The Marvelous Marvel Rewatch (Now Playing: Avengers: Infinity War)

[Veknoid_Outcast]

Alara317 said:
Watched Iron Man 3 last night, and I am not sure how to rate it, if I'm being honest. Like, it did a lot better than the prior two Iron Man films, but it also did some things not quite as well.

Pros:

Better direction/cinematography. A lot of the action and drama beats were better directed, the visuals were easily the best of the Iron Man trilogy, and it just seemed like Shane Black's editing/cutting style fit better.

The themes were also quite good, but they were always great with Iron Man. the first was about his change into a man who sought peace, the second was about him struggling with self destruction, and the third was him dealing with PTSD due to the world changing events and his near-death in Avengers. I thought it was great.

I LOVED the swerve of Mandarin not being real. I know a lot of people hate it, but I thought it fit a lot better in the MCU than if the actual Mandarin existed. (spoiler? sorry, the movie is 5 years old).

I liked that the overall tone was more mature and less jokey than the first two Iron Man movies. Yeah, sure, it had jokes and all that, but it seemed the concentration of jokes was quite diluted. This could be a pro or a con, but I consider it a pro. Overall, really happy with the tone.

Once again it's kind of awesome that Tony Stark has to find solutions without his suit, showing his wit and problem solving skills. The writing made almost everything make perfect sense, and nothing felt out of place. almost nothing.

Cons:

Going back to think about all the stuff that happened, some of it really did sort of feel like it was 'and then' instead of 'therefore'. As in, some scenes didn't seem to make sense next to each other. I feel that some of the connective tissue was cut out and that sort of made the movie poorer as a result.

that's really it for cons. I think the movie is missing some key scenes.

Neutral:

The kid. of the scenes with the kid, half of them are well done and enjoyable while the other half made me roll my eyes. I thought the actor was good, but some of the stuff he said was pretty dumb...and where the heck were his parents? (Well, mother. Father is MIA)

Overall:

the reason I didn't write this last night when I watched it was because I didn't know how to rate or rank the film. I love it - no doubt about that - but the issue was wondering if I loved it more than the first and second or not. At one point I had it at 8.8 (one point below Iron Man 2), and then I had it at 9.3 (between Captain America and Avengers).

In the end, I put it at a 9.1. That's higher than the first Iron Man but below Captain America. Why? Well, even its 'faults' weren't really impacting my ability to enjoy it. I felt that, of the three Iron Man movies, it was the best directed and most mature, I thought that it was solid throughout (Again, act 3 was the key here, putting it over 1 and 2), the themes were subtle but well incorporated, and I liked the villain(s). The editing out the connective tissue between some scenes is unfortunate but minor, and the kid - while precocious - was also pretty damn funny at times and well acted. The things it did well, it did VERY well, as in nearly on par with the first iron man, but the things it did poorly were minor and forgivable, unlike the first Iron Man. therefore, it comes out on top, but only just barely.

9.1/10

My rankings so far.

9.5 The Avengers
9.2 Captain America: The First Avenger
9.1 Iron Man 3
9.0 Iron Man
8.9 Iron Man 2
8.3 Thor
6.1 The Incredible Hulk

P.S. - I feel that, now that I'm into Phase 2, it's really hard to rank and rate these movies solely as individual experiences. Even the good but not great stuff like Thor contribute SO much to the overall story that its own plot points and characters seem incidental. The MCU is quickly growing into something that is greater than the sum of its parts, which is why it's probably my favorite overall cinematic experience (besting even Lord of the Rings and HArry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean), despite no single movie being more loved than Return of The King, Deathly Hallows, or At World's End.

So yeah, given my tendency to forgive a film's faults due to that 'overall experience', I will have to work extra hard to be critical, but I just love them so much.

I'm going to round those scores up or down, to the closest whole number (we're sticking with whole numbers for scoring). For The Avengers, do you want that to be a 9 or a 10?

Thanks for all your input so far!