsley was great. The spin on the Mandarin was very PC for PRC, and the whole fortune cookie schtick was clever. Nice Stan Lee cameo, as always.

Now, you all know that IM3 was released in China last week, where it broke box office opening day records. You also know that China got a different *longer* cut of the film that featured Wang Xueqi, Fan Bingbing and one of the hottest martial arts stars going now, Johnny Nguyen. Wang appears in the 1999 NYE party scene and is the doc at the Chinese hospital in the end (That's why there was acupuncture needles - that's China). I think Fan and Johnny were two of the AIM mutants at the end, for the fight with Cheadle on the suspended container. Fan will appear as Blink in Fox's X-Men TV show, and apparently that character tie couldn't be shown in the US due to licensing rights. They got close-ups so it must have been them. There's PRC product placement for TCL, a leading Chinese tech company which recently bought...wait for it....Grauman's Chinese Theater.

Tony's armor up dance made up for the lack of Bollywood. And the gratuitous eyebrow cuts almost made up for the lack of blood spitting.

I was mindlessly entertained for the length of the film, but I really want to see the PRC version now. I think I would like it a lot more.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

I heard some reviews that the Chinese weren't overly enthused by their special version. That the product placement was too gratuitious. I'm still trying to think where the extra Chinese bits would fit in

[Drunk Monk]

They got a longer version. China, like India, are used to longer movies. 2+ hour films are more common. So it could fit in anywhere if it's longer.

I should mention that I totally agree with you about the 3D. It was really disappointing 3D and I was expecting much more for a summer blockbuster of this magnitude. There were ample opportunities for some deep 3D but overall, the 3D was of the can-I-get-my-extra-$5-back? grade.

Hold the phone... Tony's motivations? He's fucking Iron Man. What more motivations do you want?

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

For STCC's Mother's Day Celebration. All the monks wore mask including an Iron Man mask. The other masks were Kung Fu Panda, Spiderman, Shrek, and Optimus Prime.

[Drunk Monk]

It made no sense to me at all as I thought Mother's Day was next weekend.

On a related note, I did Henna for the last time at my kid's school's Spring Fair. I've been doing this for years, so long that some of the kids actually wait for my shift now because an ol' deadhead can run Henna rings around some private school soccer moms. I make a special sheet of pop images, sports logos (Giants, 49ers, Sharks, etc.), the Dark Mark, the Mockingjay, the Avengers. I added the Iron Man mask this year, along with the Star Trek emblem, plus Hello Kitty on the advice of T. I sold only one Iron Man mask, which was ok as it was pretty hard to do in henna. I sold a lot of Giants (no other sports logos), some Dark Marks and Mockingjays. A few kids didn't even recognize the Star Trek emblem (I didn't sell any of those but someone else did as a tramp stamp). Hello Kitty sold the most.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

I thought you weren't supposed to look for sense where the monks are concerned.

[Drunk Monk]

How was Iron Man received there? I didn't watch the vid and I'm probably not going to do so.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Wow. I'm shocked you aren't going to watch another poorly done performance video.

there was way too much going on at that point to narrow it down a reaction to the Iron Man mask. They did enjoy the masked monk performance, though.

[Drunk Monk]

They all wear such goofy masks for bank robberies in the movies nowadays. Remember the good ol' daze when you could just slip on some pantyhose for a schmush mask?

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

To continue the tangent, at least 473 people, by Tuesday, have looked at the post on the Badass Bunny page on Facebook. That is not to say they saw the vid but at least they saw the post that contained it.

[Drunk Monk]

but i think the chinese version might be better.

;-)

[El Dingo]

Caught a matinee and have to agree with Greg. There is no need to shell out for the 3D version.

I enjoyed it but I felt the writers missed the point of the suit. It allows Tony Stark to be a human who can do super-human things, but it's always Tony in the suit making choices both good and bad.

Ben Kingsley was great and I liked the little kid. The plot made ZERO sense but whatever. It's a nice placeholder until Avengers 2 comes out.

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By introducing Iron Suit 'Drones' you take away any feeling for the man inside. Why does Tony Stark even have to be there? You can train anyone to remotely fly the suits around. I also got tired of the individual pieces flying by themselves and the whole 'get into the suit in mid-air'. I guess I prefer the writers to ask me to believe a man can wear a super-suit, but not that the super-suit is a magical autonomous flying machine that works with or without human interaction.

[Drunk Monk]

Well, I was going to watch this to prepare for Shang Chi tomorrow but I coattail on Tara’s D+ sub and she let it expire. She’ll probably resub. She just got internet working at her new place over the weekend and was planning to go camping with some elementary school friends tonight. 

I still want to see the PRC version.