The Plot of Iron Man 3 | Hollywood.com

By C. Robert Cargill , Hollywood.com Staff | Thursday, May 20, 2010

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With Iron Man 2 soundly trouncing the competition in both it's first and second week of release, it's clear that Paramount and Marvel have another hit on their hands. And while the studios begin gearing up for the releases of Thor, Captain America and ultimately an Avengers movie (bringing the supeheroes together with The Hulk, Iron Man and others), Iron Man fans are left wanting even more Tony Stark. Director Jon Favreau has expressed interest in making Iron Man 3, but is only hesitating because of the new restrictions requiring all of the Avengers movies to conform to one narrative, and isn’t entirely sure that will be as much fun. Whether or not he returns remains to be seen. But what is undeniable is the fanboy call for the third film to be a storyline best known as "Demon in a Bottle".

Blogs have been calling for it but I can’t help but think that they’re not quite sure what they’re asking for. Wikipedia has a great plot breakdown of this iconic storyline. Effectively, the idea is that Stark’s alcoholism becomes so debilitating that everything is his life crumbles around him and he almost loses Iron Man forever. Favreau has stated publicly that he doesn’t like the idea of making Leaving Las Vegas as a superhero movie. Blogs, like the Flick-sided one above, seem to think that it’s a grand idea.

But Favreau is right.

The problem with the blogs is the same problem inside of Warner Bros. right now when thinking about Superhero movies. The thinking is Dark + Superhero = Dark Knight levels of awesome. The flaw in that thinking is that The Dark Knight was dark because our hero faced a villain so evil and corrupting that it flew in the face of everything Bruce Wayne was able to deal with. It challenged his own non-killing nature. He didn’t know how to confront someone truly mad. But that’s *not* what "Demon in a Bottle" is.

Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight

"Demon in a Bottle" is Spider-Man 3. It is our hero become non-functioning and completely unlikable so that he can lose everything before having to fight to get it back again. But you can’t really do that in a movie without turning off your audience like Spider-Man 3 did. Alcoholism of that level falls into the category of what screenwriters call “The Sin of Moses”, that sin against the audience so great that he can never be forgiven and enter the holy land of a happy ending. In the comic, they simply wrapped up his alcoholism in a single issue, then pushed it aside and tried to forget it ever happened. Favreau instead made it an integral part of the character, without going so dark that he would lose the audience.

Iron Man is *not* Batman. His appeal isn’t him wrestling with inner demons; his appeal is that he is everything Batman is not. He’s fun, funny and has a hell of a time with the toys he makes. Wanting to transform Iron Man into Batman to satisfy your own dark urges isn’t good storytelling. Instead, it only betrays both the character and the audience. Favreau is getting it right. He’s walking a fine line of presented a damaged hero whilst making that hero’s adventures fun to watch time and again.

Jon Favreau is thinking of The Mandarin for a third film. I’d go with that. That sounds awesome.