Iron Man 3 SPOILERS POST

[feuervogel]

If you haven't seen Iron Man 3, do not expand this lovely cut tag. You shouldn't read comments, either.


HOLY SHIT. The Mandarin. That was not at all what I was expecting.

I don't read superhero comics. Most of what I know about Marvel is from the movies and the Avengers Alliance facebook game (which ties into the movies).

So I was completely fooled by the whole terrorist videos and "I am the Mandarin" stuff. I am a sucker for spliced in footage of news reels, so I liked that part, and the way they worked in the Mandarin's videos.

And then when Tony met the Mandarin and found out he was an actor from Croydon, the movie became completely different, and I was so happy. It became a critique of US actions in the Middle East, of Hollywood casting white people in everything, of Marvel's own history of racism, of the war on terror itself, of our own fucking reactions to terrorism, and I was so fucking stoked. I got distracted thinking about this article on Overthinking It.

I had other thoughts, too, but mostly that and I need to see it again.

And also HE SAVED DUMMY YOU GUISE DUMMY. HE SAVED DUMMY. RIGHT IN THE FEELS.

Other excellent posts:
http://fuckitfireeverything.tumblr.com/post/49527438770/why-the-mandarin-needed-to-be-portrayed-as-he-was-in
http://synecdochic.dreamwidth.org/591046.html
http://thingswithwings.dreamwidth.org/198716.html

Comments

[zombieallomorph]

Oh God you can't imagine my relief when they revealed it was all fake. I mean, I was surrounded by Arabs in the cinema, and I could hear their sounds of annoyance when they saw the footage of muslims. I teach Arabs, and when I showed them where to find German news, there happened to be an article about the Boston attack on the frontpage, discussing the possibility of the attackers being muslims. The whole class protested, crying out "No!".

As a German, I know the feeling when movies choose to portray your whole nation as evil. But I also have the privilege of disconnection from that. Decades lie between me and Nazi Germany, and many efforts to never let it happen again. I can't truly feel what muslims watching movies nowadays feel. What *does* it feel like, when the movies coming from a country that caused a lot of the trouble among your people uses your culture and people with a mindset you don't even agree with as generic villains, when no one from the West can be bothered to learn the differences between those people and yourself?

Anyway.

I was glad.
Great movie. Loved it. :)

[feuervogel]

Like, I thought it was so great that the whole Mandarin threat was a cobbled-together thing, a terrorist threat invented for an American audience and eaten up by the people, when the actual terrorist was a white guy in Miami! Because that's actually what terrorism in the US looks like: predominantly white men.

If only it resulted in my countrymen taking a step back and looking at our own reactions to terrorism. That's asking too much :/

[a-nightengale.livejournal.com]

I'm like you, don't read Iron Man or Avengers comics (but Paul does), so I came into it cold, whereas he knew about the Mandarin from the comics. Both of us thought how the movie version of the Mandarin was good. A clever update from his POV, and a really cool twist from my POV.

[feuervogel]

Apparently a lot of comic fans are butthurt about it because they "ruined" the Mandarin blah blah. Fuck 'em.

Also Tony and his panic attacks: realistic!

[a-nightengale.livejournal.com]

Yes, realistic panic attacks.

Also, I absolutely loved the "after the credits" bit. "I'm not that kind of doctor."

And seconding the YAY for saving Dummy.