Robert Downey, Jr. was teasing a big Marvel announcement last week during his press tour for The Judge and he was not joking. RDJ is finalizing a deal to be in Captain America 3 that will kick off the Civil War storyline in Marvel movies.
Civil War was Marvel’s big event in 2006 that saw Iron Man and Captain America at odds over the Superhero Registration Act that made vigilantes register their real identities with the US government and act under regulations. Looks like we will get more tension between the heroes that we saw in the first Avengers.
Downey’s role was going to be a small part in Cap 3, but the star convinced Marvel for a bigger part which comes with a bigger paycheck. He will make $40 million for his appearance along with percentage of gross if Cap 3 does better than The Winter Soldier at the box office.
As many know, the Civil War storyline ended with the death of Captain America at the hands of a brainwashed Sharon Carter and Crossbones (whose character, Brock Rumlow was introduced in The Winter Soldier). With Chris Evans’ contract ending after Avengers 3 you wonder if the movies will mirror the comics.
Marvel’s plan is for Civil War to have effects all the way to Avengers 4 that will have Tony Stark creating a new team with Ant-Man, Doctor Strange and other heroes. So while we may not be getting Iron Man 4, we will definitely be getting plenty of Iron Man in other places.
The Avengers: Age of Ultron cast is getting larger as Paul Bettany, better known as the voice of J.A.R.V.I.S. in Iron Man and the weird monk who beats himself bloody for God in The Da Vinci Code, will become The Vision.
The Vision is an android created by Ultron to do his bidding against his creator, Hank Pym, but ultimately turns on Ultron and joins The Avengers. He then begins a relationship with Scarlet Witch which always reminds me of the “Robosexual” episode of Futurama.
Now since it appears Tony Stark will be the creator of Ultron instead of Pym in Age of Ultron, they could conceivably combine the J.A.R.V.I.S. character with The Vision in some way. With Ultron turning on Stark he could make J.A.R.V.I.S. into a android creation and call him Vision.
The Avengers: Age of Ultron releases on May 1, 2015.
Why can’t one day…just one day…go by without me wanting to buy some random item when there is so much more I could be doing with my money like saving or making it rain Pacman Jones-style?
These rather awesome looking 3D night lights are done by 3D Light FX and can be found at all Target stores nationwide. They retail for only $25 which is a steal to me. If you have kids that are into the Marvel movies this should be a no brainer and if you are a fat nerd that likes bright shiny things that make you feel safe at night this will be in your (my) room soon.
The heroes available are: Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, The Incredible Hulk and Spider-Man. Go and check out the complete line on the 3D Light FX site.
Robert Downey, Jr. is already a very rich man. Now he is most likely Johnny Depp, buy his own island rich. The cinematic Tony Stark has officially signed on for the next two Avengers movies.
Here is the statement from Marvel:
Marvel is pleased to announce the signing of Robert Downey, Jr. to reprise the role of the “billionaire, genius, playboy, philanthropist.” Under the two-picture agreement, Downey will star as Tony Stark/Iron Man in “Marvel’s The Avengers 2” and “Marvel’s The Avengers 3.“
There is no planned Iron Man 4 in the deal which should surprise no one since RDJ has been very vocal that he felt Iron Man 3 was a natural ending to the Tony Stark story and does not want the character to carry another movie.
This should also be a good sign for the other actors that have been having contract disputes with Marvel (Hemsworth, Evans, Ruffalo and Johansson) since it has been reported that Downey was holding out to try and get them more more money in their deals.
Iron Man 3 opened as more of a sequel to The Avengers than Iron Man 2 and it raked in the second biggest opening weekend ever behind…well, [amazon_link id=”B001KVZ6HK” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]The Avengers[/amazon_link]. In twelve days the first flick in Marvel’s Phase 2 has made $680 million worldwide.
Iron Man 3 is the first Marvel movie in their self-titled “Phase 2” and if it is any indication of what to expect from the rest of the movies including Thor: The Dark World and Joss Whedon’s follow-up to The Avengers then we are in for a fun couple of years.
Iron Man 3 plays more as a sequel to last year’s The Avengers than 2010’s disappointing Iron Man 2. Iron Man 2 suffered from the writer’s strike and lack of cohesiveness and all of that has been corrected here. Director Shane Black, who also directed Robert Downey, Jr. in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, delivers a de-construction of the Tony Stark character and shows that more so that any other comic movie, the man behind the mask is much more fascinating and fun to watch than the hero.
Iron Man’s main big bad from the comics, The Mandarin has declared a personal war against America and is somehow responsible for mysterious bombings. When one of these bombings seriously injures someone close to Tony he makes finding The Mandarin his priority. At the same time Aldrich Killian, a man scorned by Tony in the past, has returned and is interested in showing off his new ground breaking Extremis regeneration program to Pepper while wanting more than meets the eye with her.
The script is loosely based off of Warren Ellis’ Extremis story then interweaves The Mandarin into it. As a whole it works and the parts that make you second guess them are mostly forgotten by the movie third act which is where having Shane Black at the helm really pays off. The final action sequence is huge. Sorry, I meant HUGE. You can see why Joss Whedon asked how he was supposed to top it with his Avengers sequel.
The dialogue is quick and snappy and some lines are quite cheesy in the hands of any other actor, but in the hands of RDJ you avoid the eye rolling moments that would normally cause a snicker or two in the theater.
The biggest plus Iron Man 3 has going for it is the character development. In the second film it seemed like everyone was going through the paces and the movie always seemed a bit off to me. Here we have true forward movement. Tony is having trouble dealing with the events in The Avengers and as he so eloquently puts it, “there are gods and aliens and I’m just a man in a can”. He buries himself in work as he and Pepper grow distant. You witness his first anxiety attack and see the confusion on his face as the man who has never been lacking in confidence for anything suddenly has it all stripped away.
Pepper Potts and Rhodes are much more than just secondary joke material here. Pepper’s relationship with Tony is in question and more so when Aldrich Killian reappears on the scene. Any movie where we get plenty of Don Cheadle is a good thing and IM3 makes sure we know that Rhodes is there for much more than Tony’s drunken ass-kicker like in 2.
Photo courtesy ew.com
Now I will keep this review spoiler free, but I would be remiss if I did not at least mention what I like to refer to as “the swerve”. First off, I would like to congratulate Marvel on keeping it on the down low for this long. In a world where every bit of news and information is broken weeks or months in advance, I think a lot of people are going to be taken aback by it, but mostly comic fans. When it plays out I instantly thought, this is either going to be loved or hated by most people. No grey area. I am on the love side because it did get me. I am sure I could have gone searching the web and found out before, but it is nice to be gotten every now and then. If you are on the hate side of “the swerve”, don’t worry, I can completely see why. I just hope you didn’t let it ruin the rest of the movie for you.
In the end, did Iron Man 3 deliver? Yes. Yes it did. Is it better than Iron Man 2? God yes. Is it better than Iron Man? I would not go that far. I am still putting it in the upper echelon of Marvel movies. If you want it broken down easily I guess we will do this:
1. The Avengers
2. Captain America
3. Iron Man
4 Iron Man 3
and so on….
If you want to know the rest of the list ask away!
Photo courtesy screencrush.com
Marvel did themselves a favor by going outside the box and getting Shane Black to direct this. The man who wrote Lethal Weapon and directed Kiss Kiss Bang Bang knows how to handle his action sequences, of which there are numerous, satisfying ones even when it is just Tony sans armor. The real surprise is the emotional weight that are put on the characters. Tony’s near death in The Avengers is a focal point of Iron Man 3 as it needed to be because if it was simply ignored, it would have lessened exactly what The Avengers meant in the Marvel cinematic universe.
I hope Iron Man 3 is a good sign as to what we can expect from the Phase 2 movies with new directors (Thor, Captain America). It feels new and different and that is exactly what is needed now that we are six years into these Marvel movies. Staying stagnant can kill a franchise and I am hard pressed to say that Iron Man 3 is stagnant. From it’s bizarre opening sequence involving Eiffel 65 (really) to it’s 70’s inspired closing credits (which is completely Shane Black), Iron Man 3 shows that even though we may be entering the second phase of this cinematic juggernaut, its inaugural character is still its strongest.
Want a reason to attend the midnight viewings of Iron Man 3 in IMAX besides the fact that….well, it’s Iron Man 3 in IMAX? Patrons will receive this impressive looking poster to commemorate the movie’s release drawn by comic artist Jock.
Iron Man 3 releases on May 3rd. Check and see if your local theater will be offering these posters here.
Yesterday saw the release of the [amazon_link id=”B0083SBMGW” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Marvel Phase One Blu-Ray Set[/amazon_link] that came encased in a handy briefcase and housed a glowing Tesseract replica. Oh and there were 10 discs and six movies in there also. One of the special features was a five minute clip of what to expect from Marvel’s Phase Two which begins with the release of Iron Man 3 on May 3rd. In it we are treated to some test footage from Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man and some early shots of Guardians of the Galaxy storyboards. There is also new footage from Thor: The Dark World and the first artists renderings of Winter Soldier and Falcon from Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Check out some still shots below from the video and then realize that despite what people may say about the character, Ant-Man is going to be completely bad ass in the hands of Edgar Wright.
So Iron Man 3 has already released like seven separate character posters and four trailers so should it be out of the realm of possibility that they will release individual pictures for all 40 armors used in the movie?
The first four shown are the Mark 17 (Heartbreaker), Mark 33 (Silver Centurion), Mark 38 (Igor) and the Mark 40 (Shotgun).
The Mark 40 kind of reminds me of the new Robocop armor. The Mark 38 has gained the nickname Hulkbuster for obvious reasons. When Pepper Pott’s armor (presumably) is shown off maybe it will have the moniker Ballbuster.
We will keep updating armors as they are released. Iron Man 3 releases on May 3rd.
Well here is another reason to be even more excited for Iron Man 3 this May. Marvel president Kevin Feige has been making the rounds building up the hype machine for the Shane Black directed sequel and in a recent interview he may have gave the biggest reason to think that Iron Man 3 may be the best Marvel movie yet.
“There are a lot of suits in this movie. While it is both a movie in which he spends quite a bit of time outside of the suit, as you see it’s not working and he’s — and he’s with Ty in Tennessee, by the end of it we reveal that underneath the house, which is now covered with rubble, he’s got dozens and dozens of suits.
And once, throughout the course of the movie, and all that rubble gets pulled aside by construction cranes, just when he needs them, he calls them to the rescue and we have what I think is the biggest most action-packed finale we’ve had. I showed the film to Joss Whedon, who is our writer-director of Avengers and who is currently working on Avengers 2, and he saw the finale of this and he goes, ‘Now what am I supposed to do now? What am I going to do in Avengers 2?’”
So the ending of Iron Man 3 has Joss Whedon wondering how is going to top it in Avengers 2? Consider my excitement level at maximum thanks to Whedon and his damn opinion.
