The Wolverine

This was the only movie I saw in 3D this summer. I am not a fan of 3D and while I didn’t hate the 3D effects I didn’t feel they added anything to the movie either, especially during the action scenes. Other than that this movie was my favorite of the superhero movies I saw this summer! I went into it thinking it would be my least favorite given what they did during Wolverine Origins but this more than redeemed itself. The romance, action, drama, comedic relief and just down right bad ass moments were all there. During its opening weekend at the box office is only made $53 million according to Box Office Mojo. This is small in comparison to Iron Man 3 and Man of Steel but the movie is still one of my favorites. Go see it and enjoy watching Wolverine be the best at what he does and from the X-Man’s own lips what he does isn’t very nice. If you need another opinion here is Big Shiny Robot's round tablereview of the movie.

***spoilers from this point on***

The Movie

It opens in 1945 with Logan, the Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), held in a Japanese prisoner of war camp near Nagasaki. The atomic bombing of Nagasaki begins during which Logan rescues an young officer named Yashida (Ken Yamamura) and protects him from the blast. 

Fast forward to present day and we find Logan living as a hermit somewhere in the mountains. He is tormented by hallucinations of Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) who he killed in X-Men: The Last Stand because she went crazy and started killing people. Now in the present living in the woods Logan has cut off all ties with his past. Yukio (Rila Fukushima), a mutant with the ability to see the people’s deaths, locates Logan. She tells him she is working for Yashida (Hal Yamanouchi) and he is about to die and wishes to say goodbye. Logan and Yukio go to Japan so Logan can say goodbye in person.

In Tokyo, Logan meets Yashida’s son, Shingen (Hiroyuki Sanada) and granddaughter, Mariko (Tao Okamoto). Yashida offers to transfer Logan’s healing abilities to his own body and finally give Logan the death he has been craving for so many years. Logan refuses explaining that what he has is a curse and that Yashida doesn’t know what he’s asking for. That night Viper  (Svetlana Khodchenkova) who is Yashida’s doctor puts something into Logan’s body but he thinks it is just another bad dream.

The next day Logan finds out that Yashida has died and Yukio is upset because she did not see it coming. At his funeral, Yakuza, which are Japanese mafia, try and kidnap Mariko. Logan intervenes and saves her getting shot multiple times in the process. His wounds are not healing as fast as they should and after fighting more Yakuza on a bullet train, Logan and Mariko hide in a hotel. We then see Kenuichio Harada (Will Yun Lee), Yashida’s bodyguard, meet with Viper who after showing that she is mutant orders him to find Logan and Mariko.

Logan and Mariko travel to Yashida’s house in Nagasaki and slowly start to fall in love. Yukio has a vision of Logan dying and goes to warn him of his upcoming death. Before she can get there Mariko is kidnapped by Yakuza. One of the gangsters is left behind and Logan interrogates him learning that Mariko’s fiancé Noburo Mori (Brian Tee) is involved. After a brief interrogation of Mori Logan learns that Shingen had Mariko kidnapped because when Yashida died he left control of the company to Mariko instead of him. Logan throws Mori off the balcony but he lands into a pool that Logan didn’t know was there and is fine.

Mariko is brought before her father at the Yashida estate and while they are talking a group of ninjas led by Harada attack and take Mariko away. Logan and Yukio show up and using a x-ray Logan finds a robotic parasite attached to his heart which is what is stopping him from healing. As Logan cuts himself open to tear out the bug Yukio tells him this is how he dies. Logan says he’ll be fine and continues to cut himself open. During this Shingen attacks and Yukio fights him until Logan has removed the bug on his heart. Now with his powers back in full Logan and Shingen fight and Logan defeats him telling him he will have to live knowing he tried to have his own daughter killed. As Logan turns to walk away Shingen attacks again and Logan is forced to kill him.

Logan tracks Mariko to a Yashida factory and when he shows up Harada’s ninjas shoot him with close to 30 arrows attached to ropes. Because the arrows are dipped in something Logan passes out and wakes up later in a machine. Viper explains that she is going to take his healing factor and introduces him to the Silver Samurai, a robot suit of Japanese armor that is made of adamantium.  Mariko escapes from Harada and distracts the Silver Samurai so Logan can escape. Harada realizes his mistakes and tries to help as well but is killed by the Silver Samurai.

Yukio shows up and kills Viper while Logan continues to fight the Silver Samurai, who using the energized swords cuts off Logan’s claws and starts to steal his healing factor. During this time it is revealed that the Silver Samurai is Yashida who faked his own death. As he starts to regain his youth and Logan starts to age and die Mariko picks up one of Logan’s claws and throws it at Yashida stopping the transfer of Logan’s power. Logan regains his health and now with his bone claws regrown throws Yashida off the cliff. Logan then passes out and has one last vision of Jean where he says goodbye.

Mariko becomes CEO of Yashida and tells Logan goodbye. Yuko vows to stay by his side and gets on the plane with him. After the credits we see it’s two years later and see Logan at an airport opting out of the metal detector and would prefer to be patted down instead. There is commercial for Trask Industries and the Magneto shows up with Professor Xavier who warn Logan of a new threat to mutants everywhere.

Comics’ vs Movie

There are quite a few things that are different between the comics and the movie and while not all my fellow geeks will agree with me, the changes even though they are major changes are not a huge deal because in my opinion they worked for the movie. Below is a list of differences if you my fellow geeks see any I missed or ones I am wrong about please let me know.

The Silver Samurai/Kenuichio Harada

Ultimate Silver Samurai

When I saw The Silver Samurai in the trailer I got so excited but then when I saw the trailer again I saw that it looked like robot and that made me disappointed. Here's why, The Silver Samurai's real name is Kenuichio Harada who in the movie just plays a really good ninja/bodyguard of Yashida. In the comics he is the mutant son of Shingen Harada, who in the movie is the son of Yashida. Kenuichio and Markio are half brother and sister not lovers. He has the ability to generate a energy field from within his own body and focus it down his sword which allows him to cut through almost anything. 

We saw a version of this in the movie with the swords charging up or heating up depending on who you ask. That to me was a nod to comics of the writers understanding that The Silver Samurai is a mutant and even if he's not in the movie they still wanted to pay homage to his origins.

Yukio

Yukio

Yukio in the comics is not a mutant and does not have the ability to foresee peoples deaths. She is trained in hand-to-hand combat and is considered an expert in Japanese martial arts. She uses hurling bladed weapons more than any others. She is an assassin for Lord Shingen. Yukio starts off fighting Wolverine but later is attracted to him. Because of this attraction she is against the relationship between Logan and Mariko but ends up saving Markio's life from time to time. In the movie Yukio and Mariko are childhood friends and even call each other sister. Wolverine trust Yukio so much that he asks her to raise his foster daughter Amiko and raise her as if she were her own.

Lord Shingen/Shingen Harada/Shingen Yashida

Wolverine vs Shingen

In the movie they made Yashida the grandfather of Mariko and father of Shingen Yashida. In the comics Shingen is the father to Wolverine's fiance Mariko Yashida and father to Kenuichio Harada who is The Silver Samurai. He is also a Japanese Yakuza crime boss. He turned his family clan into a criminal empire disgracing his family name. Shingen found out about his daughters engagement and forced her to marry another crime boss who abused her. Wolverine found out about the abuse and confronted Shingen who had him drugged which allowed him to beat him. Shingen used his knowledge of human anatomy to attack Wolverine's nerve endings and the duel was actually killing him. Because of the poison his healing factor wasn't working and when Wolverine used to claws during the battle to defend himself it looked like he was cheating which shammed him in front of Mariko which was exactly what Shingen wanted.  

Viper/Madam Hydra

Viper/Madam Hydra

In the movie Viper seems to be a nobody other than a mutant who is the doctor for Yashida. In the comics however Viper is also know as Madam Hydra who is a very big deal. She is a high ranking member of a terrorist group know as Hydra. She is not a mutant but slowed her aging process by making a deal with an elder god named Chthon. She is a expert at all martial arts, marksmanship and uses a bullwhip as a main weapon. She has a vast knowledge of toxins and poisons and creates her own poisons for whatever she needs. She like in the movie is immune to most toxins but that is because she built up the immunity herself. Throughout the comics she has hired The Silver Samurai as a bodyguard which could be why they decided to use her in the movie. 

Easter Eggs

The after credits scene with Magneto and Professor Xavier was my favorite part of the movie! We saw Trask Industries which leads us geeks to Bolivar Trask, who is responsible for creating the Sentinels. Giant robots who have one objective, to hunt and kill mutants. Add this little teaser to the fact that old time friends/rivals Magneto and Pro. X are working together promises to build to an amazing movie in X-Men Days of Future Past which will be the next in the X-Men movie franchise.

Sentinels

As I said before this movie had more changes than almost any of the other movies that came out this summer for superheroes but unlike some of the other changes in the other movies. The changes in this movie worked well. Normally when they make such huge changes like Iron Man 3 did with The Mandarin I find it hard to accept but not this time.

Superman: Man of Steel

Man of Steel is the first movie in a set to reboot the Superman series. Superman hits the big screen in a big way. It made $125 million in the US at the box office during it's opening weekend according to Slash Gear. I really enjoyed this movie but it was not at the top of list of superhero movies. The film attempts to tell the origin of Superman in a way that the pervious Superman films did not. We actually get to see quite a bit of his home planet Krypton and it's destruction. We are also allowed to see Superman's birth father Jor-El come to life on the big screen. I was floored in a good way and bad way by this film; because of when it was doing things correctly it was amazing! However there were moments where I was just wishing the movie would do it’s own thing other than trying to follow the footsteps of other successful superhero movies. There were times that it seemed the formula of flashbacks and jumping back to present day that was given to us in Nolen’s Batman Begins was a cookie cutter for this movie. It worked really well in Batman but seemed to not work as well for Superman. The other thing I had a problem with was that the battle between Superman and Zod destroyed the city of Metropolis on a grand scale. Millions of people died during this fight and that in a way makes Zod victorious because the Superman we all know would have taken the fight away from the city. I also wish we had more of a dorky version of Clark Kent but there is room for that in next movies as we only saw the glasses wearing Kent at the very end of the movie. This reboot of the hero is also a darker version of him that I hope gets a little brighter in the future movies. All that being said however I did enjoy this film and it will be one that gets added to my blu ray shelf at home for me to watch again in the future.  Here’s another review from Big Shiny Robot.

***From this point on there are major spoilers***

The Movie

The film opens with the planet of Krypton facing it’s destruction because of it’s unstable core. This has happened because the planets natural resources have been depleting for years and the consequences are deadly. The rulers of Krypton are killed by General Zod (Michael Shannon) and his followers. Scientist  Jor-El (Russell Crowe) and his wife Lara Lor-Van (Ayelet Zurer) send there newborn son Kal-El (Henry Cavill) on a spaceship headed to Earth after infusing his cells with a genetic codex containing all of the Kryptonian race. Zod murders Jor-El and because of this and the death of the rulers of the planet Zod and his followers are banished to the Phantom Zone. This was a poor decision though because as soon as Krypton is destroyed they are freed from their prison.

Kal-El’s ship lands in Smallville Kansas and he is adopted by Jonathan and Martha Kent (Kevin Costner and Diane Lane) who found his ship and name him Clark Kent. Because of Clark’s alien physiology he has superpowers which he uses to help others while trying to keep them secret because his mom and dad explain people wont understand why he can do these things others cant. When Clark is a teenager Jonathan shows him his ship and explains that he is the answer to “are we alone in the universe?” A few years later Jonathan dies and Clark spends the early years of his adult life living from place to place under false identities. Moving to another place whenever he has to use his powers to help someone.  Eventually he infiltrates a U.S. military investigation of a Kryptonian scout spaceship that has landed in the Arctic. Clark enters the ship it allows him to communicate with the preserved consciousness of his birth father in the form of a hologram. Jor-El explains where Clark comes from and the fate of Krypton and his race of people. He also explains to Clark that he was sent to earth to bring hope to mankind.

Lois Lane (Amy Adams) a journalist form the Daily Planet is in the arctic to write a story on the ships recovery. She sneaks into the ship, following Clark inside and is rescued by him when she is almost killed by the ships security system. Her editor Perry White (Laurence Fishburne) rejects her story of a superhuman without proof so she tracks Clark back to Kansas from different accounts of people being saved by a man with abilities around the country. Once she meets Clark in Kansas and hears his story from him she chooses not to write the story and keep his secret.

During this time Zod and his followers are looking for the other worlds that the Kryptonian race has been colonizing but after the planets destruction the colonies did not survive long. They receive a distress signal from the ship that Clark discovered on Earth and after Zod arrives on Earth he demands that Kal-El surrenders himself and the codex or Earth will be destroyed. Clark agrees and the military hand him and Lois over to Zod. Then Zod reveals that he will use a terraforming machine to transform Earth into a new Krypton and then use the codex to repopulate the planet with Kryptonians. However doing this will cause the destruction of mankind. Clark and Lois excape Zod’s ship with the help of Jor-El. Clark defeats some of Zod’s soldiers on Earth and convinces the military that he is a friend to Earth. Zod then deploys the machine to Metropolis and the Indian Ocean.

Clark who the military now calls Superman, destroys the machine over the ocean while the military attack the one over Metropolis. Doing so sends Zod’s  forces back to the Phantom Zone. The ship that would use the codex to repopulate the planet with Kryptonians is destroyed and only Zod is left behind. Superman and Zod have a battle that destroys most of Metropolis. Zod corners some humans and attempts to kill them using his heat vision in revenge for being defeated. Superman is forced to kill him to save the humans. Later Superman is still trying to prove himself to the military that he can be trusted but they continue to discover his secret identity. In order to fly under the radar so speak Clark gets a job at the Daily Planet as a reporter.

Comic vs Movie

Most die-hard Superman fans will say that Man of Steel was a bad movie from the get go. As I have said before I try to think of all the superhero movies in a different universe than the comics and that is why things are different. But with this movie there were some big changes made so below I tried to list them. If any of you notice I am wrong about some or left some out please let me know.

Clark Kent

Superman New 52

Things that were very hard to sallow in the film were first that fact that the Clark Kent that we know
from the comics is not in the movie at all until maybe the last 5 seconds when he put on his glasses at the Daily Planet. However just wearing glasses is not enough in my opinion. The Clark Kent from the comics is a goofy, awkward farm boy from a small town who is trying to make it in the big city. He says things like shucks and darn and is a bumbling buffoon around the ladies. This is all a calculated move on Superman’s part. Lets face it, wearing glasses and parting your hair like you’re a 10 year old is not much of disguise. However stumbling over chairs, dropping things and in short being a dork all around would help anyone from looking to closely at Clark and Superman in the same light.

Lois and Clark

Superman and Lois after they're married

Lois Lane figures out his secret identity way to fast and even calls him Clark while he is in his Superman suit in front of military. This rubbed me the wrong way, Lois says she doesn’t want to write the story and expose Clark’s secret so maybe you should try calling him Superman instead of Clark when he’s all suited up and your out in public. There is also a part of movie where the military gives Superman and Lois up to Zod. This made no sense, there was no reason for Lois to go on the ship other than to further the plot along. I will say though that there are many times in the comics where Lois gets herself into situations that make no sense for her to be in other than to have Superman save her so maybe that’s where the idea came from. As for her figuring out his identity before the movie is even halfway over lets back way up on that.  Part of what made the romance between Clark, Lois and Superman was the fact that is was a love triangle. Clark was in love with Lois who was in turn in love with Superman. Clark worked very hard to make sure he was a different person than Superman as stated above thus creating the irony that he was in competition with himself and as Clark Kent would always fall short in Lois’s eyes. This love triangle went on for a very long time in the comics. The first Superman comic was Action Comics #1 which was published in 1938, depending on what version of Superman you are reading the time when Lois finds out about Clark and Superman being the same person varies but it isn’t until at least the late 80’s and they are finally married in 1996 in the comic Superman The Wedding Album. Meaning for this romance to come to a full circle it was an even that took 60 years in the comics. I would have liked to at least see some of what may be the most famous love relationship in the comics happen in the movie but sadly it wasn’t meant to be. Lois knows Clarks secret from the beginning and in my opinion that ruins part of the magic.

Ma and Pa Kent

Ma and Pa Kent

The Kents are a couple that has been rewritten many times through out the history of comics. They Superboy costume while Pa or Jonathan Kent helps show Clark how to make Clark Kent and Superboy two different people so no one will know his secret. Pa Kent dies of a heart attack after the events of a story arc called The Death of Superman. However DC comics the publisher of Superman launched a new continuity of the DC universe in which both Janathan and Martha Kent have passed away and Clark grew into his role as Superman without them. I like the storyline of both Clark’s adoptive parents helping him become the hero he needs to be. The Kents during those issues of Superboy were some of the most important characters and helped show that even without powers they are the reason Superman has the ideals he does. In my opinion they got the short straw in the movie and weren’t allowed to really shine as the role models that Clark used to become Superman.
have both died before Clark becomes Superman and there are other versions where they helped him come into that role. The latter is the most well known and Ma Kent even helps make Clark’s

General Zod

General Zod

General Zod is depicted well in the movie however he is released from the Phantom Zone not because
of Krypton’s destruction but because he served his time. He does not die in the comics and is actually the head of New Krypton’s army. He is an enemy of Superman and Earth because he does try and take it over from time to time.

Other Characters

In the comics Perry White is white not black and the photographer is a boy named Jimmy Olsen not a girl like in the films named Jennie Olsen. These changes did not matter and in no way made the film better or worse but I mention them because they are different.

Easter Eggs

The biggest easter eggs for us comic geeks in the movie are the Lexcorp logos everywhere. They hint Lex Luthor, Superman’s greatest villain. I hope that Lex will be in the sequels and have Metropolis destroyed like it is gives the writers a perfect opportunity to have Lex who has more money than almost anyone in the comics come in to rebuild the city and use it’s destruction as a reason for saying Superman is dangerous.

Lexcorp in Man of Steel movie

When Zod attacks Earth a satellite with the Wayne Enterprises logo is destroyed. This hints to Bruce Wayne which means Batman. Since the movie has been released it has been announced that the next movie will be a Batman/Superman team up.

Supergirl

When Clark enters the ship in the movie he finds bodies of Kyrptonians mummified in their pods, which are broken.  However there is one pod that is not and it is opened with no bodies inside. I hope this leads to who came to Earth like Clark did but her ship was frozen inside a kryptonite-encrusted meteor.

Though my opinion that this movie is still worth watching and owning even from the comic geek perspective might be a unpopular one it is one I shall keep having.

Iron Man 3

I loved this movie! As far as the Iron Man trilogy goes I would say that this movie is my second favorite. The first movie takes the number one spot for me simply because it really brought the character off the pages of the comic book and made him come alive on the big screen. For another person's opinion check out Big Shiny Robot's review of the film. 

The movie by itself stands on it's own. It made $175 million in it's opening weekend according to Forbes. Which is impressive alone but other then the success the movie had at the box office is the fact that it took the character Tony Stark (played by Robert Downey, Jr.) to a whole new level. Unlike the other two movies we see Stark out of the Iron Man armor more then we do in it. Which was great because it allowed Downey to really shine in his role. We get a glimsp into Stark as a man and the inner conflict he is going through while he fights the newest villain (I use that term loosely) to hit the screen, The Mandarin (played by Ben Kingsley). 

Some of the best moments of the film are the scenes between Stark and a 9-10  year old kid Harley Keener (played by Ty Simpkins). You will laugh and maybe even cry if not on the outside at least on the inside during the film and if you enjoy superheroes it will be one you add to your shelf when it comes out on dvd on September 24 of this year. I give the film 4 out of 5 stars definitely a must see for the both the casual and hardcore superhero fan alike.

Speaking of you hardcore superhero fans if you find anything in this post that is incorrect please let me know. While I am a pretty big comic geek fan myself I don't pretend to know everything about each hero. 

Origin

Original Armor

Who is Iron Man because this is the fourth movie (including The Avengers) about the hero I am going to jump back just a little bit to explain who he is and where the character really started. Anthony Stark is Iron Man's secret identity. Stark built the armor after he was imprisoned by a terrorist orgainisation led by Wong Chu. and told to make a weapon they could use against their enemies. During the kidnapping of Stark a land mine went off and a piece of shrapnel got stuck near Stark's heart. The terrorist put him in a cell with another prisoner named Ho Yinsen who was a physicist. Stark knew that he wouldn't live long with the shrapnel in his chest so he came up with the idea to work with Yinsen and build a battle suit that he had been developing which would use a magnetic field to keep the shrapnel from hitting his heart. In so doing the first Iron Man armor was made. We see some of this in the first movie with a few changes like Yinsen coming up with the idea of putting a magnet in Stark's chest to save his life. In the comics like in the first Iron man film while the armor was being powered up some of the terrorist tried to get into the room Stark and Yinsen were in and in order to buy Stark time Yinsen went to destract them and was shot to death during the act. Using the newly built armor Stark destroys the Wong Chu camp and avenges Yinsens death.

***From this point on this post contains spoilers from Iron Man 3***

The movie starts off with Stark talking to someone about where everything started. He recalls a New Years Eve party in 1999. While he is walking around we actually get to see Yinsen as he compliments Stark on the speech he just gave. This was a nice little tip of the hat back to the first movie where Yinsen talks about this very meeting which Stark cant recall properly because he was too drunk. During the party we meet Maya Hansen and we get to see her newest invention Extremis. Which to sum up is a regenerative treatment that is suppossed to allow crippled people to regrow their limps. Aldrich Killian shows up at the party and offers them both a job at his "think tank" which he calls A.I.M. which stands for Advanced Idea Mechanics. Stark being the hero we all know and love turns him down by sending him up to the roof with the promise of joining him shortly. Which of course he never does because he is to proud and more focused on spending the night with Hansen.

Fast forward years ahead to the events of The Avengers movie where Stark almost dies in the worm hole the aliens are coming through. Because of that event he has severe panic attacks. To try and cope with this he has built a ton of different Iron Man suits with his newest one being Mach 42. Meaning there are 42 other suits somewhere. All this time with the suits has made his girlfriend Pepper Potts very upset. During all of this there have been a series of terrorist attacks for which The Mandarin takes credit. But no evidence is left behind for any clues as to where The Mandarin may be hiding. Happy Hogan, Stark's driver in the other films, now is the head of security for Stark Industries follows a suspicious employee of Aldrich Killian's and is caught in one of the bombings by The Mandarin. After this Stark issues a televised threat to The Mandarin and as a result his house is attacked (not a good idea to give out your home address to terrorists, even if you are a superhero) Stark survives the attack and so does Pepper because of the new armor Stark created that allows him to control it without being in it. Stark throws the armor onto Potts and once she is safe summons the armor back to him. Once on J.A.R.V.I.S. the AI of the suit pilots the suit to Tennessee because of lead Stark found on The Mandarin just before the attack. The suit lacks power and forces Stark to drag it through the snow until he stumbles across a house. Stark breaks into the house and we meet Harley Keener

Harley helps Stark checks out the site of a local explosion that matches The Mandarin attacks. It turns out the bombings are soldiers who have taken Extremis and for lack of a better word overdose and explode. The Mandarin used theses deaths to cover up the Extremis flaws by manufacturing a terrorist plot. Stark discovers this and is then attacked by two Mandarin agents in the town, he defeats them and then leaves the town.

With help of his new found sidekick Harley, Stark finds the Mandarin’s hideout in Miami of all places. Because his suit is still low on power he builds improvised weapons. Once face to face with The Mandarin, Stark discovers he is really just a British actor name Trevor Slattery who claims that he had no idea everything he was doing was real, he thought it was all just for show.

Turns out The Mandarin is really the creation of Killian who has been working with Maya Hansen since that New Years Eve party in 1999. Using Extremis to cure his own disability and that of the injured veterans Killian has grown his AIM Company and by using The Mandarin he is able to control both sides of the war. After Killian captures Stark he explains that he has also kidnapped Potts and injected her with the techno virus to force Stark to fix the problems with Extremis. Killian kills Hansen after she tries to save Stark and Potts for feeling guilty about the attacks she has been apart of.

While all of this is going on Killian has also used corrupt members of the American intelligence agencies to give false reports about where The Mandarin’s hideout is. In so doing James Rhodes who was War Machine in Iron Man 2 is now called The Iron Patriot. He lures Rhodes into a trap in order to steal the Iron Patriot armor. Stark escapes and finds Rhodes who is no longer in the armor and realizes that Killian is using the armor to attack Air Force One. Using the remote control system Stark saves some of the passengers and crew from falling to their deaths but is unable to stop the President from being abducted. After Stark and Rhodes track Killian to an damaged oil tanker where he is planning on killing the president which would leave the corrupt Vice President free to take over the oval office. Not only does he get the Presidential seat but his crippled daughter would no longer have her disability.

On the oil tanker Stark goes to rescue Potts and Rhodes saves the president. Stark because they are outnumbered by various Extremis soldiers summons all of his Iron Man suits which are controlled by J.A.R.V.I.S. to even the odds.  Rhodes gets the President to safety and Stark finds Potts who has survived the Extremis procedure. But before he can get to her the platform she is on collapses and she falls to her “death”.  Stark does battle with Killian and uses one of the Iron Man suits to trap him inside and then orders the suit to self-destruct. Because of Extremis Killian doesn’t die and reveals that he is the real Mandarin. Potts who survives the fall because of the Extremis powers jump in and kills Killian and saves Stark.

With the battle over Stark orders J.A.R.V.I.S. to remotely destroy all of the remaining Iron Man suits as a sign of his love to Potts. The VP is arrested and Stark helps remove the Extremis from Potts. Stark also has surgery to remove the shrapnel embedded near his heart. He then throws the arc reactor that has been in his chest into the ocean saying that he will always be Iron Man.

After the credits there is a scene where Stark wakes up Dr. Bruce Banner who has fallen asleep from the very beginning of the story.

Comics vs Moives

Alright so Iron Man 3 and for that matter the trilogy definitely changed some things from the comics.  Listed below are the ones I could see. If I missed any or am wrong about something please let me know.

Jarvis

Jarvis from the comics

JARVIS the AI system we meet in the first movie in the comics is actually Stark’s butler whose name is Edwin Jarvis. After the Avengers were formed he became the butler and father figure for any member of the Avengers who stayed at the mansion. He is one of the only person who has been with The Avengers since the team was established.

Iron Patriot

Iron Patriot is the name of a villain from the Marvel universe, it is actually Norman Osborn who is known for being the Green Goblin one of Spider-Man’s villians. Osborn is in his own version of that looks just like it did in the move without the gun on the shoulder. He calls himself the Iron Patriot when he makes his own evil version of the avengers and combines Iron Man and Captain America’s look/names into his own.

Iron Patriot from Iron Man 3

Iron Patriot from the comics

The Mandarin

The Mandarin from the comics

The biggest change had to be with The Mandarin. Going into the movie I was so excited that we were finally getting a movie with Mandarin as the bad guy. He is one of Iron Man’s biggest and most famous villains. His powers come from 10 rings he wears on his fingers. The rings are extraterrestrial technology which he uses for his quest to rule the world and defeat Iron Man.  He is also a genius and uses earth’s technology “hand in hand” with the alien rings. He is also a great athlete, swordsman and martial artist. The movie version of The Mandarin being just a paid actor and the creation of “the real” Mandarin Killian was a huge disappointment to me as a comic book geek. Killian in the comics is really a nobody and Mandarin is a big deal but for whatever reason in the movie they combined the two. Most comic book fans found this to be a hard pill to swallow myself included. They also tried to be cleaver and call the terrorists “The Ten Rings” to me was them trying to do a tip of the hat to comic book fans who understand the source of Mandarins power.

This story change also led to a few plot holes the biggest one being that if Killian is the “real” Mandarin who is the leader of the terrorist group know as The Ten Rings, who is also the group that kidnapped Stark in the first movie that means that Killian has been running things along and that doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense because it is never mentioned until now. That is also a question that movie goers never really receive an answer to.

Extremis Armor

Extremis

Introducing Extremis also gives us hope of the Extremis armor. Stark injects himself with the virus. In the comics Extremis is a virus that heals peoples wounds and turns them into a super soldier giving them increased strength and abilities but the person injected does not exploded. The virus is created by Hansen and Killian and sold to terrorists. While trying to recover the virus Iron Man is injured and has no choice but to inject himself with a modified version of the virus to heal his wounds. This modified version of the virus allows Stark to create a new armor set that responds to his brain waves at all times and allows him to store his armor in the hollow of his bones and throughout the rest of his body to be called upon at any time.

Easter Eggs

Rescue, Pepper Potts suit

Some other Easter Eggs or tips of the hat would be seeing Potts in the Iron Man suit and rescuing Hansen in the house. The reason for this is that in the comics Potts gets her own suit from Stark and is know as Rescue. Her suit has no weapons and is meant purely as a rescue unit.  It was a lot of fun to see her in a suit and saving a citizen. It was also at that point that the AI JARVIS got introduced in the comics. He helped run her suit and taught her how to use the suit to its fullest.

A.I.M.

Lastly would be the mention of A.I.M. in the comics A.I.M. stands like in the movie for Advance Idea Mechanics. It is a group of scientists who use their knowledge and inventions as a group of terrorists. 

Over all even with the changes that were made I enjoyed this movie. I just have to think of all the comic books movies as their own separate universe and I can still pop my popcorn, sit down and enjoy as one of my favorite heroes comes to life on the big screen.