IRON MAN 3 Toys With Our Perception of Terrorism
Robert Downey Jr. returns once more as the extravagant Tony Stark and Iron Man. In this third installment of this popular super hero franchise, Tony Stark faces a pretty tough terrorist with (really cool) super hero powers of his own.
The movie introduces us to a Tony Stark who is still haunted by the alien invasion of New York (as shown in The Avengers (2012) – a nice reference), suffering from panic attacks. His relationship with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) has become strained as he restlessly built a large bunch of iron man suits.
The U.S.A. is shaken by a string of strange terrorist attacks who are claimed by a oriental terrorist called The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley). Tony can no longer sit back and eventually has to overcome his stupor to save the day.
Let me start by saying that this movie was very enjoyable. Just like the previous Iron Man movies, this movie provided great comedy and action. The action, I’d say, was even more exuberant than previously, with large mansions crashing off of cliffs, a large battle taking place in a shipyard, glowing people… The CGI was quite impressive, again, even more so than the previous movies.
Robert Downey Jr. is very comfortable in his role as Tony Stark, and this time deepens the character with inner turmoil. A great call in my opinion – Tony Stark previously was a somewhat shallow character with not a lot of development. We’re not used to seeing Tony Stark “weak”, we’ve seen him crash and burn, we’ve seen him crushed by big metal suits and gods, but never have we seen him afraid. It definitely gave the character more dimension.
Guy Pearce as the villain was something else – I had recently seen him in Lockout (2012), in which he plays a witty but somewhat corny hero, and in Lawless (2012), in which he played a villain too, but a very different one. He is a flexible actor, which is also shown in the development of his character in this movie (although the geeky, younger Killian was a tad over the top, I’d say).
The plot of the movie was enjoyable, though a little predictable (except maybe what happens to Pepper) – but aren’t all super hero movies? The movie makes for excellent entertainment and I can definitely recommend it. However, if you’ve not seen The Avengers, you’ll be confused a little here and there (if I’m to believe my mom’s fiancé).
Discussion
Warning, spoilers below!
There was one aspect in this movie that absolutely jumped out at me. The Mandarin. The following contains spoilers, so please don’t read this until you’ve seen the movie.
The Mandarin, played by Ben Kinglsey (brilliantly, I might add ) is supposed to be a fear-inspiring terrorist from some eastern country. His background is unknown, though people would automatically assume he is from Afghanistan or Iraq as that is the image they try to convey. Ah, the surprise when “The Mandarin” proved to be just the football-loving, tea-sipping Brit! An actor hired by Killian and his company to serve as a front for their acts. I thought it was brilliant, a great pun.
This bit tells us so much about how we, society, think about terrorists. Currently, in our globalized world, in the war on terror, society is so focused on an (mostly imagined) external threat. Constant fear of immigrants, foreigners, tourists – it’s stifling. This image is also strongly conveyed by the mass media, who often linger on stories regarding foreign criminals. There are countless movies that too use the image of the immigrant or eastern young man (or the “big bad black guy”, although he is making a slow retreat from the screen) as the bad guy, which at times is almost offensively cliché.
I cannot help but laud what Shane Black did with this movie. I think for some people it may have be confronting, as it blatantly makes fun of certain states of mind. Terrorism, especially from eastern countries, isn’t as omnipresent as the media and politicians tend to make it seem. We should do well to be reminded of this at times, and this was a great reminder.
If you’ve already seen Iron Man 3, what were your observations? Did you enjoy the movie? If you haven’t seen it yet – will you?
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