Man, Lego Marvel is fucking seeped in the MCU, they gave Aldrich Killian of all people a major boss fight. You know, the infamously unpopular Big Bad of Iron Man 3, I can't believe they put him in this game.
Iron Man 3 Review: Reviewing Every Marvel Movie #32/76:
A fun movie with a messy conclusion. The whole movie is about how Tony Stark isn't Iron Man because he has the suit, but he has the suit because he is Iron Man. It's excellent at this, and shows it with some banger fight scenes. The villain doesn’t really contribute to this, but they’re once more a fun mirror to Tony with a twist that I really like. The supporting cast unfortunately doesn’t get a lot to do, and the plot is a bit all over the place, but the film manages to hold its own despite that.
Spoilers Below:
The best part of the film is seeing Tony Stark operate without the Iron Man armor. Not only does he get to jury-rig a whole bunch of tech to break into a secure mansion, but he even gets to fight off some superhumans with just the environment around him, including breaking handcuffs on superheated skin and blowing someone up by putting metal in a microwave. Most of his investigations are usually done with the help of Jarvis, but he manages to figure out what's going on with Extremis and the Mandarin without Jarvis' help at all. It's an excellent showing for Tony Stark the man, with even his personal relationships focused on him as a man and not as a CEO.
However, he is still Iron Man, and the only reason he and his friends survive the final fight is because he has 30 Iron Man suits buried in a secret vault under his house, which is where things get messy. When he blows all the suits up, it feels less like he's starting from a clean slate and accepting that he is the hero, and more like he's quitting being a hero. That's probably not the writers’ intent, but that's what it feels like since we never see the next project he starts. It muddles the ending to what is otherwise a very good character showcase for Tony Stark.
As for the rest of the film, it's got some problems but is still pretty good. I like Killian as a villain, even if he’s not great as a character. Instead, he’s a great embodiment of Tony Stark's past, turning people into literal living weapons after being spurned by Stark the CEO. This is made better by Killian being a superhuman and not a guy in armor because this movie is about Tony Stark, not Iron Man. Pepper nails this home, since she chooses Tony Stark the man and rejects Killian, who's become the same evil CEO that Tony Stark was when we spurned Killian in the first place. Also, I like the Mandarin twist. We already know that Mandarin and Killian are connected somehow, but revealing Mandarin to be entirely an act for Killian to hide behind is very fun, and is foreshadowed enough without being obvious. It's also a fun escalation of Obadiah Stane, with Stane using real terrorists to further his military goals while Killian just fucking invents his own. While Killian is treading old ground by being another mirror to who Tony used to be, he takes things further and in new directions, which makes him feel fresh after Stane and Hammer.
The biggest flaw is definitely the supporting cast, especially Rhodey. He's barely in the movie and then his War Machine armor (now the Iron Patriot armor) gets hacked for the second movie in a row. He does get to help fight as a normal soldier, but reusing the hacking plot from the previous film makes Rhodey feel like he’s here just to be here. Killian's lead biologist Maya getting killed off unceremoniously also sucks after she finally decides to turn on him, particularly since we already know Killian is super evil and spiteful. Pepper has a minimal role in this movie, but I like that she gets to kill Killian after he infected her with Extremis. Harley is also very fun, sue me. Tony is still an ass to him, but you can see him doing his best to dial back the assholeishness because Harley is a kid who's trying to help. Tony giving Harley a bunch of new tech as thanks is awesome. Plus, despite the letter being typed, the signature is handwritten, meaning it's technically Tony's signature despite being anonymous.
I've alluded to this, but the action scenes are awesome, and are definitely the highlights of the film. The best ones are the scenes where Tony fights on his own with no armor, but the airplane scene where he saves all the civilians is really cool. I love to see a hero save people, and he does it in a way that only Iron Man can. The part where Killian blows up Tony's house is crazy because you really don't expect Tony to just lose everything in a sneak attack. In that same scene, Tony saving Pepper with the suit after it nearly kills her in his paranoia is such a good showcase for why he built it. And then as much as I don't like Tony blowing up the suits, the finale is awesome. The suits are just distinct enough to feel different while still being interchangeable, and the action is hype, frenetic, and very pretty. Rhodey swinging on cables like Nathan Drake to save the president is cool, and Tony Stark trapping Killian in the suit to blow him up is freaking awesome. The movie really makes the most of the detachable, telekinetic suit, which is very impressive. It getting hit by a car to reveal that Tony isn’t even inside is very funny.
The movie does have some flaws, as mentioned. Like, Tony Stark is apparently believed dead after his house got bombed and nobody seems to comment on this at all. It means nothing, even after New York. Tony's anxiety/PTSD is never fully addressed, but I do like the implication that Harley's speech about building something new instead of relying on Iron Man broke Tony out of his spiral for good. It also means that Harley indirectly created Ultron, but that's a future movie's problem. There really aren't any MCU connections here outside of Tony's anxiety/PTSD, which I think is fine. Plus, unlike Erik Selvig's insanity in The Dark World, it feels like a more natural continuation of flying a nuke into a black hole. Instead of building out the MCU, it's an Iron Man movie through and though, and a pretty good one at that. It never hits the highs of the first film, but I think it's more focused in terms of both plot and characters than the second, even if the ending is messy. That can't fully drag the movie down though, and it's still a fun ride all the way through.
Aldrich Killian first appeared in 2005 as one of the main scientists behind the Extremis virus, a techno-organic virus meant to create a new type of superhuman. Killian sold the virus to less-than-reputable parties behind his partner's back, and subsequently committed suicide out of guilt. He was greatly expanded upon in Iron Man 3.
In an adaptation, considering he's a barely consequential figure in the comics, and one of my single most hated MCU villains of all time, I'm just going to go ahead and not include him outside of maybe a brief mention if we have an Extremis storyline. Which means casting would be pointless.
rewatched iron man 3 today with my sister and reminded that i am FOREVER sad Killian and Hammer never got screentime together, their levels of pettiness over getting rejected by Tony combined would have been unmatchable 😔
