Happy Iron Man 3 day to those who celebrate

I have loudly declared Iron Man 3 a Christmas movie in the past and what a perfect day to watch it! It takes place over the holiday so why not?

The Shane Black film takes Tony Stark through journey exploring his own anxiety. After the Battle of New York, Tony (Robert Downey Jr.) is handling things well and when he’s trapped in a small town with a suit that doesn’t work, he has to come to terms with his own mortality while trying to stop Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce).

Look, if you’re going to sit there and tell me that Die Hard is a Christmas movie, I’m going to say the same thing about this movie. But it is also arguably one of the best movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Some fans don’t like it because it takes on darker themes for Tony Stark but it is, for me, a beautiful insight into who he is as a character.

I do think we are so connected with movies we deem as “Christmas” movies that we suffer through them when we’d rather watch something fun. Not everyone wants to watch the same movie every year. So why not allow yourselves to enjoy the holiday with Christmas adjacent movies? Like Iron Man 3?

In the movie, he meets Harley Keener (Ty Simpkins) and the two are an unlikely pairing throughout the movie. But it is this bond that makes this a perfect example of what a holiday movie should be. Well, that and Tony Stark saying Merry Christmas by the end of it but the Harley and Tony relationship is really important.

Tony has not, up to this point, been a paternal figure. He was the playboy we knew him to be. But Harley forced him into a new role.

The Christmas spirit and Tony Stark

Getting to see fatherly Tony Stark was a Christmas miracle itself. But that paired with his own mental struggles throughout the movie really made this feel like the MCU’s It’s a Wonderful Life. Just as George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) was overwhelmed by what life was throwing at him, so is Tony Stark. And Tony also gets to live a brief moment of “what if I wasn’t Iron Man.”

He obviously has to be Iron Man again to save Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) but the idea is still presented to us. And so I do believe a perfect double feature would be those two movies back to back and in my family, we’d make a great case for it.

The point in all this is that there are fun genre films you can watch this Christmas day. It doesn’t have to be the same movies you see every year. And if you want to add Tony Stark to your rotation, you can. I am here to justify it for you. Just have your mom read this and tell her I said it was okay. Moms love me, she’ll let you do it. And hey, who doesn’t love a Robert Downey Jr. movie?!