Meh. Not sure how far they can keep going with these outside of the Avengers. Tony Stark was interesting as a loner coming to terms with his powers, semi-interesting as a playboy gone wild with fame and publicity. I can only imagine that as a post-Avengers brooding fuck he'll be even less interesting still.
I'll go watch it in any case but I'm not overly hyped. The trailer didn't really blow me away. Though
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The Mandarin is somewhat interesting. Not sure how I feel about the element of MAGIC in the Iron Man universe since as of yet, everything in Avengers is at least pseudo-science. Even Thor is somewhat.
Yeah Post Avengers it will be hard to go back to the individual movies, but I'm optimistic about this one. Its definitely a darker Iron Man. I may see it in theatres, I am hopeful for a better Captain America however.
I don't like that it's so DARK and BROODY. It just feels like obligatory elements of the superhero genre that most Marvel movies have avoided. But RDJ is good enough that I trust he can handle it, and I'm pretty sure Shane Black will be better for wide-scale action than Favreau was. More than anything I hope that the events of the Avengers was something of a game change, so the series can feel more like a cohesive world.
Meh I see what you mean about broodiness not belonging in a Marvel movie, but I don't think they'll take it too far. Iron Man's first half was "grittier" than any other Marvel movie, and that's still my favorite movie by them. Not TDK levels of darkness, but still a little more grounded than most superhero movies. So I'm hoping this'll be a little reminiscent of that.
I did like Avengers but it went so far in the OPPOSITE direction of broodiness that it felt like a consequence-less cartoon at times. I'm glad they're not keeping that tone for the individual movies (or at least this one)
Apparently the broodiness follows the arc of the comics. Also with regards to the events of the Avengers it does make sense that Tony Stark would be having a hard time dealing with things. It's nice they'll at least address the consequences of that and not sweep it under the rug to make some mindless action sequel.