[MacBlayne]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

Not sure I agree with your scoring, with The Beyond probably a 9/10, City of the Living Dead probably 8/10 and The House by the Cemetery about the same, perhaps a point lower, but still a wonderfully gruesome and atmospheric film.

I really enjoyed Iron Man 3, but don't think it is as good as, nor has the longevity of, the better films in the Gates of Hell Trilogy. As I recently bought Iron Man 2, which I thought was very weak, I'm looking forward to watching those three back-to-back and seeing if they stand up as a trilogy whether you need the other films in the Marvel Universe to supplement them and make a coherent series. Saying that, the Gates of Hell Trilogy isn't really a trilogy in the narrative sense of something like The Matrix or Godfather trilogy is, but more akin to the 'Three Colours' trilogy.

I think Iron Man 3 is the only one of these Marvel films I like (Blade and Punisher: Warzone don't count as they were made outside of Marvel), and I put that down to Shane Black even if it is his weakest work. The script is a atypical of him, witty one-liners, some character depth and rather engaging mystery plot. The film falls apart in the last half-hour though, as it has to become another bloody superhero film with CGI fireworks everywhere.

As for how it stands against the MCU, pretty well. I think there's only Tony's panic attacks brought by the ending of Avengers. But, it is mentioned what happened so you don't need to see any other film.