WHY IRON MAN III IS THE WORST COMIC BOOK MOVIE I'VE SEEN SO FAR

For the record, I’ve never been a big fan of Iron Man.  The character in the comic book was borderline fascistic and that wasn’t all.  Tony Stark was a sexist one percenter – A richer less violent version of the Comedian from The Watchmen.  I wrote about my feelings on Iron Man before http://rgdinmalaysia.xanga.com/659696905/iron-man---propaganda-the-comic-book-vs-the-film-and-supervillains/

The first movie was at least blessed by the presence of Jeff Bridges.  The second movie was a bore despite the presence of Mickey Rourke.  One thing I noted about Iron Man in the above linked post was that he has quite a good rogue’s gallery that filmmakers had yet to really tap into it.

So I was excited when I read that The Mandarin was to be the villain for the third Iron Man film.  For a number of years during the golden era of comics, he was considered Iron Man’s #1 foe.  When I heard that Ben Kingsley was to play the title role, I wasn’t worried as 1.) I understood racial sensitivities and the Mandarin’s Chinese stereotype 2.) Kingsley is a superb actor in whatever he is in.

So I saw Iron Man III this weekend and honestly it is the worst comic book movie I have ever seen.  It is an abomination.  A movie made by people who know nothing about comics (or plot or story).

Now comic books and film are two different mediums for sure.  Comic books have more in common with literature in which the dramatic ebb and flow and larger than life hero vs villain struggle is key.  More on that here  

http://rgdinmalaysia.xanga.com/651086670/everything-i-need-to-know-i-learned-from-comic-books/

Kevin Smith’s version of Daredevil is considered a failure but I thought he did a good job transferring the key elements of the Elektra/Bullseye story to the big screen both in compressing it for time considerations and in keeping the most important story points intact.

  

But what IRON MAN III does to The Mandarin is inexcusable. SPOILER - having him turn out to be not real but a drunken actor fronting for the real villain is a huge letdown especially when the real villain is a ridiculous, glowing red Guy Pearce (a normally reliable actor who has been in many great films – LA CONFIDENTIAL, MEMENTO, RAVENOUS, THE PROPOSITION etc.).

I have not liked The Dark Knight films as I feel they have demythologized a comic, a hero that was already compressed to real life size – That is the appeal of Batman!  This approach works even less successfully on Iron Man.  We need the fantastic nature of Iron Man’s foes to offset the stodgy, offensive Stark/Iron Man character and the limitations of his powers.  After all, he’s just a man in an iron suit – Basically, the suit does everything.