In chronological sequence, this is the final MCU One-Shot as Marvel enters into phase two of its cinematic universe. Written and directed by Drew Pierce, who co-wrote Iron Man 3 has re-teamed with the man who portrays the Mandarin
This short film not only acts as a make up for misleading the audience, but it builds tension to the reveal of an actual Mandarin with a level of gravitas that awaits in the future. The future is imminent as Shang Chi and the Ten Rings has nearly completed production down in Australia and will finally reveal the Mandarin. Hail to the King indirectly provides some top tier marketing exposition to set up what very much will be a summer blockbuster. In addition to Sir Ben Kingsley we see a fellow cellmate Justin Hammer played by Sam Rockwell, at the notorious Seagate prison, the same lock-up for Season one of Netflix's Luke Cage.
Iron Man and Captain America: Heroes United, is the first feature length motion picture showcasing the character of Taskmaster. As timely as the publishing of this summer's posting, the movie becomes an endorsement to fans of the upcoming Black Widow movie starring Scarlett Johanssen. By providing an inside look at the character, revealing the kind of threat he poses to the MCU; what makes him a unique villain to a skilled Spy turned Avenger like Natasha Romanoff.
In this movie we have the super soldier Captain America and the high tech genius of Iron Man facing two foes Red Skull and Taskmaster. Its a sequel to the 2013 Heroes United teaming of Hulk and Iron Man, Returning are the same creative team and most of the original cast of voice actors. This includes on screen characters such as Hyrda scientists Dr. Frump and Dr. Cruler, who we now learned survived the Arc reactor explosion, but now appears to wear special hazmat suits, most likely from their exposure to radiation in the last film. The film plays heavily on the concept of buddy team ups, and characters whose approach and regiments are completely at odds from one another. Stark & Rogers share a competitive spirit which lends itself to an enormous amount of predictability in the storytelling. At times the plot device of working their differences into the story goes on for far too long and detracts from enjoyment of the movie.
The gold standard in the Marvel superhero mythology for the past forty plus years is achieving the success of the Super Soldier Serum, its been retcon in a way that Banner's work with gamma radiation was to achieve the affects in human evolution. Its been imitated, never duplicated has been Marvel's motto; Red Skull taps into that concept with the utmost absurdity for results which are distorted and grotesque, that mirrors on the theme of being drunk on the over abundance of power for this super soldier serum. As harsh of a criticism I just made, the film provides equally as good counterpoints. The portrayal of Captain America as a fighting soldier with or without the shield is amazing, really utilizing the elements always spoken about and seen from panels of a comic books. we now see actualized with stunning results. The motion animation and colour hues is dazzling, miles above its 2013 predecessor. The simplicity and ruthlessness of Red Skull's plan is amazing, executing a plan with contingencies to anticipate the moves of your enemies is on point of what you want from a good antagonist. Similarly to its 2013 predecessor our heroes are driven to the point almost effortlessly where they are at their lowest and the story brings out a second act of where can we go from here to over come insurmountable odds. Granted the final act is a cheat, and makes the title of the movie somewhat misleading.
Iron Man 3 was written and directed by Shane Black, and co-written by Drew Pierce; Pierce who wrote and directed the follow up MCU one-shot, has gone on record to state that the short was an intended apology to the avid reader/fan with their misleading portrayal of the Mandarin.
Shane Black who began his career in the 80's as a successful screenplay writer, has transitioned into a more auteur director. His first time helming a big budget motion picture was the film Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang which co-starred Robert Downey Jr. It was that friendship and relationship with Downey Jr. that help facilitate a meeting with Marvel Studio to pitch his idea for Iron Man 3. When it became clear Jon Favreau had decided to step down as it's director.
Keeping with one of the themes he has normally explores in his big budget action movies, 'the damaged hero', he provides a learning arc within his stories. Black is not so different from Stephen King who uses the youth as the spring board to enter us into the world that they have devised, Shane Black from his first published screenplay with Monster Squad to The Predator, sees a child displaced as a guide to our hero,
The Virgil to our Dante Alighieri.
The young boy Harley, to whom fans were divisively mixed on, brought a different layer to the Tony Stark's Character, Removing Stark from the immediate foil of the story, Harley allows Tony to pursue 3 things; become a detective, solving the mysterious catalyst of the Mandarin explosives. Recalibrating Tony; going back to the beginning like in the cave, being an inventor and working though his problem with post-traumatic stress disorder by taking control without the suit to stop the Mandarin.
And finally, remembering who he was; well before Bern, Switzerland. when he was just an innocent child, a person with wonder and desire to learn and excel. Tony sees himself in Harley, and has indirectly mentored the young boy; that elusive father figure that Tony has struggled with his whole life.
This is not a perfect story, Tony communicates to Pepper through a secure line in the Iron Man helmet, but does not tell Pepper where he is exactly. He has travelled across 4 States from Malibu to Rose Hill, Tennessee. Maya Hansen was with Pepper, but even if Maya had learned through Pepper on the whereabouts of Tony's location; that was still hours after the initial assault on the Malibu home, Tony had landed in Tennessee and was in motion towards finding Harley, the sudden appearance of the Extremis operatives localized in Rose Hill, that same evening as Tony just arrived and began investigating the Mandarin attack is virtually impossible from any logistical stand point. There is a subtle hint to Man-Thing, in regards to Advance Idea Mechanics involvement to a widow, in Tennessee, but the film retcons that story to be more about Extremis experimentations. When the widow hands Tony secret documents that could reveal the plot of this story, which by the way the villains apparently already knew for a number of months, but only decided to come for it at that precise moment.
The best concept was trojan horsing the President; A.I.M. helped with weaponizing the iron patriot suit, and it would have made sense to creating a schematic plan to take control of that one and only Mech Suit of Tony's to be used to kidnap the US President. The final act which enlists the house party protocol, a negative aspect of over inventing as a result of PTSD is a dizzying battle between an active militia of Extremis soldiers and roughly 35 Mech suits. The rules of how to kill an Extremis soldier is ill define, they can survive a large seismic explosion at the Chinses restaurant but not a microwave explosion. A soldier can grow any lost limbs in mere seconds and regenerate from extreme trauma, like a large water tower impaling them, but a large repulsor ray through the chest can kill them.
Sir Ben Kinglsey, as actor Trevor Slattery, portraying terrorist leader The Mandarin, was both comical and insightful (I'm the dude, playing a dude, playing another dude). The initial Iron Man movie was released several years after the 9/11; the Ten Rings Cave where Tony was captured was in Afghanistan, straddling the line of the real world. Iron Man 3 does point out real world facts under bad situations, but draws on our extended imagination which may not always be the case as it was revealed when locating Bin Laden it was though his online searching for porn that got him discovered. That demystifying reality was imbedded in this movie to allow us, the viewer to accept the surprise reveal of the Mandarin, This too was used in masking failed Extremis experimentations on military sites as A.I.M. was looking to establish government contracts, but spun those classified meetings as a Mandarin attack for a misdirect.
A Marvel Knights presentation, Extremis is a re-telling of an actual comic book story line from the pages of Iron Man. The original writer Warren Ellis and artist Adi Granovhas there comic book story arc brought to life in an animated mini series. Magnetic Dreams production hashed out a six episode short. The series opens with Tony Stark speaking with a documentarian, who outlines that his creations that built his empire of Stark Enterprises, has been used to essentially harm, maim, and kill thousands without discrimination. The documentarian pursues Tony like a crusader within his line of questioning, and Tony concludes the interview by asking has any of his documentaries actually changed the outcome of anything he has reported.
We as an audience witness a test subject who survives the Extremis injection and meet Aldrich Killian a scientist/co-worker of Maya Hansen, Hansen is a colleague of Tony, back when Stark began building his US Contracts. Killian commits suicide and leaves a note confessing his involvement with the stealing and releasing of Extremis. This action prompts Maya to contact Tony for help. Still distressed over Aldrich's death Tony and Maya go see Sal Kennedy, a Jeff Bridges' Big Lebrowski guru who is a medium between Tony's mechanical and Maya's biologic study of expertise. His enlightenment points out the flaws in both of them; meanwhile the Extremis surviving recipient named Mallen is a white supremacist bent on acting out his grievance over at the Washington Capital; and begins a killing spree on the road to capital hill. Iron Man's first encounter with Mallen leaves Tony's body shattered and broken, desperate to evolve his Iron Man technology to move the suit with faster reflexes by melding of the mind, body and machine to act as one. Tony uses Maya's Extremis formula on himself with his own genetic recoding. He manages to create an armour under his skin, inside the marrow of his own bones to help control and strengthen his symbiotic relationship with his Iron Man armour in order to defeat Mallen.
Co-directed by Joe Gibbs, and Mike Halsey (President of Magnetic Dreams) Debut the mini series as a screening at the Chicago Comic-Con on August 2010, and had it available on video by November of that year. Marking its release to the public three years before cinematic debut of Iron Man 3, but just months after the release of Iron Man 2 posing as a unconnected thread between the movies. Classified as a motion comic evolve animation, from Marvel, because past Marvel Knight series are considered motion comics that displayed less fluidity. Motion comics are referred to as a little more than just camera panning of a comic book panel, and some clunky character movements with a musical score. Though the final product did not feel stalled in its process, it remains far from being considered a fully processed animation.
