Hard to tell if it will be retarded before the films even aired....

 

Given he has done his best to never bow to the government's demands in the past and will in this, it's a safe bet.

 

Minor nerdgasm.

As to the characters' motives... well, it's fairly straight-forward. Tony's whole point in supporting registration in the comics was his belief that such registration was coming, whether he liked it or not. Normal people are so scared by the heroes - and after Age of Ultron's set-pieces, how could they not be? - that they want some sort of protection. Better to usher that in with his influence than leave it to the normal folks out there who will likely go too far.

Remember in the first Spider-Man movie, when Goblin told Spidey, the only thing people love more than a hero is watching a hero fail? Part of the psychology behind that is jealousy, part of it is fear. Fear of what is unnatural or new or destructive, just like fear of nuclear power slowed development of that industry.

Anyway, in the movie, Tony is still feeling guilty for a series of bad decisions, the biggest being Ultron. He's changing his perspective on things based on his experiences, you know, like people do. He's realized that he was wrong, and that acting without oversight, just charging off and doing your own thing, can result in people getting hurt or killed or their entire country blowing up.

Steve's position is the same as it was in the comics: registration limits personal freedoms. (There's a more personal edge to it here, of course; if Bucky's real identity was revealed, he'd be lynched.) We saw the base of his feelings in Winter Soldier: "This isn't freedom. This is fear."

Anyway, looking forward to it ever since the title was announced, and this only made me more interested.

 

Now that would be pretty out of character. Literally the point of Age of Ultron is that Tony -this Tony- doesn't learn jackshit from his mistakes. He fucks up, and then he tries to exactly duplicate that fuckup.

 

^Presumably he's finally learnt his lesson.

Trailer looks pretty awesome, and arguments about characterisation aside, it seems a hell of a lot better thought out than the actual comic (so far).

 

Seems like they kind of missed an opportunity by not focusing a bit more on Tony and Steve's friendship in the previous movies. "So was I" sounds great, but it has next to no basis in fact considering that even throughout AoU it seemed like they could barely stand each other.

I'm down for more Bucky though; I don't know anything about the comics but he's by far my favourite part of any of the movies.

 

Very excited for this. I consider Winter Soldier the best of the MCU movies, and there is so much to like here. Black Panther, more Falcon, Bucky again, and seeing we're looking at Stark in a conflict, he'll be at his snarky best. Can't wait.

 

I think I might be the only person who's enjoyment of the Tony Stark character has dwindled from film to film.

 

I think he's different. I enjoyed him in IM1, and I enjoyed him in AoU, but he's definitely not the same character and I'm liking him for different reasons.

 

He just gets away with too much I feel. Plus I have some residual resentment regarding the plot developments of Iron Man 2 and 3 that doesn't help my view of him in the MCU. Cap's side of the MCU has firmly entertained me so much more and he's not been anywhere near as bad a taste in my mouth as Tony can be.

 

I just hate everything about Bucky.

 

Ever since FMA, I've been a sucker for robo arms, lol.

 

I felt IM3 was one of the best films tbh, the plot was around what peoples imagination can do with a little bit of fear mongering basically, plus it was a set up for Ultron in a way, in the same way IM2 set up the rest of the Avengers and what not, and IM2 aged really well.

Not a massive fan of Bucky, but we havent seen too much of him so Im open on that regard...

 

Bucky's cool with me. Downey just brings the same character to every film now (Marvel or not), so he's burned me out quite a lot.

 

LittleChicago talked a little bit about the two character arcs of the Cap and Tony that are coming into conflict here but I view it just a tad bit differently

Tony Stark's arc is about him gradually taking more and more responsibility for his actions. In Iron Man, he realizes the atrocities Stark Industries has been allowing through their weapons development and how he's turned a blind eye to the violence through his playboy lifestyle, to the point of his company illegally selling weapons to terrorists. It takes his own life-threatening experience, the sight of the Stark weapons stockpiled by the Ten Rings, and the death of the doctor in the cave to truly make him realize that he has to take some degree of responsibility for himself being so willfully blind and the actions of his company. Hence, he tries to stop all Stark weapons sales and takes up the mantle of Iron Man, destroys Ten Rings weapons stockpiles, etc. etc. etc.

Iron Man 2 has a similar message. Despite taking up the mantle of Iron Man and working to shut down warzones and such, he still isn't really taking responsibility, as shown via his Congressional hearing - aka "I have successfully privatized world peace." He's still arrogant and although he's working towards a good cause, he believes he alone is capable of handling the situation without oversight. Then, in his "prime" he's messily defeated by someone using his own technology, humbling him and showing his immense fallibility. He's forced to team up with Brody and accept at least some form of outside aid to win.

I haven't seen Iron Man 3, but Age of Ultron can be seen in a similar way. He, in his attempt to safeguard the world from threats like the Chitauri, creates a threat capable of ending human life. He owns up to it (in his own way) with the creation of Vision, to fix his own mistakes.

There's some ambiguity in it, seeing as all these probably weren't planned together all that well, but there's a definite theme of arrogance being tempered by defeat, learning humility, and learning that Tony can't do everything alone, that Tony can't "privatize world peace" like he did in Iron Man 2. He needs to work with others, with those in authority, to constrain the mighty power that people like him wield, power that can easily murder thousands or millions if unchecked. Hence, his entirely in-character support of government regulation.

Captain America, on the other hand, aside from his fervent belief in the American beliefs of freedom and such, has almost learned the opposite with the Winter Soldier. His arc is him coming to question his government. In the Winter Soldier SHIELD turns on him, is discovered to be infiltrated at almost every level by HYDRA. His best friend is used by HYDRA against him, and the new airfleet of SHIELD (improved by Tony, notably) is part of a plan by HYDRA to control the United States by force. He goes from being a commando in the army fighting the Nazi's to fighting the Nazi's within his own government and allies, and sees their attempt to use massive levels of governmental power to seize control for their own purposes.

Captain America has learned that he can't necessarily trust the American government to uphold American values and has seen an attempt to use governmental power to essentially establish tyranny over his great nation. In addition, he's just found out his best friend who he thought dead is still alive, the only person from his old life still alive to boot - one who he's grown up with his entire life, as well as fought and killed beside. He's willing to sacrifice anything to give his best friend a chance and his faith in his own government is irrevocably shaken. Hence his entirely in-character opposition to registration and regulation.

So, you very clearly have two distinct character arcs that make perfect sense for these two heroes and their own individual struggles that collide on this issue and lead to entirely understandable conflict between them. This is a big part of why I'm really excited for these movies - they're well thought out and planned consequences of the character development in past movies, and a lot of them have been leading up just to this specific film. Well, maybe the arcs aren't entirely clear, but for spanning across six or so movies they're pretty damn good.

 

apoc, IM3 is important to Tony's character arc, and a much better film than IM2. You should watch it, if only to bridge the gap.

 

And the brief bromance with that kid is hilarious.

 

I think Tony's characterization can be pulled off smoothly. Never truly bothered with a secret identity so probably less sympathetic there. Doesn't mind extreme measures for the greater good, which pro registration can claim. Cap has always pulled off the all American because of his personal freedom plus selfless nature. I think it will play well. Tony's general likability and caps biasness for Bucky makes the whole affair split closer to the middle.

 

People should watch IM3, if only for

Spoiler

which happens, dads leave, no need to be a pussy about it

But what I'm wondering is: Why the hell is Tony Stark becoming less and less likeable with every movie? We all loves him in IM1 but the likeability of his character has just gone downhill from there.