Hands of The Mandarin In Extremis

Rating: 10/10 (28 September 2013)

After watching Joss Whedon's new "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." Pilot, I stuck this in my VLC Playlist and let it roll again. I had seen it a few months back so it was a fresh Experience.
Jon Favreau remained as "Happy Hogan" but he gave the directorial reigns to another actor-turned director, Shane Black (Who was "Hawkins" in "Predator"). This was not a mistake, as this film uses everything from the first two and builds on them, so there is no real flavor of change.
Robert Downey Jr is the same Tony Stark left from Iron Man Two and Avengers, and his dialog with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and "War Machine/The Iron Patriot" (Don Cheadle) is the same argumentative banter as before.
I was expecting the look of Stark's Malibu Residence to change, but no- It's exactly the same, including Stark's robot "DUM-E" (Which sports a Dunce Cap in the beginning of this).
This Story is a marriage of two classic Iron Man themes: "Hands of the Mandarin" and "In Extremis". The Mandarin and The Ten Rings were some of Iron Man's first enemies. But the character of Tony Stark is much the same as it was "In Extremis" - In Iron Man 2, we saw him gulping down "Green Machine" drinks, here, he is having full blown panic attacks, which are impairing his functionality. Last time we also got to see the "Suit in a Briefcase" and these all came from "In Extremis".
But here, all the stops have been pulled out, nothing is held back. I have to admire the sheer difficulty of producing this, it is very hard to pick out CGI, and that's the way it should be.
The greatest thing in here is Pepper, she is less than the Normal Frail "Damsel in Distress", she has already taken over running Stark Industries, she was ready to be more than merely Stark's Secretary or Girlfriend.
We have two unrelated crooks: The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) and the head of the AIM think-tank, Aldrich Killian (Guy Pierce). Needless to say, they look great. But one of them is misdirection and cover for the other. Which one? And the fact is, we aren't even guessing this duplicity until it's in our face.
Shaun Toub once again shows up as Ho Yinsen, but it's in a scene of 1999 where Happy has long hair. Remember Yinsen told Stark that he had met him after giving a speech while being drunk: This is that event. Rebecca Hall is Maya Hansen, reminding me of Shelley Duvall. She is another variable in this equation.
The Mandarin is taking credit for a number of bombings around the country, no evidence of Bombs can be found at each of the sites. "When is a Bomb not a Bomb?" - That's what Stark is in the middle of figuring out, but he gets interrupted and sidetracked to Rose Hill, Tennessee.
Where he meets a Kid, Harley Keener who helps him with a "Bully" (James Badge Dale - "Savin"). He also gets to meet a Flame, Stephanie Szostak (Brandt) who has "the hots" for him, but he lets her cool off on a telephone wire.
There are more convolutions in this film there there are in a Brain, well placed and true surprises. It's a rare thing to have that happen in film these days.
More is going on with the character of Stark than the usual explosions, Repulsor blasts, and arguments with Pepper and Happy. His previous behavior had created Demons that he has to contend with here. He has to be Iron Man without the benefit of his Armor. But that's how he became Iron Man in the first place. So he's back to digging himself out of a hole with his mind rather than gadgets, although he has to visit a hardware store and make a few gadgets.
The merging of the two story lines has created an alternate reality from the Comics, where Mandarin was a different character than this. But the use of The Mandarin here, shows influence all the way back to the first Iron Man movie so there is internal consistency in the three efforts.
The trick with these Marvel Movies is creating action shots where iconic imagery from the comics can be used. In all four Spider Man films, these are the poses of Spidey as we web-slings across New York's Skyline. With Thor, it is the Image of him holding out his Hammer in Mid-Flight. Here, it is the image of Iron Man's Crumpled Headpiece on the ground in the middle of a flame, as well as his default pose with fist striking the ground. This movie gives us plenty of those images.
Rebecca Mader excels as another Bad Girl, look for other cameos.
I enjoyed all three movies in this franchise, so far this has been my favorite. Now all we need is a 4th movie where he has to fight Ultimo.