October 23, 2012

‘Iron Man 3′ trailer: The Mandarin shreds Tony Stark’s world

Posted in: Movies

Ben Kingsley portrays supervillain the Mandarin in "Iron Man 3." (Marvel Studios)

A scene from "Iron Man 3." (Marvel Studios)

Gwyneth Paltrow, left, and Robert Downey Jr. reprise their roles as Pepper Potts and Tony Stark in "Iron Man 3." (Marvel Studios)

Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts in a scene from "Iron Man 3." (Marvel Studios)

A scene from "Iron Man 3." (Marvel Studios)

Robert Downey Jr. reprises his role as Tony Stark in a scene from "Iron Man 3." (Marvel Studios)

A scene from "Iron Man 3." (Marvel Studios)

Robert Downey Jr. reprises his role as Tony Stark in a scene from "Iron Man 3." (Marvel Studios)

Iron Man and Pepper Potts share a moment in "Iron Man 3." (Zade Rosenthal / Marvel Studios)

A scene from "Iron Man 3." (Marvel Studios)

(Marvel)

The Mandarin draws power from 10 rings he found among the ruins of an alien vessel. (Robert De La Torre / Marvel Comics)

The Mandarin made his comics debut in 1964's "Tales of Suspense" No. 50, by Stan Lee and Don Heck. (Marvel Comics)

With his 10 powerful rings and aspirations of world domination, the Mandarin became Iron Man's arch nemesis. Above, the cover for "Tales of Suspense" No. 55. (Marvel Comics)

The first trailer for “Iron Man 3,” which Marvel released at midnight PST, reveals glimpses of a story far darker than its predecessors.

The two-minute trailer implies that self-proclaimed “genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist” Tony Stark loses everything he values, perhaps including his girlfriend and girl Friday Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), at the hands of Marvel super-villain the Mandarin, brought to the big screen for the first time by Ben Kingsley.

The film, directed by Jon Favreau’s former “Iron Man” and “Iron Man 2″ consultant Shane Black (“Kiss Kiss Bang Bang”), is due out May 3, 2013.

The trailer (check it out below) begins with a shot of a battered Iron Man falling into snow, his arc reactor flickering on his chest as he removes his mask and reveals a bloodied face.

“Nothing’s been the same since New York,” he says in voice-over, presumably referring to the events of “The Avengers,” in which the Chitauri alien race, led by Loki, tried to conquer Earth, starting with the Big Apple. “I can’t sleep, and when I do, I have nightmares.”

The voice-over continues as a quick shot shows Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), a scientist who in the comics sells a super-soldier virus to terrorists. (We also see him kiss Pepper Potts’ cheek later in the trailer.) “Honestly, there’s a hundred people who’d want to kill me,” Stark says, and then, gesturing to Potts, adds, “I hope I can protect the one thing I can’t live without.”

What follows is the complete destruction of Tony Stark’s world, beginning with his armored suits, lined up along the wall, which explode one by one. We see the Mandarin’s helicopters launch missiles at Stark’s seaside home, which crumbles down the cliff, and a suited-up Stark sinks into the wreckage.

The trailer also repeats the Mandarin’s voice-over from the footage screened during Comic-Con International this summer.

“Ladies, children, sheep,” he says in his chilling, deliberate cadence that isn’t entirely unlike Tom Hardy’s Bane in “The Dark Knight Rises.” “Some people call me a terrorist. I consider myself a teacher. Lesson No. 1: Heroes. There is no such thing.”

Ben Kingsley portrays super-villain the Mandarin in “Iron Man 3.” (Marvel Studios)

In the comics, the Mandarin was an exiled orphan who discovers a crashed spaceship. He mastered the alien science he found there and kept 10 powerful rings used to drive the ship. He used the rings’ power in his schemes for world domination and became one of Iron Man’s most formidable foes, from his first appearance in 1964′s “Tales of Suspense” No. 50, by Stan Lee and Don Heck.

Though Marvel President Kevin Feige has said that the big-screen Mandarin’s back story won’t follow the comics, focusing in technology instead of magic, the trailer showed the villain’s ring-garbed fingers.

The trailer also shows Iron Man saving people as they fall from a plummeting airplane; Stark lying in a hospital room, surrounded by doctors; Pepper Potts grimacing from behind some kind of metal restraints; Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) lying among rubble; and a new suit with a star-spangled paint job. There’s also a disturbing image of a mystery suit grabbing Pepper Potts while she’s in bed with a sleeping Tony Stark. The trailer ends with Stark, pulling his Iron Man suit through the snow.

Let us know what you thought about the trailer in the comments.

– Noelene Clark

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