Ironman rocked. I found the whole film engrossing. RDJ was as charming as only he can be. All the exchanges between Tony and Harley were fantastic--the "Don't be a pussy" line killed me. The CGI was pretty damn seamless and so the action sequences were very exciting. I really loved the Mandarin reveal and how much FUN Ben Kingsley was having. Hell, I just loved the movie.

So here's my predictable question: what was Killian's motive, again? I get the short term of covering up explosions so that he could keep working on Extremis, but what was the goal in controlling the prez and the Mandarin? And when he said he didn't need the president any more, was that because he had Tony? I have villain-understanding problems, clearly.

I did also get confused by the issue of power. Literally. Not literally confused (tho I am), but about literal electrowhosit power. I mean, if we didn't know Marvel and the studios want to fellate RDJ and that there are more Avengers coming up, I could almost think that this was more of an ending than the last Batman movie (Pepper goes on to fight crime as...Magma? I always liked Magma...sudden pangs of nostalgia, irrelevant, correct course)--didn't the power source for the suits used to be his reactor? Didn't he even say that in this film? So why, then, the issue with hooking up 42 (it's the answer!) to a car battery or whatever for that extended period? Though I guess it makes sense with the events at the tail end of the movie, since if the reactor were the power source, he couldn't work them any more.

Also, I'd have liked a line explaining coding the suits--when he explained to Rhodey that there were 41 suits that he couldn't used because they were coded to him, has he been coding them to Pepper all along? Just this last one (needless to say I cried here--are superhero movies supposed to make you cry, or is that just something I'm aging into)? Will he again? Good thing they're exactly the same height, no matter what movie magic says--I imagine that would be hard to design around.

Although I get the point of the sequence where Tony has to rely on things that aren't his suit, I thought he was a little James Bondy there, and it messes things up if he's suddenly Black Widow equivalent, plus as soon as Rhodey showed up his Chuck Norris competence dropped by a few noticeable points.

In the end, did he fix Pepper's Extremis, or remove it?

ita_!, my understand is profit. By controlling both sides of the fight, 2x the profit. He didn't need the President, as he had the VP under his control.

The way the film played it, the suits had to charge up (assumedly, ideally from the arc reactor). Once charged, they could function for a while on their own... because of Reasons, okay?

42 is more modular than the others, so I could buy that it can adapt better to other bodies than 1-41 (although mark 1 is unlikely to be helpful, as that was the "out of the cave" suit). Once again, the answer seems to be because of Reasons.

Yeah, I get that they set him up being more of a non-suit fighter with the punching bag in the beginning, but I don't like it.

I think your last question is up for debate. I tend toward the former, as I find it more narratively interesting.

I was surprised not to see Warren Ellis's name anywhere in the credits.

He was thanked in the credits as was Joss.

I agree with Debet that Killian's motive was to make money by selling weapons to both sides of the anti-terrorist conflict.

I enjoyed Tony's interactions with Harley and Gary-the-TV-Guy more than the action sequences.

Gwyneth is really appealing as Pepper - as a role she wears it well.

I didn't understand why Mark 42 suit didn't have any power at the beginning? Did they say it wasn't fully charged or something?

The new suit needed to be calibrated, so it was not at fighting condition from the beginning . It also consumed a lot of power flying from CA to TN .

(needless to say I cried here--are superhero movies supposed to make you cry, or is that just something I'm aging into)?

You mean when Tony sent the suit to Pepper when the Malibu house was under attack? Because I had some feels. Accompanied by a tear or two, yeah.

Yeah, it was at prototype/testing, so it wasn't combat-ready.

Because I had some feels. Accompanied by a tear or two, yeah.

Actually not then, but shortly afterwards, where she (shit, it's setting me off again...) saves him in the suit. Seriously, I could cry again now if I thought about it too hard.

As far as motivation goes, are we to understand that everyone likes money, so obviously he's going to use this setup to get more of it, or was that stated at some point as a goal, over and above revenge on the entire world? Also, why would you ever trade the President for the VP? They are not equivalent! If the hold you were getting over the former was usable, I think it would be superior to 100% control over the latter, and also HOW IS NO ONE GOING TO NOTICE YOUR small family member grew back a limb?

eta: also if that was the goal, how was the action of the movie going to help achieve it?

I could not get to step #2 with a bunch of stuff.

Well, I assume that once the VP took over and Killian was in control, they would roll out some form of Extremis and the daughter could get her new limb in a legit way.

Also, I don't think it was really about revenge. It was about him controlling the market and the Country. Yeah, his motivation totally grew from revenge, but I don't think Killian looked at it that way.

Well, your helpful Vice President becomes President once the uncooperative President has been killed in a terrorist attack.

And I suspect that the VP wasn't thinking real clearly about growing about a limb on his granddaughter. Maybe he figured he could send her and her family off to somewhere they weren't well-known, maybe give them new IDs, no idea how he's going to explain all that to her parents, and also my first thought was, Extremis really fucking hurts, chances are Killian hasn't fully explained this process to him.

A friend on Twitter grumbled that the ending sequence could have been more entertaining. I said, what? How? What more did you want, CLOWNS?