This summer brings us the box office battle of the Man of Iron versus the Man of Steel. As money keeps rolling in for both gargantuan blockbusters, which do you think was actually the better movie, ‘Iron Man 3’ or ‘Man of Steel’? Cast your vote in our poll today.
Honestly, these are both “Wait for Blu-ray” movies for me. While I like Iron Man, I’m kind of burned out on both him and superheroes in general after the barrage of comic book movies in recent years. I’ve also always been indifferent to Superman as a character. He’s just too good, pure, invincible and frankly boring, and I’m sick to death of having his origin story retold over and over again. Yeah, yeah, he comes from Krypton and grew up on the Kent farm – we get it already!
That said, if you did see both of these movies (and based on their box office returns, you probably did), which did you think was better? Keep in mind that we’re asking specifically about this summer’s movies ‘Iron Man 3’ and ‘Man of Steel’, not to any previous movie, TV or comic book incarnations of the characters.
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Daniel Pulliam
That you even had an option on this poll that included “Before Midnight” makes you absolutely, 100%, unassailably cool, Josh.
Ryan
No contest for me. Iron Man 3 was fun, but not exceptional. Man of Steel was AMAZING
Ryan
Still definitely wanna see Before Midnight as well
Jason
Though I enjoyed both I’d have to go with Man of Steel on this one. I really liked Iron Man 3 aka Tony Stark 1 but after 3 previous recent films I’m a bit burned out on the character.
Barsoom Bob
Kind of a tough one, couldn’t actually find a catagory that felt right to me. Iron man was more fun to sit through, because with Shane Black at the helm it was actually starting to skewer these comic book movies, which is what ticked off the fans so much.
Superman was a deadly earnest movie that was overblown and stretched out far more than needed to be. It is the superior movie but it was more a chore than fun to sit through. I haven’t seen any of the “Before” movies but just on general principle I think I would have to pick that one because I’m tired of the onslaught of these “men in spandex, or armor” movies.
Michael V. Shepherd
Agreed. IM3 was much more fun. MOS absolutely dragged on too long. I couldn’t believe I was actually getting tired of action. It was too much. Yeah, yeah. You got a huge cgi budget…
Elizabeth
This poll is kind of like the last presidential election. I’m not voting for the one I liked more, I’m voting for the lesser of two evils. I didn’t think Man of Steel was good but it wasn’t really bad either, just kind of “meh.” Meanwhile Iron Man 3 was actually kind of bad. But I have no real desire to see either movie again anytime soon.
Chapz Kilud
I voted for “They both suck” because you can’t do that in presidential election and I didn’t like either movies. I agree Man of Steel is slightly better. I liked the Kyptonian story which was lacking in Superman and Superman 2. But other than that the movie didn’t offer anything significant over Superman and Superman 2. For me those two movies are still better than Man of Steel. There are still two more movies for further character development on Clark Kent and Lois Lane. There are some upside to Man of Steel.
Les
Liked both movies but I do have to give the edge to Man of Steel. I do agree with the article though that I am tired of the Superman origin being told over and over. I understand all of these Superman movies span a generation or two but I have been around for all of them so enough is enough. Hopefully, there will be a sequel or two with the same actor, this time, and we can start with a new story and put the origin behind us.
The last Spider-man movie had to retell the origin on that character as well when the first major Spider-man movie had been released only 10 yrs. prior. That seemed a little odd as well even though the main actor had been replaced.
Mr Apollo
Man of Steel all way. Iron Man 3 was filled with plot holes and poorly written. It was a huge disservice to the franchise and the character. It was literally written so people could go in and think it was a good movie while it was actually all just smoke and mirrors. Even though Iron Man 2 gets a bad rap it’s still a superior movie to Iron Man 3. Iron Man 3 just set out to get people to spend lots of money on it. That’s fine, but please actually think about which was a better executed movie and story. Man of Steel actually works.
Michael V. Shepherd
And MOS had no plot holes? It actually had less of a plot.
Darkchilde
I totally agree with you about the origin. Same thing with Spiderman; I never want to have to sit through the origin again. The only thing that made me enjoy it in MoS was Russel Crow. I wanted to see Jor-el’s movie!
Josh Zyber
AuthorPrequel set-up: Father of Steel! 🙂
Julian
Spawn from balls of steel!
Julian
Darn, I thought ‘spawn’ was the part participle. Should be ‘spawned’ 🙂
Onslaught
I feel like this is gonna skew Man of Steel just because it’s the newer one. I preferred Man of Steel by a hair, only because it does have some high’s that I think were not matched by Iron Man 3, even though Iron Man 3 is a more finely crafted film. Down the road though, who knows?
Pedram
I think I’m in the minority here, having enjoyed Iron Man 3 more.
Perhaps it was because of the fact that I didn’t have high expectations for IM3 (after being disappointed by IM2) and conversely thought MOS would be the movie of the summer, and it didn’t quite live up to expectations.
Perhaps MOS was the “better” film, but IM3 was more fun for me (and I didn’t have any attachment to the Mandarin so I didn’t really care about what happened with him).
rick
mos can’t beat im3’s box office collection
Julian
‘MoS’ def can!
(horrible pun, I know)
Pedram
Haha, good one.
Joseph Rodriguez
I liked both. I really think they should have made Superman more involved with day to day crimes between humans before the others arrived. Like stopping a bank robbery, a possible bombing etc… That would have brought the film full circles
Michael
Iron Man 3 should have been called Tony Stark: Iron Man 3. There was too much Tony Stark and not enough of him as Iron Man. Also the Mandarin was a joke and really tricked us into thinking he and Iron Man was going to have a fight with him using his rings. Yeah right!! Also Iron Patriot did not see any action hardly at all. I thought Rhodey was going to get back in the suit but no chance.
Shannon Nutt
I’m ready for another Superman movie ASAP. I’m pretty much burnt-out on Iron Man…it’s only because of Robert Downey, Jr. that those movies were good – Iron Man was pretty much a “secondary” Marvel character until the movies came along.
Michael V. Shepherd
I think it is unfair to ask this question so soon after Man of Steel opened. The Nolan fanboys are still high.
Michael V. Shepherd
The question is, will Man of Steel hit $400 million domestically?
Rob Cyr
The amount of box office returns is irrelevant. It’s a good movie or not no matter how many or few view it.
Buttons Mc Boom Boom
Wow, Josh and hdd really has a vendetta against Superman. Almost every day you guys are finding a reason to hate on Man of Steel.
With that being said, this is a whole new Superman, not a sequel so an origin HAS to be told, and in this case the origin is modified and makes more sense than in previous versions and it is essential to the story but I get it, you just hate Superman because he is too good…well, he wouldn’t be SUPERMAN if he wasn’t SUPER.
I loved Iron Man and thought it was the best comic book movie that had ever come out at that point. However, after 1, the sequels got worse and worse. Iron Man 3 while it may have been fun, was essentially Pixar’s The Incrdibles and had so many plot holes and out of nowhere Tony develops anxiety?? And where the hell where the Avengers? All of a sudden Iron Man is the only hero again?
Man of Steel was the superior picture by far, better acting, dialogue, plot, and there was no disrespect to material, unlike in IM3 with the Mandarin. Man of Steel was very good the first time i saw it an absolutely amazing when I saw it in IMAX 3D last night.
And your statement about JUST asking about these summer movies and not incarnations makes your whole point about the origins being retold again and again moot.
Buttons Mc Boom Boom
That is a tough one to call Michael, most of the 12 year old audience Marvel nerds boycott it because they are too simple to appreciate a very well written movie with depth and heart.
Michael V. Shepherd
I didn’t see much heart in Man of Steel. The emotional moments seemed forced, manipulative. There was no wit. This was a super-serious movie, in the vein of The Dark Knight. What works for TDK doesn’t work for Superman. The entire last half was just a numbing orgy of cg destruction, that may as well been directed by Michael Bay. Man of Steel may have been equal to The Dark Knight Rises, which was the weakest (dumbest) in the Nolan trilogy.
LSDavinci
I watched the IM3 trailer with my kids (at their request) every night for more than a month HIGHLY anticipating the epic battle between IM and The Mandarin (need I say more?)
The same followed for MOS, every night! And due to the letdown that was IM3, I was even more anxious for MOS to arrive! And once it did, it was great! Saw it twice!
Now, was my expectations for IM3 set too high? Maybe, but my expectations for MOS was set even higher! IM3 was good for laughs and to see Rob nail the part again but MOS in my opinion hit all of the notes on key.
On a side note, is it just me or was there not enough Iron Man again? I yearned for more in the first one (the fight in the middle east should have lasted 20 minutes!). The 2nd lacked it even more (although the movie has grown on me over the months!). Anyway, MOS all the way…
zen
I did see both… And I’m going to say that Iron Man 3 was better… Iron Man 3 was humorous, it shows a different aspect of the hero without the powers meaning technology and it had lots of action, the movie kept me guessing at what will happened and it had a good ending. While I did not like the part where it got my hopes up of watching a epic battle with iron man and Mandarin and I frankly wanted a villain that can “armor up” or another. It was entertaining and action packed. Yes Superman was action packed it seemed to serious and dark while it was good like that until a point where it was too much Batman is the DARK KNIGHT not Superman. While MoS was action packed, it had good acting etc. It was too drawn out and cliché with Superman’s past. Both were good though
Cornelius
I have to go with Man of Steel. I hated the Mandarin twist. Robert Downy Jr. has made iron man probably the most interesting superhero personality of all time. Iron man’s villains are suspect, you got interesting superheros like batman who has villains who are arguably more interesting than him.
I think MOS has more going for it. The story was compelling intricate and a fresh retelling of an alien adapting to our modern society. Iron Man is always fun to watch, but his sarcastic charm will run dry without a respectful counter part to go against, just like the fate between superman and lex luthor.