Rank the 3 Iron Man movies - and explain why

My list:

1- Iron Man 2. Underrated gem. I loved the story-arc about Tony, his path of discovery toward his father and the "secret element". Terrific aerial battle/fight at the end. Rourke was genuinely menacing. I loved everything about it. Brilliant movie.

2- Iron Man 1. One of the best superhero origins ever depicted on screen. First half was superior to second half, even. Just a great movie, overall speaking. A modern "classic".

3- Iron Man 3. They destroyed Iron Man and focused on Tony Stark. Bad move. (Unjustified) deconstructionism all over the place. It's a good movie, but it's not Iron Man anymore. To me, the real third chapter is "Avengers 1". This is Iron Man 3.5.

1. Three. Because Shane Black makes the deconstruction work.
2. One. As far as origin-centric superhero movies go, it's one of the better ones.
3. Two. It's...okay, I guess, but nothing about it gives me sufficient. reason to prefer it over the others.

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

Looking forward more feedback.

One because it's the best Marvel movie made

Then two. I do enjoy 2 if it's not that good

I'm pretty sure 3 is bad but would have to revisit for an official answer.

3, then 2, and then 1.

WAIT!

Ah... Haven't seen you around in a while.

1. Iron Man #1 - It's a solid origin story, Bridges works well as a villain. The film has a solid three act structure and balances the ensemble well. It has the best action set pieces because they don't do anything too crazy with it.

2. Iron Man #3 - This was a rewatch for me, I think this film did the best job of shuttering off most of the ensemble. I didn't take issue with the Mandarin twist because I felt Kingsley and Pierce sold it well enough.

3. Iron Man #2 - It was just a bloated mess, had it just been about Whiplash and Iron Man I think it would have worked better. Sam Rockwell and Black Widow were wasted in this.


For me I consider #3 and #2 to be skippable films, they are side quests that ultimately mean little to nothing in the overarching Stark story.

1. Iron Man
2. Avengers (Iron Man 1.5)

The real Iron Man 2 is
3. Avengers Age of Ultron
4. Captain America Civil War

The real Iron Man 3 is
5. Spider-man Homecoming
6. Avengers Infinity War

I agree with Siddon's ranking although I do like 2 better and think maybe it was just enough to be a passable entry.

Why did they go for that Mandarin twist anyway, any real reason?

From what I understand, it was to avoid resorting to the original character's status as an outdated racial stereotype.

But couldn't they have a villain called The Mandarin and not have him be racial stereotyped as long as they portrayed him well?

Plus, back when it came out, fans felt that the character should have been played by an Asian actor, so by Kingsley playing it, it actually disappointed fans more at the time.

I like the one where he does explosions out of his fists.

If I should do a ranking of ALL the Iron Man movies, even beyond the "solo" trilogy:

Avengers 1
Iron Man 2
Civil War
Avengers 2
Iron Man 1
Iron Man 3

Homecoming is just a glorified cameo.

I've not seen Infinity War yet.