The Reel Rejects - IRON MAN 3 FIRST TIME WATCHING – Tony Stark Finally Wins Over Jackie & Paige!

Episode Date: October 7, 2026

TAKE AWAY HIS SUITS, HIS HOME, AND HIS CONFIDENCE. IS TONY STARK STILL IRON MAN?! Limited Time Offer – Make healthy eating simple. Get Huel today with my exclusive offer of 15% OFF online with my code https://www.huel.com/REJECTS. New Customers Only. Thank you to Huel for partnering and supporting our show! Jackie Bonsignore & Paige Kimsey watch Iron Man 3 (2013) for the first time as Jackie & Paige’s MCU journey enters Phase Two! In this Iron Man 3 full movie reaction and review, they follow Tony Stark after The Avengers as panic attacks, insomnia, and a dangerous new enemy force him to confront who he is without the armor. Jackie & Paige react to the Malibu mansion attack, Tony’s friendship with Harley Keener, the Air Force One rescue, the Mandarin reveal, Pepper’s Extremis transformation, the House Party Protocol, and Tony destroying his suits with the Clean Slate Protocol! Iron Man 3 Full Movie Reaction Watch Along:   / thereelrejects   Directed and co-written by Shane Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, The Nice Guys), Iron Man 3 stars Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man (Oppenheimer, Sherlock Holmes), Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts (Se7en, Shakespeare in Love), Don Cheadle as James Rhodes/Iron Patriot (Hotel Rwanda, Ocean’s Eleven), Guy Pearce as Aldrich Killian (Memento, L.A. Confidential), Rebecca Hall as Maya Hansen (The Prestige, Godzilla vs. Kong), Ben Kingsley as Trevor Slattery/The Mandarin (Gandhi, Shutter Island), and Ty Simpkins as Harley Keener (Insidious, Jurassic World). Jackie & Paige discuss Tony Stark’s post–Battle of New York trauma, the divisive Mandarin twist, Extremis, Tony and Pepper’s relationship, Shane Black’s Christmas-movie style, the massive finale, and how Tony’s evolution leads toward his future mentorship of Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Follow Jackie Bonsignore: https://www.instagram.com/jackiebonsignore/ Follow Paige Kimsey https://www.instagram.com/paige.popcorn?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D Intense Suspense by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Follow Us On Socials:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/  Tik-Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@reelrejects?lang=en Twitter: https://x.com/reelrejects Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ Music Used In Ad:  Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Happy Alley by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Co-Editor: John Humphrey Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM:  FB:  https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Citizens of the Reject Nation. My name is Jackie. And I'm Paige. And we are here today to watch Iron Man 3. How are you feeling, Paige? I'm feeling really good. I'm excited, but also, meh. Me?

I mean, I know Mickey's not going to be here. Oh, yes. I get it. I mean, it's whatever. Well, I am actually, I know I've given Iron Man some shit, but I woke up this morning, and I did a check-in with myself. And I realized I'm actually really excited for this film.

I am, too. I think that the more that we've watched more of the Iron Man films have been some of my favorites. And while I understand that he's in the beginning of his arc, and it's going to span much longer. So I'm more open-minded to watching it. Yes, I agree. I mean, he really, yeah, I think he's going to be a lot of fun.

Yeah, I think he's one of my favorites for sure. He is a really, really entertaining. I agree. I'm like, he is a really, really entertaining character. I just was, I woke up remembering that Mickey, like, self-destructed. And I just know he's not going to be here. Maybe he's going to come back. You know, let's watch.

Maybe his ghost. Let's find out. You're a heel for sponsoring this video. More on them in just a bit. We just watched our own. We just. What did you think? Um, I liked it.

I feel like this is finally kind of what we've been waiting for. We finally saw Tony mature a little bit. His comeuppance. Saw him deny a few drinks. Made me feel good about some of his habits. When did he deny his drink? Somebody offered him a drink. He said no thanks.

At the bar? Where was it? It was somewhere somebody offered him a drink. I believe you. I loved his, I actually really loved his friendship with the little boy. I think that he, I loved that. I loved that he didn't treat him like, like he talked to him like he talked to everybody else, but it did feel like that had a little bit.

It showed his maturity a lot through this. Obviously not so concerned with being a playboy and a billionaire and like really his solo journey. I think it was a great ending so far to what we know about Iron Man. So that was great. We saw her in the prestige. Yes. Rebecca Hall. We saw her in the prestige.

We watched something with her recently. Speaking of, me and Pages and Tara's reaction to the prestige is out on YouTube now. It is. That was a crazy twist. That was a crazy one. I knew we had seen her recently. You're like, we saw it. I think this one also had some really fun action sequences, too.

The house was amazing. Just to see that mansion kind of like get destroyed was kind of fun. I mean, when we watched Avengers yesterday, I feel like I literally said, that one of my things was the action sequences sometimes I just drift a bit like Mark Ruffalo, you know? I'm just, I'm not that kind of doctor. But this one

I really felt captivated. It was really I don't know, something about all the suits and the shipping containers and everything like moving and flying around. Yeah, that the ending one was fantastic, but I'm also thinking about like the house. The house and the one in the air. The one in the air where he saved

11 people. Yeah, there were some really original of fun action sequences. This film really stressed me out. Yeah, I can see that. And I think that that maybe has to do with him being such on like a solo journey through this one too. Maybe that's because we just came off of Avengers too where it was like the team altogether. Well, no, but he was like really isolated, I think.

And we didn't have eyes on pepper for a lot of it when we at least like had that through line before. But don't you think that helped the like maturity of things too? I think him being alone with. no suit and kind of having to go back to his roots at one point when Harley the kid is like, you're a mechanic, so why don't you just build something? Right. I like that he had to reconnect to that, you know? Yeah. And then I really like the post-credit scene, because it's the fact that he even is wanting to dive into his childhood at the end with Mark Ruffalo. It just shows that he is having some growth, you know? I don't know. I thought that was like, it was a nice little.

He also had that really sweet, vulnerable moment with Pepper after she got mad about almost kissing the android and he came downstairs and he was like I haven't been right since New York I haven't slept I you know what I mean like those were again just really moments of him being real and vulnerable and I know that's what we've been craving for you Tony that was such that's such like a stereotypical couple thing of her going do you think I didn't notice and him going I know that this is shocking yeah she's like yeah I know I once had one of those nights where I forgot to grocery shop, so I opened the fridge like six times as if food was going to respawn. So I made dinner out of one piece of flavorless keto bread, peanut butter, and leftover grapes.

That's not dinner. That's what they slide under the door when they're trying to get information out of you, which I've tried on many people before. But that is a day where I wish I had Huell sitting there. And honestly, that's why Huell has stuck with me for, wow, like over two years now. I use it whether we're sponsored or not. That is the truth. Used it during my cut last year. Coy also drank it so often during his cut for his wedding. He looks great still.

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Let's do it. Yeah, yeah. Daniel Gehan writes in and says, Hi, Daniel. Do you think this was a satisfying step in Tony's character development going back to the first Iron Man? Absolutely. Absolutely.

Yes. Absolutely. He really, like, in the first Iron Man, especially when we were in the fake layer of the Mandarin in Miami, he would have made some gross comments about the women. Right, right. and we didn't see that. He's still got a mouth on him.

Yeah, I mean, he's still a smart ass on him. He's a smart ass, but that's part of his character. It is, and his appeal, too, is because he's very quick and clever also. And like I said, too, he's not, like, watering things down even when he's with the kid. He's saying the same stuff he's going to say to anybody else. Yeah. I got to like that. And it was still nice at certain points, like, you know, made up for it.

Absolutely. Yeah, and wait, I had one more thing. What was I going to say? Oh, and I feel like Kind of is what the main villain wanted But we did see a lot more of his desperation And I didn't feel like he was pretending Not to care as much in this one

Yeah, I thought it was really nice Yeah, it was about protection actually Especially of Pepper I really liked the bad guys I know it was gross I like their I just like it was cool yeah They looked like human volcanoes to me

at times. It was magma and would like burn it off and then it would grow back. Yeah. Well, it was funny because we started out with Tony having so much like PTSD about what he experienced with the wormhole and the aliens and all these other things. And then the main villains feast species in these films were humans, but biologically engineered to the point where they almost like resembled a weird superpowered alien thing. You know, very cool.

It made sense to have them like kind of addicted to this thing. thing too. So like I said, I was like, how does he have so many people on these productions? Well, yeah, he's giving them drugs basically. They made them feel powerful and made them forget. And they want more. Or they really were too. Yeah, cool, cool. Let's go to Captain Fernandez. Hi, Captain. Hi, Captain. The Mandarin reveal divided audiences when the movie was released. Personally, I preferred the Mandarin over Aldrich Killion. That is a tough name. because before the twist, he was way more interesting than the standard MCU villain. What do you think?

Should they have used the Mandarin as a straightforward villain? Or do you like the twist and pivot with Killian? I really like the twist and pivot because in the first half of the movie, I try to not get political in my reviews. I think with these films, like especially this one, it's kind of hard not to because it's like, well, there's a very clear, like, it is very clearly like about the war on terror. Yeah. I liked the pivot. I liked the pivot a lot too. I really liked the pivot.

It made it more interesting and just like less of a very obvious C pro-military propaganda thing. I agree. I also like the pivot because it was, I think that we just kind of like the whole production, the kind of theatrical spectacle of that was just, it made it more interesting. I think it made it more. You know what I mean? To pull back and see just like the lighting equipment. and those things.

And again, like, it gives us a bit of a humor break in what could be some very heavy political messages as well. Yeah. Especially with, like, a third film, I want it to be a little, I want the storyline to be a little more complex and intricate and layered. We're ready for that. It would have been a little too easy and boring, I think, if it stuck. But I also, we haven't read the original comics, so we understand that, you know.

Many people may have been disappointed. Yeah, but we liked it. It divided folks. It got them talking. Cody Price writes in and says, Hi, Paige and Jackie. Jackie has said that she has not seen Iron Man go through that growth that she wants yet.

Just curious, after the third Iron Man film, have you seen that growth that you wanted to see for Iron Man? Yes. Yes. I think we saw it. Are you satisfied with the come up? Am I satisfied? Am I satisfied?

I think we're on our way. You need to see him with all the Avengers to see if it's real, to see if there's really been enough growth. I think we're really getting there because he was still pissing me off yesterday in the Avengers, but I think we're really getting there. Now I need to see if it sticks. If it sticks, yeah, exactly. I'd like to see if it sticks.

Yeah, that's my answer. Kevin B or Kev B. Hey, Kev B. What do you think of how they handled the whole Iron Man three Mandarin situation, driving Trevor Slatery. Slatery? Slatery. Slatery.

Maybe. Back into poke fun at the whole twist is a wild swing. Did you find it funny? Trevor Slatery played the actor that was the Mandarin. Oh, I see, I see, I see. I was like, that was taking me a moment. That guy's name is Trevor Slattery. I thought it was fun.

He does not give Trevor? He does not give Trevor. At all. But also I'm sure that he looks, I mean, I bet he looks. I mean, I know him from, I feel like he's a pretty well-known actor, right? I've definitely seen him another. I don't know if you, oh. Oh, he's a character.

Yeah. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I thought that was the character. Yeah. Duh. Oh, my God. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.

Sorry, sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, he played Gandhi. Yeah, he played Gandhi. And he also was in Shutter Island. He was? Yeah, he was in Shindler's.

Oh, my God. He's been around for a long, long. How old is he? He's in Shutter Island right now. Who was he in Shutter Island? I think he was one of the... You know what sucks? The doctors, yeah.

Right. Oh, my God. You know what sucks, patrons? Is that like a month or two before I got this gig, I watched Shutter Island for the first time. Oh, that's such a good movie. And the only person that got to see me react is my cat. And I was, oh, my God, I was shook. Yeah.

It was so good. It was a great one. I thought that it was really fun. Yeah, I think that it showcased Ben Kingsley in a fantastic way. I mean, we know he's a great actor. But it was, again, really fun to have some humor in that because, man, it was some real heavy stuff there at the beginning.

It was-concerning. It was really heavy-handed. And it felt very, yeah, it felt, I think from a 20-26 lens, I was like, okay, I'm not actually going to say anything. I feel very uncomfortable. Yeah. So I think it really worked. But me and Paige are a huge fan of that twist that they did.

Yeah. So. Agreed. Makes you think. Maurice Jr. Maurice Gray Jr. Ladies, what do you think of Tony having to handle so much danger without any armor? I really liked seeing it because it was like, yeah, sorry, you go.

I was just going to say, I think it was a great metaphor for him being vulnerable. That's literally what I was saying. I was going to say it's a physical, it was a physical manifestation of him being more vulnerable. Yeah. I loved it. Yeah. I just liked that he was kind of on his own a lot, too, especially without the, the, the armor, but just on his own, especially because it dealt so much with the themes of like distractions

too, where he didn't have anything else to distract him, right? That was hitting me a little close to home. Yeah. Somebody's going to ask us about our hobbies here. I was waiting for it. I bet. Don't you think? They talk a lot of all hobbies. Well, no one cares about our hobbies. Nobody cares. Our hobby is this. Alex, I think that whoever puts, together. The questions accidentally cut off your name, Alex, but Alex, writes in and says,

Hi, Paige and Jackie. Hi, Alex. Originally, Maya Hanson was the main villain of the film, but an early Marvel executive, who's now gone, wanted a male villain because he believed male characters sold more toys. So the character was split between

Maya and Aldrich Killian. Guy Pearce is certainly a great actor, but do you think that split character is a better story? No, I wish that it was just Maya kind of. I wish it was just Maya, too. Now that I know that especially. Yeah.

I really wish it was just Maya. Because it kind of was like a great storyline for her because she had like had this romantic past with him. That to me would have been far more interesting. That would have been far more interesting. And then I would have almost liked it as well if Maya was kind of like also still kind of seducing pepper. Yeah. You know, because Tony could have had some great one-liners about like it's just because you're jealous. And she's like, no.

No. Babe, she's the trophy. Right, right, right. Yeah, I don't know. That would have been way better. That would have been way better. Oh, why'd you tell us, Alex? Now we're a bad.

Jaden. Jaden Rhodes. Hey, Jaden Rhodes. I've always found this one to be the most underrated MCU movie because I absolutely love it. It's not perfect, but I never hate, I never understand.

But I never understand the hate this movie gets. I'm curious if y'all agree and would y'all rank the three Iron Man movies. I think from best, from worst, it's one, three, two, in my opinion. I don't like when we have to, I know that that's our job. I hate ranking. They love to make us do it. I mean, nobody's going to like this, but I really like to. I liked two for so many reasons. What, too, at Scarjo. It had Scarjo. It had Mickey. You love Mickey. But I like, listen, I like Mickey, but I also just like liked his like whips like that car scene and two was so cool i liked this one a lot though

too now i'm like having a hard time recalling everything in one i'm gonna i don't know i'm gonna really struggle hold on plot points plot points plot points so iron man we've been watching a lot of movies guys so he's yeah it's the original where he's kidnapped he refines the okay i think for me it's three one two don't be mad at me You like three the best? Yeah, I had the most fun. I might be one, two, three. I don't know.

I really liked three also. I like this one and it felt like the propaganda was a little less heavy-handed. Yeah, well, and it was the payoff that we want. Well, maybe not fully the payoff, but it was the progress. The progress that we wanted. I think, you know what? I just, you're going to be mad. I just don't like Mickey work that much.

But like what else about two? I'm like, you can not like it, but you have to give me more than one reason than Mickey. I didn't like Mickey. Why didn't you like him? Hold on, let me figure this off. He was a wonderful villain. Let me name some other things I didn't like. I don't know.

She's Googling things to hate. Reasons to not like Mickey. Reasons to not like me. It's just very hard for me to not always give number one credit. I don't know. I just liked this. I had more fun. Can I just say that I had more fun with this one?

Sure. There. Absolutely. You can say that. Yeah. I mean, you're wrong, but you can say it. Mine might be 213. I don't know.

Ask me tomorrow. I needed to sit with me for a moment. Honestly, whenever we rank, ah, whenever we rank anything, I, and then I get reminded of how I ranked it. Like, I'll go in the comments and I'll be like, I can't believe you ranked it like that. I'm also like, wow, I can't believe I ranked it like that. I disagree. I feel like I need to, like, write it down, actually.

Yeah. I keep forgetting my notebook I brought at home on accident on my desk. Yeah, mine is in my copy. Is that it? That's it. Wow. That's it, baby snake. I can't believe nobody cares about our hobbies.

Page, I care about your hobbies. everyone's clicking off. Right? No, they clicked off when I said, this is U.S. military propaganda. They clicked off hours ago. Hours and hours ago. Paige, what's your hobby?

I really don't have any. I really don't. I don't think. Keeping my children alive is pretty much number one hobby. Oh, my God. I'm breaking this. All right, guys, well, that's it for today. Wait, do you have a hobby?

Oh, I have a hobby. Do you? I'm asking you. My hobby is watching movies with me. Is watching movies with Paige. My hobby is I do a lot of work on my house. Oh, that's nice. I do a lot of work on my house and I golf and...

You golf? I didn't know that. I golf. And I like painting. Look at you. You're so well-rounded. I'm so round. I try to keep my children alive. I do a lot of dishes.

It's about a hobby. I mean, it keeps you from having a real hobby. I'll put it that way. All right, guys. Well, Paige's hobbies, watch you movies. It is definitely. All right. We'll see you next time.

Bye.