In all the commotion surrounding the holidays, it can be hard to keep focus on the really important things. For example, the momentary excitement over a Wii U could, for just a moment, make someone forget that there is a new Iron Man movie being released in less than five months.
Marvel knows this, and the studio sent out a special Christmas reminder this week via the Iron Man Facebook page. A new photo posted to the page features Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, standing in the snow and staring up at a “Happy Holidays” greeting. His arc reactor glows in the twilight as the snowflakes fall.
It’s unclear whether the photo is a still from the upcoming movie or simply a photoshopped teaser for fans. What is clear is that Iron Man 3 will kick off the summer 2013 movie season on May 3, complete with new director Shane Black and Ben Kingsley as The Mandarin.
Ever since characters like Iron Man began to enter the public consciousness thanks to films and renewed interest in comics, more attention has been spent on ways to make super suits a reality. While Iron Man may never happen, the guys at Harvard are hard at work on the next best thing.
The Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences just received a $2.6 million contract from DARPA that will enable the research and creation of a “smart suit” to augment the abilities of soldiers in the field. We’ve seen these so called “smart suits” before and they never really amount to anything. Let’s just be glad Harvard isn’t making something this stupid:
While the terrible G.I. Joe film’s accelerator suits will never come to fruition, Harvard’s suit is far more interesting. The suit has the potential to “delay the onset of fatigue, enabling soldiers to walk longer distances, and also potentially improve the body’s resistance to injuries when carrying heavy loads.” While it might sound like Iron’s Man suit, it’s actually more of a soft frame. Here’s an illustration from the researchers:
In fact, it would be better than Iron Man’ suit because it’s not cumbersome or heavy. Tony Stark requires a lot of energy to power his suit, whereas this would require very little. It does this by “providing low-level mechanical vibrations that boost the body’s sensory functions.” The suits won’t be able to shoot beams or fly, but they should prove to be a low-cost way to improve functions for not only soldiers, but the elderly and those with disabilities.
Of course, this is only the beginning. As technology progresses, we’re going to start seeing more cybernetic implants that help improve our core basic functionality. Let’s just hope that people are ready for the change. I don’t want to be attacked in a McDonald’s just because I have a cybernetic arm or leg.
Iron Man 3 footage debuted at this year’s San Diego Comic Con, a fact which has caused those who weren’t in attendance plenty of aggravation and irritation, I’m sure. Even as someone who is slowly growing tired of the superhero movie trend, I’m curious to see the footage in action. Since director Jon Favreau is stepping down to allow “Lethal Weapon” scribe Shane Black a chance to tackle the project, it will be interesting to see if the film can stay true to the first two entries in the series. Since a lot of people I know didn’t care for “Iron Man 2” — I didn’t think it was that bad, to be perfectly honest — I suppose the franchise has nowhere to go but up.
According to MSNBC, the footage confirms that Ben Kingsley will, in fact, portray Iron Man’s arch enemy, the nefarious Mandarin. In addition to a “dance sequence” featuring Tony Stark in a brand new suit of body armor, the clip showed our hero’s mansion getting blown to smithereens by an “airborne firing squad”. Apparently every piece of equipment Stark owned gets obliterated as a result, forcing him rebuild from the ground up. Sounds interesting.
Black stated that the film is currently half shot, and as long as they “don’t f–k up the rest, it’s going to be great.” I’m hoping they don’t mess anything up, either, especially since the character is still riding high on the buzz created by “The Avengers”.
Curious to see some “Iron Man 3”-related images? The images lie below.
