I never found Tony Stark all that charming. In fact, when I think of Iron Man’s alter ego, I think, “Big wallet, bigger ego, daddy issues.” But Tony looks even more likeable, even heroic, in the trailer for the upcoming film, Iron Man 3. That’s because it looks like this movie will give Tony something that all the technology in the world can’t give him: a real heart.
Gone is the billionaire playboy of old. This Tony sleeps poorly at night, and if this were the comic books, I’d wonder if he’s been drinking. His nemesis, the multi-ringed Mandarin (better known in the Marvel comics as his archenemy), seems hellbent on hitting Tony where it hurts. That would be his girlfriend, Pepper Potts.
Tony himself admitted it in The Avengers. “I’m volatile, self-obsessed, and don’t play well with others.” But it seems that she’s “the one thing I can’t live without.”
This is what I’ve been missing in the previous Iron Man movies: a Tony who isn’t masking his feelings with witty banter. I like superhero movies because superheroes are tougher humans, but they’re still human. Tony Stark has always been willing parody of himself.
He’ll have to play well with others and do it with a straight face if he wants to take down the man whose rings are actually powerful alien technology, each ring with a different deadly purpose. If this trailer is any hint of the movie to come, this film, which will be released on May 4, will be the best Iron Man movie to date.
I knew The Avengers was good for him.
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