The illustrious Biff Bam Popcast panel of Andy Burns, JP Fallavollita and Glenn Walker gather to talk about the recent trailers for new movies, Iron Man 3, what we’re reading, the role continuity plays in pop culture and much more!
As well, this edition of the Biff Bam Popcast is brought to you by the new Rob Zombie album, Venoumous Rat Regeneration Vendor, in stores now and available to purchase online here.
I’m weighing in – sorry folks, but I have got to side with Jason on this one. Here’s the rationale: I get that the movie can be viewed by non comic-fans and be successful on its own merits. But the fact that it used a comic villain with such history sets it up to be intensely criticized by the comic fans
You can’t double dip. If you’re going to lure the fans in with the promise of a villain with such pedigree then the script has to make good on the promise.If you want it to be appreciated on independent story merit outside comic canon: fine, don’t use The Mandarin. Create a totally different villain. That IS the indisputable flaw in the film.
The Extremis storyline was mishandled. You can forgive it, but it still grates on me a little. Instead of Pepper in her own Rescue armour, we got Extremis Pepper rescuing Tony’s armour.
On a sidenote, I liked that they dealt with the intense PTSD pressures of living a hero’s life. It’s clear that Iron Man is supra-human, but Tony Stark is far from super-human. PTSD doesn’t go away because some flippant, extraneous kid sidekick says: “So? You’re a mechanic. Fix it.”
It’s easy to dismiss the fan-boy perspective because they’re “just being fan-boys”, but without the fan-boys, you wouldn’t have the franchise in the first place. Don’t create a movie that teases that point of view then deliver something completely unexpected. It creates bitterness and resentment amongst the fan-base that originally supported the premise in the beginning.
I hear what you’re saying, John, but then I’d ask, so what? Will your disappointment about the portrayal of the Mandarin stop you from seeing the next Marvel film? When Man Of Steel retells Superman’s origin in a way that takes a turn from canon, when Jimmy Olsen winds up being a Jenny Olsen, will you boycott? We already know The Wolverine won’t be a straight adaptation of he Claremont/Miller mini-series – what then? Fan boys love to complain and talk about how they would have done it differently or better, but the studio still gets their money. Clearly, they can double dip.
Arguably the film that stuck to its source material the closest (minus the final moments) was Watchmen – a commercial failure and a critical shrug of the shoulder from most cinemagoers. At the end of the day, the obligation of any movie studio should be to tell great stories and make a profit, and not always in that order. The great thing about Iron Man 3 is that the vast majority seem to enjoy it. And for everyone else, they’ve got their comics to go back to.
An interesting question would be to see what Warren Ellis would say about that.
Master and Commander