A Tale of Three “Third” Films
Iron Man 3 is out this weekend and so far is racking up some pretty solid reviews. It started as a 95% and has dropped to an 82, but really that’s still pretty damn good for the genre. There are only a few 90+ supehero films out there, legendary movies like The Avengers, The Dark Knight and Spider-Man 2. For a third film to be doing this well is pretty impressive.
As we’ve seen before, this doesn’t always happen in the genre. Often times, the third film is where these comic book movies tend to drop the ball, often dramatically. I wanted to take a look at a few third superhero films to see what they did wrong, and then one solid one to understand what it did right.
Spider-Man 3
As I’ve mentioned before, Spider-Man 2 stands as one of the best superhero movies ever made, and though the series’ third installment made a boatload of money, the gap in quality was astonishingly wide.
Director Sam Raimi was allowed perhaps too much freedom in this last installment, going full camp in some scenes which didn’t fit in to the tone of the movies we’d seen so far. Rather than the corruptive force of the symbiote turning Parker evil, it merely alters him into an emo hipster jerk. Throw in some song and dance numbers, and you’ve got yourself a memorable movie for all the wrong reasons.
But it wasn’t Parker’s Hot Topic phase that made the film bad. Rather, the film was crawling with way too many villains. There was James Franco’s Harry Osbourne picking up where his father left off as the Goblin. There was the perfectly cast but poorly used Thomas Hayden Church as Sandman. Worst of all however was Topher Grace as Venom. The actor could be a dead ringer for Toby Maguire, and though that was likely done intentionally, it altered the origin story from the comics dramatically, and he was a horribly unintimidating villain.
Spider-Man 3 suffered from the constant need for these types of superhero movies to go bigger and better than their predecessors, no matter whether or not it actually suits the plot. Three villains is too much for any movie most times, particularly when they’re all being mishandled to boot.
X-Men: The Last Stand
The first two X-Men films perhaps aren’t the greatest superhero films of all time, but they were solid entries and absolutely astonishingly well cast. But when Bryan Singer left the franchise and Brett Ratner stepped in for the third film, trouble was on the horizon.
Ratner’s philosophy for the film seemed to be the more mutants that were onscreen, the better. He emptied the benches on both sides of Marvel’s hero/villain X-Men roster, and even pulled in such obscure characters as Arclight and Quill. Who? Exactly.
The belief was that with enough mutant action and fight sequences, the audience could be pummeled into submission to the point where they enjoyed the film. But the plot was nonsensical, and the known mutant characters that were added were a let down, like Ben Foster as Angel or Vinnie Jones as the Juggernaut (bitch).
The film also saw fit to outright murder major characters, having Phoenix turn both Cyclops and Professor X to ash. I suppose you want to go big for a third film, but the deaths felt forced and unnecessary, rather than shocking or tragic.
The most redeeming thing that can be said about The Last Stand is that it wasn’t as bad as Wolverine’s Origins movie.
The Dark Knight Rises
In terms of good third installments of superhero films, or really trilogies in general, I don’t think there are many features that can touch The Dark Knight Rises. I may be alone in my belief that the movie is actually better than the much beloved Dark Knight (people are blinded by Ledger’s joker to how ordinary the rest of the film is), but that’s s a debate for another time. But I think many would say that yes, The Dark Knight Rises was a pretty great finale for the trilogy.
Why was this? Well, rather than looking to blow all the other films away by simply going bigger, it looked to why people loved its predecessor so much. The Dark Knight succeeded because of its strong villain, and its sequel would have been a dismal failure if so much wasn’t invested into the character of Bane.
It’s almost too bad that Ledger’s Joker is on everyone’s minds, because if not, I think Tom Hardy’s Bane would have gotten a lot more appreciation. The amount he was able to convey with his physicality alone, not having access to most facial features, was astonishing, and though they did pull a Spider-Man 3 and change his backstory, it worked within the context of the story.
The film also expanded the world without it feeling crowded. They added Robin, in the form of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, but you didn’t even realize it until the end, and he was a well developed, useful character rather than Brett Ratner saying “look at all these shiny new heroes joining the party!” The same is true for Hathaway’s Catwoman, she fit within the context of the story (rich vs. poor class warfare).
There was also a sense of closure to the films that the others lacked. Most series want to keep their options open for fourth, fifth and sixth installments, but The Dark Knight Rises didn’t have to worry about that. I can’t tell you the end of Spider-Man 3 or X-Men 3, but I’ll never forget Alfred sitting in that cafe or Thomas Blake discovering the batcave.
So, how will Iron Man 3 fare? Indications so far would seem to say that it’s going to be more in Rises territory than that of the other two cautionary tales. Already we see similarities to Rises with emphasis put on a strong villain (Kingsley’s Mandarin sounds great even from the trailers), and the hero losing much he holds dear. And with word that this will be the last standalone Iron Man movie, perhaps we can get a bit of closure too. Though there still is The Avengers to consider.
John Blake, and as far as “Iron Man 3” goes, I was VERY disappointed, the plot fell apart as soon as I gave it any critical thought. But we’ll see Paul, we’ll see.
I agree with Ugo Strange, I saw Iron Man 3 twice this past weekend ( International release) and the STORY was…well…it sucked. The plot was very disappointing, but for those who dont read the comic well they might like it…
I saw Iron man 3 about a week ago and found it to be as bad, if not worse, than Iron man 2 was. The only redeeming factor, in my eyes that is, was the comedy-aspect. It was a pretty funny movie, but other than that it was absolutely terrible.
As you said with Xmen 3 and Spiderman 3, I watched Iron man 3 less than a week ago and I honestly cant remember the ending.
Minus some obviously poor writing/director choices do you all think it’s easier to tolerate these films when you haven’t read that much source material? I feel like I’m more accepting of the comic book films since I’ve only read some of the comics from different characters.
Still interested in Ironman 3, will hopefully see it soon.
“Too many villains” is a phrase that I’m not sure really has any meaning to me anymore. I mean, Batman Begins has three pretty significant villains in it (Ra’s, Scarecrow, and Falcone), and it’s also juggling Bruce’s origin story, some decent social commentary, and a handful of other things to boot.
The biggest issue with Spider-man 3, best I can tell, is that the studio forced Venom on the project when Raimi didn’t want him there, and the result was a story that simply didn’t have any coherent sense of purpose and identity. And say what you will about Raimi’s camp tendencies; at least he provided the movie with some memorable, energetic sequences.
As for Dark Knight Rises, it’s a movie with some admirable strengths (moreso than many of its detractors are willing to admit, IMO), but where it stumbles seems to be at the times when the movie isn’t proceeding sequentially. For example, Cotillard’s character is never properly set up; at least not enough for me to buy a romantic tryst between her and Bruce.
Also, in comparison to The Dark Knight, where the thematic foundation of order/morality vs. anarchy drives the entire plot forward, The Dark Knight Rises is messy. There’s plenty of ideas floating around, sure, and many of them are interesting, but the movie never really clicks them all into place in the way that Nolan’s best efforts have. This idea is somewhat taken from and much better stated here: http://badassdigest.com/2012/07/26/film-crit-hulk-smash-hulk-vs.-the-dark-knight-rises/
That said, I love Hardy as Bane, think Bale is giving it his all, and generally find the movie’s strengths to mostly outweigh (or at least match) its weaknesses enough to make it an acceptable cap to the trilogy.
Iron Man 3 has many faults in common with all the films you mention here. I rank it slightly above 2, but well below the original. (**Spoilers** could be ahead):
The main problem for me is that villains are ridiculously overpowered for no reason, other than the plot also wanted to increase the gadgetry to a ridiculous extent. But the suits become so disposable and there’s so much remote-controlling involved that there’s almost none of that power/danger equilibrium, brilliantly conveyed in the cave-escape or the altitude-freezing scenes of the first move. Tony claims to be a “mechanic” and a guy in a can, but the film can’t sell that approach because it turns out there are plenty of magical suits ready to fly around, and he comes out more like the owner of an overpowered drone army than a mechanic. Even his chest reactor, which at some point was the most relevant technology at play because it could mean clean energy for the world, has absurdly lost all relevance. So, the film goes so big that it actually cancels some of the character development and retroactively opens plot holes in the previous entries, which is typical of “third” films.
Another important point is that Guy Pearce’s character is underwritten, so while we get explanations for what he does, he doesn’t even reach the level of the better Bond villains. Also, the first two films played, albeit lightly, with the moral and political implications of Tony’s actions, which the third one substitutes with the cheaper “your real strength is inside you” theme, brought to you by your regular, fatherless, adorable “Spielberg” kid, no less.
All in all, Iron Man 3 turned out much better than Spider-Man 3 or Last Stand, and has great entertainment value, but it is, in fact, another “part three”, because it goes bigger, dumber, and loses touch with the “reality” set up by the previous entries.
No third comic book movie has done it right yet. Rises was the only superhero movie I’ve ever been in where I looked at my watch. At least the other 2 films have excuses for sucking.
Spiderman 3: Studio shoe horned in a venom story.
X3: Brett Ratner. Nuff said
Nolan is a good director and he should stick to it. Because a writer, he is not. He and he alone is why that movie suffered.
@Caleb K
Nolan has been credited as a writer for all but one of his movies (Insomnia) so his writing isn’t solely to blame if you didn’t like Rises. It was long, and there were some obvious errors, but it was better than both X3 and Spiderman 3.
no it wasn’t
the alleged flaws are the same for all three films
the new characters in the x-men film were developed
you just didn’t like the direction they went in
With Spider-Man 3, I don’t think the problem was that Sam Raimi had too much freedom; I think he just kind of phoned it in after Avi Arad forced Venom on him. Raimi thought Venom was a weak choice for a villain, since he lacks substance, and Raimi believed Venom’s fanbase is fairly large mostly just because he looks like a badass.
The original rumor was that Bruce Campbell was being considered as Eddie Brock, and I remember reading Bruce would have been on board with that. I don’t even care if it messed with the continuity from the first two films, I would have given them all my money to see that chin in that suit.
I actually thought The Last Stand was hilarious. I am pretty sure they wrote that script on a dinner napkin the night before they began filming. Kelsey Grammer was a beast as Beast, though. It’s just too bad that pretty much every other mutant decided to show up and crowd the spotlight. I’m just glad they didn’t get an extra minute and a half, or else they probably would have ruined Apocalypse for me. It was kind of like that second Mortal Kombat film where they introduced whatever Baraka’s race was, and then killed them all off in seconds. I probably looked at my phone once and missed about half of the mutants in X3.
As for The Dark Knight Rises, my biggest complaint was how anti-climactic the final confrontation with Bane ended. Tom Hardy nailed that Bane role, but they really could have given him something better in the end. Granted, I know not every fight has to be epic, but at least top the fight where Batman’s back gets broken. He should have done like Samuel L. did with George Lucas in Episode III when he told him he wasn’t going out like a bitch. I also admit I sometimes have a hard time listening to Bane talk without imagining it’s Tom Hardy doing an impression of Celebrity Jeopardy Sean Connery. It actually makes me love the voice even more. Also, I don’t feel like Miranda’s arc got off the ground enough for me to actually care.
All that being said, I do believe this leaves a great opportunity to Warner Bros. to take the series exactly where it needs to go…into an exciting new courtroom gameshow: “Death or Exile?”, Starring the Honourable Jonathan Crane.
I loved TDKR and I’ve watched it a half dozen times since it came out on blu-ray. But it does not even touch TDK. Once you really watch the TDK and pay attention to the little things, it is a completely different film. The entire film, Nolan tries to show that the Joker and Batman are no different. Everything from both their fascination with Dent, to them each dumping their drink when every other character assumed they drank it, all the way to the fact that they both let the same number of their own “men” die for them.
Every time I watch that film, I find another parallel or two between them and it just makes me realize how utterly fantastic that script was.
I found X3 and Spiderman 3 pretty entertaining, even though both films can be taken seriously like the Dark Knight Rises.
I might not have get the Dark Knight Rises. I loved the way Bane talked (is polite but mean). However I didn’t connect with the struggle Bruce Wayne had, I didn’t liked Catwoman (felt kinda like her interventions were kind of forced). Also and this is my mere speculation, I think Nolan shoe horned that prison, it fel like and entirely different movie, and dead stopped the flow for me.
It may also be that it wasn’t what I was looking for, it felt mean spirited all the way through.
Hopefully I dont spoil much here (I think all this can be figured out from the trailer anyway)
I found Iron Man 3 to be pretty terrible. Iron Man looked weak throughout the whole movie. Even the end. (I understand he was meant to look weak at the beginning going and they were going for a TDKR style) but it just didnt pay off.
Plus I didnt like how the avengers keeps getting mentioned in the movie yet he never called for help when he was beaten.
As for the number 3 curse I think its just that people are over the franchise and theyve usually done all they need to do by the second film. The third just feels like the same with a new bad guy (doesnt mean its not enjoyable. It just doesnt feel fresh)
Just got back from iron man 3. It was fun, but was disappointing in many ways. There was some great action, but I think there was too much comedy. The villain was by far the worst part, I won’t post any spoilers but Ben kinglseys mandarin was retarded. Such a poor use of such a great actor.
I will probably see it in the theater again and will definitely buy the blu ray, but I think this was not only the worst of the iron man series, but the worst of the entire avengers series.
Iron Man 3 sucks and doesn’t break the streak of shitty third movies.
Spidey 3 was awful, just plain awful. Shoe-horning Venom in was a mistake, and I just dont rate Sandman as interesting villain. And so many plotholes.
I guess Im in the minority who thought xmen 3 was so much worse than Wolverine origins. Vinnie Jones as juggernaught could possibly be the worst casting decision in the history of movies.
I seem to be the only person that thinks “Emo Peter” actually makes more sense than the way the symbiote is usually handled. While it turns him evil, it doesn’t somehow magically make him not a dork.
Thank you, thank you for giving TDKR the love it deserves. It had me from the very beginning.
I like this article, but as it was mentioned before by Lord Caldlow, I do agree that the confrontation with Bane in TDKR was quite anticlimactic.
As for Iron Man 3 I have to say that I am incredibly relieved that the Unreality fans found it as disappointing as I did.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
As I left the movie theater my main concern with the film was how the first half of the movie focused on Tony’s PTSD after the events in The Avengers, which I thought was great, given that in the first two films, despite Tony’s character flaws, he is portrayed as an overall strong individual and the premise of IM3 lets us see him truly vulnerable for the first time. However, this major plot driver gets completely ignored for the second half and I was truly disappointed (and a little bit angry) that they just sort of “solved it” with the line “screw it, it’s Christmas” followed by exploding suits all over the place.
The Mandarin reveal, which I liked because it was completely unexpected and because it only meant more development for Guy Pearce’s character, was in the end another flaw as it flushed down the drain Ben Kingsley’s potential and said development for Pearce’s role never came.
Upon further analysis I just kept coming up with plot hole after plot hole (they even created plot holes that spanned through the entire trilogy) to such an extent that it made me ultimately hate the film.
**END OF SPOILERS**
Looking at the bright side, the action sequences were great, the comedy was not as fun as I expected, but still enjoyable and, as always, RDJr’s performance as Iron Man was excellent.
I actually preferred TDKR to TDK, though I do think both were great films. I did enjoy X3, even though it was nowhere near as good as the first 2 (couldn’t stand Origins), and I never got into the Spiderman series (but the new one is good).