{"id":34175,"date":"2013-05-10T08:00:06","date_gmt":"2013-05-10T14:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/?p=34175"},"modified":"2013-05-10T19:33:43","modified_gmt":"2013-05-11T01:33:43","slug":"the-moviegoer-exorcising-iron-mans-demons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2013\/05\/the-moviegoer-exorcising-iron-mans-demons\/","title":{"rendered":"The Moviegoer: Exorcising Iron Man’s Demons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Each week in\u00a0The Moviegoer<\/a>, Nick Olson examines new and upcoming films.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sometimes, amidst the explosions, one-liners, and frantic pace of our superhero movies, a memorably interesting image appears, however briefly. During my mostly entertaining two hours with Shane Black\u2019s Iron Man Three <\/em>(why Three<\/em>, by the way?), one such image is Tony Stark sitting on the couch beside his Mark XLII suit, staring off into the distance. Part of a particular sequence in rural Tennessee that is my favorite in the film (one that I\u2019ll return to momentarily), the image recalls one of the film\u2019s early scenes at Stark\u2019s cliff-hanging mansion. His girlfriend, Pepper Potts, arrives home to a greeting from Mark XLII, presumably inhabited for effect by Stark. But when Pepper tries to persuade the Iron Suit to remove its helmet for a kiss, she realizes that her playboy boyfriend isn\u2019t present to her\u2013isn\u2019t even in the room. There\u2019s tension between Pepper and Tony\u2013collateral damage that stems from an increasing anxiety which haunts Tony since the New York alien invasion that was the climax of The Avengers. <\/em>He\u2019s panicked, sleepless, and has an added edge layering his characteristic smart-guy quips. Tony\u2019s traumatic unease is a despair which in a sense separates him from himself. In turmoil, he doesn\u2019t feel at home with himself, and this leads to friction at home with Pepper. As such, the images of Stark astray from his suit, though also simply indicative of potential combat usefulness, have a fairly clever significance about them in conveying Stark\u2019s sense of alienation.<\/p>\n

This alienation is not unrelated to Stark\u2019s opening proclamation that \u201cwe create our own demons.\u201d The \u201cpersonal demons\u201d idiom often relates to how our past can haunt us in various ways. And Iron Man\u2019s Avengers <\/em>PTSD isn\u2019t the only history that\u2019s creating turmoil in the hero\u2019s life. The film opens with a flashback to a 1999 New Year\u2019s Eve party in which a brash Stark is friendly with \u201cExtremis\u201d inventor, Maya Hansen\u2013who is experimenting with regenerative treatment for people with crippling injuries. Most importantly, though, Stark and Hansen are engaged by a disabled scientist named Aldrich Killian, who invites the two of them to become a significant presence in his own company. As Stark regretfully recounts it, he told Killian that he\u2019d meet him on the roof to discuss the possibility of collaboration. Except, of course, Stark never showed up. As you might guess, Killian\u2013beset with various insecurities\u2013remembers the slight all too well. So there\u2019s a second sort of \u201cdemon\u201d haunting Stark.<\/p>\n

A third layer to the \u201cwe create our own demons\u201d line is one that I won\u2019t totally give away. Notably, though, there\u2019s a terrorist named the Mandarin who is behind a series of bombings meant as morally punitive lessons for the United States. When one of Stark\u2019s good friends becomes critically injured by one such bombing, Stark threatens the Mandarin on national television, even providing his home address so as to draw the terrorist out in the open. The reckless move leads to the mansion in shambles and lands Stark in Tennessee with a beat-up, malfunctioning Mark XLII suit. How is the Mandarin a \u201cdemon of our own creation?\u201d Well, without ruining quite a bold, even humorous move on Black\u2019s part, suffice it to say that sometimes \u201cterror\u201d is a manipulative tool used to incite the masses.<\/p>\n

With this backdrop in mind, we have a hero who must endure these various crises not only to save people\u2019s lives, but to come to a maturation and peace in which Tony Stark is <\/em>Iron Man\u2013or, all that Iron Man represents heroically speaking. I like, then, that much of Iron Man Three <\/em>chronicles Stark doing his hero thing as Stark<\/em>, or, sans his Iron Man suit. Most of these Stark heroics occur during the Tennessee sequence that I previously mentioned. The image referenced above of Stark sitting on the couch with his suit takes place in a family\u2019s basement where he eventually meets a shrewd, premature ten year old boy named Harley. Stark and Harley\u2019s gibing partnership is almost definitely my favorite part of the film. There\u2019s an element here of jaded adult finding solace in young child, but Black also wisely resists the temptation to exploit this in a way that would be too easy. Instead, he manages to avoid making the encounter too self-serious by having both Stark and the boy employ sarcasm with one another at any sign of heartfelt sincerity. Oh, and Stark going stealth with makeshift weapons and a Dora the Explorer watch to catch the Mandarin is unexpected, endearing, and satisfyingly fun. It\u2019s also the perfect transitional move from his time in Tennessee with Harley to the Mandarin reveal that\u2019s coming.<\/p>\n

Much has been written about scripting issues with the film. While finding the film entertaining on the whole, Steven Greydanus<\/a> raises several problems with which I can\u2019t really disagree, though most of which didn\u2019t much bother me while watching the film. Namely, Greydanus smartly notes the problematic way that this film turns into a gag the sense in which Stark is partly responsible for foreign terrorism (I agree at least insofar as the truther element is annoying); he comments that the edgy violence isn\u2019t really in concert with the film\u2019s general lighthearted tone; and, most troubling for Greydanus it seems, is that Pepper\u2019s role is again underwritten\u2013a genuine problem if she\u2019s the \u201csoul\u201d of the story. But there is one other script issue that Greydanus points out that I noticed right away during the film. And you should know that I\u2019m the type of person to be more annoyed than satisfied with those videos that get passed around in which some clever fellow unlocks every conceivable plot hole in the latest action entertainment. Namely (spoiler alert): when Stark calls upon his roomful of Iron Man armor suits for backup in the climactic scene, you can\u2019t help but wonder why one of those suits wasn\u2019t summoned when Stark was rendered suitless because his primary one is on the fritz for a significant duration of the film. I\u2019m sure some faint plausibility can be supplied, but in the midst of the film it sure doesn\u2019t add up well.<\/p>\n

So does Stark undergo some Act Three maturation? Find some sense of peace for his soul? Well, given the initial demon talk, it\u2019s a clever line in the end of the film when Stark tells Pepper, after one unintentionally anti-climactic moment, that she \u201cscared the devil out of him,\u201d but I\u2019m not sure that there\u2019s a specific character development during the course of the film that\u2019s sturdy enough to support the allusion to reconciliation. Yet, given the image I began with\u2013and given that Stark\u2019s sleepless nights consisted of fidgeting with new Iron Man suits\u2013his manner of going \u201cblank slate\u201d for Pepper is a nice, if superficial, gesture within the film\u2019s conceptual framework. Call it an enjoyable satisfaction which is perhaps too easily achieved. Besides, much as Tony Stark being <\/em>Iron Man sounds nice, a sincere, well-behaved Downey Jr. seems positively inauthentic. Better to put the playboy on the psych couch, bantering away with Dr. Banner; in case you haven\u2019t heard, there\u2019s another Avengers <\/em>on the way, and Bruce may need a friend to play provocateur with adolescent verve. Let\u2019s face it: there are some demons here we probably don\u2019t want exorcised.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Each week in\u00a0The Moviegoer, Nick Olson examines new and upcoming films. Sometimes, amidst the explosions, one-liners, and frantic pace of our superhero movies, a memorably interesting image appears, however briefly. During my mostly entertaining two hours with Shane Black\u2019s Iron Man Three (why Three, by the way?), one such image is Tony Stark sitting on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,8,1484],"tags":[1303],"class_list":["post-34175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asides","category-film","category-ofthemoment","tag-the-moviegoer"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Moviegoer: Exorcising Iron Man's Demons<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Each week in\u00a0The Moviegoer, Nick Olson examines new and upcoming films. 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