I, too, have many thoughts.

I think I need to see it again, A) because of that thing and B)To see if my sense of thematics holds up.

I have this whole theory where it has a WIDE streak of Batman Begins in it:

(1) The whole fake-out with the named villain not being the actual villain (which I'm somewhat disappointed with).

(2) Not a whole lot of Tony actually in the Iron Man suit. Which was largely the point.

Also, Harley FOREVER. (Which has nothing to do with Batman Begins.)

I have this whole theory where it has a WIDE streak of Batman Begins in it:

I was actually going with The Dark Knight Rises myself. Although good comparison with regards to your first point.

I kind of love that Marvel basically trolled the entire fandom and found a way to use the classic racist villain (and cast a white guy as a Chinese character). I had my doubts early on given the way Ben Kingsley was speaking seemed so artificial, so I figured at the very least that the Mandarin was not actually supposed to be Chinese at all, and he was putting on a performance. I didn't see the full switcheroo coming, though.

Yes.

Although, on your second point, I feel like we didn't quite get the cathartic moment that that plotline needed.

I went with Joe & Aims & Em, and I couldn't help thinking how awesome it would have been if that had been a little girl, instead. Especially as the movie only barely passed the Bechdel.

I was actually going with The Dark Knight Rises myself.

Oh, fair point. I kind of forget how much Bruce isn't in the Batsuit in TDKR. (Whitefonted only because the comparison might give away Iron Man stuff.)

So, in Iron Man, whose side was Maya on, anyway? I couldn't quite figure out if she went to Tony's house because she was legitimately concerned that Cillian (or is it spelled with a K?) was eeeevil, or because she was trying to get Tony to...throw Stark Industry's support behind Extremis: Lava People.

When the Malibu house was under attack and Tony sent the suit to Pepper, good lord, was I seized with ALL THE FEELS.

I am likely going to regret burying this in the IM3 discussion, but I'll also say it closer to release:

Having seen August Osage County on Broadway, I highly recommend seeing the film (fantastic cast. Assuming they don't screw it up like they did Rabbit Hole, it should be really good). However, I recommend going in unspoiled: this may be difficult as media pieces before the release are likely to be thematically spoily in ways that will be legit spoily (as opposed to "oh, this movie about war is violent" This isn't like King's Speech where you can know it's about stuttering and it's not really a spoiler. If anything gets deeper than "there are family dynamics" cover your ears and sing "lalala"). However, however, if you need trigger warnings, you should ask someone (I'm happy to do my best) about your particular stuff. Because there's stuff.

Teppy, I think she was trying to get Tony onboard, to finish the thing he started on the back of the card in 1999. I think she would have preferred people not dying, but wasn't as worried about it as she was acting to Pepper. I don't think the movie was sufficiently clear about when she was lying about what.

I like to imaging that once they're set up in Stark Tower in New York, there will be some Suit Operation 101 lessons. Although, if she is nigh-invulnerable, Tony will probably worry less.

I was assuming Tony de-Extremis-ed Pepper, rather than stabilizing it. Hmm. Interesting that they left it vague.

Steph, that hadn't even occurred to me. Hmm.

Didn't Pepper become a superhero in the comics, though?

I guess what Tony did when he noodled that equation at the convention in 1999 was about stabilizing Extremis, not de-activating it. But I would think if he could stabilize it, he could undo it. (I don't know why I assumed Pepper was de-Extremis-ed; I think maybe because of the parallel to Tony getting the shrapnel out of his chest.)

I haven't read any Iron Man comics, so I don't know if Pepper became a superhero.