Iron Man 3 has a lot to prove. It is the first film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) post-Avengers and is set to launch phase 2 of the MCU. It stars the most popular character in the MCU. It has at least four confirmed villains in Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin, Guy Pearce as Aldrich Killian, James Badge Dale as Coldblood and Ashley Hamilton as Firepower. It is also a threequel.
Threequels, and in particular those in the superhero genre, have not lived up to other films in the franchise. This is widely considered as the threequel curse. The Sam Raimi Spider-Man film trilogy, the original X-Men trilogy, the Blade trilogy, the original Superman film series, the original Batman film series and even the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy have fallen prey to the curse.
What is it about threequels that make them prone to being bad or at least disappointing films?
In the case of the film series listed above, changes in director have had an impact. The original X-Men trilogy, the Blade trilogy, the original Superman and Batman film series all had changes in director in the third film resulting in an inferior product. Iron Man 3 also has a change in director for the threequel, but unlike those other series, the new director Shane Black has greater credentials than the previous director Jon Favreau.
Black wrote and directed the crime comedy film Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which starred Tony Stark himself Robert Downey Jr. He also was involved in screenwriting for the first two Lethal Weapon films and Iron Man 2, and was involved in screenwriting and producing The Long Kiss Goodnight. Apparently Favreau and Downey also consulted with Black during pre-production of one of the earlier Iron Man films.
A change in director does not however explain the Sam Raimi Spider-Man film trilogy or Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy. The problems with The Dark Knight Rises have been talked about ad-nauseam, but what went wrong with Spider-Man 3?
It is often suggested that the problem with Spider-Man 3 is too many villains. Spider-Man had three villains; Harry Osborne aka The New Goblin, The Sandman and Venom. There are many very good superhero films that have three or more villains. Both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight have three villains, if the Mafia are included. All of the X-Men films have more than three villains.
The problem with Spider-Man 3 seems to be not related to the number of villains, but to how these villains and their related themes interact with each other. The X-Men films have many villains, but they often act as one in the Brotherhood or Hellfire Club. James Badge Dale has stated how the villains in Iron Man 3 relate to each other. The Mandarin is the mouthpiece, Killian is the brain and Coldblood is the muscle.
I have high hopes for Iron Man 3. It has a great director in Shane Black. It has a great cast with Ben Kingsley and Guy Pearce joining Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle. The director of the previous instalments Jon Favreau is on set and on side as Executive Producer along with Kevin Feige. It doesn’t have the restrictions of Iron Man 2 being a lead up to The Avengers, and it has the potential to greatly expand the MCU. Hopefully Iron Man 3 will bury the threequel curse once and for all.
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17 Comments
Batman had a threequel curse? Hahahaha. Well goodluck enjoying Iron man 3.
Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy suffered from the threequel curse!? It was probably the best film in the trilogy. Excessive consumption of mushrooms have clearly addled the authors mind.
TDKR is a decent movie, but it is certainly a disappointment after TDK. There have been hundreds of articles with people discussing problems with TDKR. TDK did not have that.
Either way, my article is about IM3 and it’s chances of success.
I think the biggest problem with the TDKR was the fact that it was a little too similar to TDK, but that’s just me. I still enjoyed it, though, mostly because of Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Michael Caine’s wonderful performances.
I also think that if you cut the entire Venom character out of Spider-Man 3 the movie becomes instantly better. Much better. Thomas Haden Church was a spectacular Sandman and the CGI effects used to bring that character to life were spectacular. If the film would have focused on him instead of shoehorning Venom in at the last moment, I would have liked it a lot more.
As far as Iron Man 3 goes, I think it’s safe in the hands its in. Let’s hope for the best!
I think the biggest problem with the TDKR was the fact that it was a little too similar to TDK, but that’s just me. I still enjoyed it, though, mostly because of Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Michael Caine’s wonderful performances.
I also think that if you cut the entire Venom character out of Spider-Man 3 the movie becomes instantly better. Much better. Thomas Haden Church was a spectacular Sandman and the CGI effects used to bring that character to life were spectacular as well. If the film would have focused on him instead of shoehorning Venom in at the last moment, I would have liked it a lot more.
As far as Iron Man 3 goes, I think it’s safe in the hands its in. Let’s hope for the best!
“TDK did not have that.”
Yeah it’s because Heath Ledger died, everybody was scared to criticise the film as it might be “disrespectful”.
Anyway: Scores on RT:
Batman Begins – 85%
The Dark Knight – 94%
The Dark Knight Rises – 87%
Oh yeah 3rd film curse or what, it was a great trilogy simple as
For me personally, The Dark Knight Rises may not have been as good as Nolan’s last two Bat-movies (Dark Knight is my fave), but it is a decent ending before Nolan burned himself out and I only liked Tim Burton’s first Batman film from 1989 (the year I was born), but I’ll tell you what, the worst superhero films ever are: Daredevil, ALL of the X-Men films (though First Class wasn’t that bad, eventhough I waited for it to show on TV) the last Blade movie which featured Dracula, those god-awful Punisher films and Ghost Rider was just a bore fest.
Bryan Singer’s first X-Men film was a good start, but since then, the X-Men movies have been just pretty damn lame if you ask me.
So in case your wondering, not looking forward to the next Wolverine film as Wolverine Origins was a complete waste of time and Iron Man 2 not as good as the first installment.
Those are my opinons, thank you :-)
Out of interest Thomas, why do you prefer the first X-men film to X2?
@ Jon
While removing Venom from Spider-Man 3 may make the movie better, it by no means fixes all the problems. The symbiote was done poorly, even though it did look good. New Goblin was very disappointing given the great build up in the prior films. There was also that terrible retcon with Sandman at the end of the film. The problem is not as simple as too many villains.
Crucial mistake: You mentioned The Dark Knight Rises, now no-one will actually talk about your article.
I think the problem Iron Man 3 has, and is something all Marvel films will now have, is it has to rival The Avengers for scope each time. I don’t think this one particularly will but I think as they are making it a more emotional piece it will make this a much more gratifying watch than The Avengers.
The problem remains though from the film fan: When you wake up in bed with Nicole Kidman, do you really wanna go back to Kerry Katona?
You are right Luke. Whedon has said that for Avengers 2 he wants to make it more emotional and personal. It may be the direction of many phase 2 films.
That being said, there are rumors of Tony commanding an army of Iron Man suits. That sounds pretty epic.
Dark knight rises was cursed ? #harsh. I thoroughly enjoyed it, Even saw it twice at cinemas.
TDKR suffered from the threequel curse? Ha! I saw it four times in the theater and the only flaw I had was that Bane’s death was just a tad weak. Other than that, it was pretty solid. Hopefully Iron Man 3 can bring back the energy that was missing in Iron Man 2.
Franchises that have an inferior threquel usually have a really excellent second film. With the Iron Man films, the second is quite poor, so maybe the third one will be great?
TDKR was not a bad film but compared to its predescessor it lacked the overall thrill and sharpness. Ledger’s Joker was an inspiring performance, he played the Joker how the character should be played, but by all means Bane was portrayed brilliantly by Tom Hardy yet he just didn’t live up to Ledger (mainly due to the different type of villain). I’m a huge fan of the Dark Knight trilogy, but the main reason TDK was a critical success was due to Ledger and I’ll be the first to admit that.
Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin. Call me silly buuuuuuut couldn’t they have a well know Asian actor to play the Mandarin or would it be a stereotype?
I mean I think we (society) can separate fiction from reality.
You are right Kevin. Marvel Studios, and even superhero films in general have a long way to go to properly treat race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality. It seems they are playing this one carefully.
It will be interesting to see what role Wang Xueqi plays in the film as he was rumored to be Radioactive Man.
Hopefully in these next phases we will see some black superheroes (not sidekicks) and strong females superheroes.