Iron Man 3 was fun. It had all the elements of a great super hero movie – humor, a plot twist, and a weakened hero that finds the strength to rise up out of his personal darkness and defeat the bad guys at just the right moment. There was just one problem. One nagging negative throughout the sure-to-be blockbuster: Pepper Potts.
She’s never had much to do in the Iron Man movies, and perhaps even less in last summer’s Avengers, but somehow Pepper always seemed to give off an air of intelligence and strength. She was able to match and often win against Tony Stark’s sarcastic jibes. One of her first lines — “including occasionally taking out the trash” — seemed to sum up her character. She was a ballbuster who did the job better than anyone else could. She was in all respects Tony’s match, just without the overblown ego and superhero toys.
But once promoted to full-on love interest, Pepper seemed to lose all that she had projected in her first three appearances. In Iron Man 3, she came off as weak, needy and a little insensitive. I just didn’t buy that her character would be, well, such a nag. Her boyfriend almost died defeating aliens; I think the old Pepper would have not only cut Tony some slack, but would have helped him through it. Instead, the story treated Pepper like she was the new girl on the block for this movie’s go-around. As if she hadn’t been there throughout, as if she didn’t know Tony or how to handle his world. It stank of character inconsistency. In truth, Pepper could not only handle his world; she helped create it.
Gwyneth Paltrow did the best she could with what she was given, but even the Oscar winner couldn’t save Pepper from the plot. A plot in which she was tied up scantily clad for a good portion of the movie. I guess this was to show Paltrow’s superhero-like abs. Which made it even harder to believe that a women with a core so solid could be so easily taken down and then strung up.
There were moments that showed some promise. Pepper did get to save Tony a few times, but it was never in the fashion that was really fitting for a superhero movie. And even at the end, (spoiler) when Pepper has her own superpower, she came across as weak and afraid.
The film was overall very good. I just wish Pepper had some more zest in this one. My fingers are crossed that astrophysicist Jane Foster won’t suddenly become a ditz in the Autumn release of Thor: The Dark World. And maybe by the time Avengers 2 rolls around, the old Pepper will be back and (please! please!) with some superhuman traits of her own.
defydemure 