Iron Man 2
by High Definition on Jul.17, 2010, under HD Disc
Product Description
Get the ultimate Iron Man 2 experience with this special edition loaded with bonus features that take you inside the suit, plus a digital copy of the film that you can watch anywhere, anytime! Now that Tony Stark’s superhero secret is revealed to the world, he must once again suit up in order to face his most dangerous enemy yet – but not without a few new allies of his own!Amazon.com
After the high-flying adventures of the first Iron Man picture, the… More >>
July 17th, 2010 on 9:20 pm
I caught this film early and since the first movie did so well, I had some reasonable expectations going into this one. While I don’t think the movie quite met what I was expecting, it wasn’t all that bad.
The Good: The effects, obviously were pretty good. Pretty much what you would be expecting from a mainstream superhero movie. Nothing really spectacular or memorable in terms of special effects that blew me away, but the effects did their job of immersing you in the story, and that’s all they really should be doing.
The casting was also… decent. Don Chiedle was a good addition I thought and Samuel L Jackson wasn’t as unbearable as I imagined he would be when I saw him as Nick Fury at the end of the first movie. ((I have something against Sam Jackson, if he doesn’t bother you, he probably won’t in this film either.)) Also, whoever the guy is that plays they head of Stark’s rival technology company provides some pretty decent laughs throughout.
The Bad: The casting. Let’s start off with what I felt was the biggest problem. Robert Downey Jr., or maybe it was just the character of Tony Stark, came off as entirely unlikeable. I found myself liking Mickey Rourke’s character more. There just seemed to be no reason to empathize with Stark. He’s uber rich, probably the most powerful man in America, and his only real problem is some medical condition that he ends up curing later on in the film as if it’s nothing. -SPOILER- No… seriously, he literally creates a NEW ELEMENT in about 5 minutes, and this new element cures him. Awesome. Also, there’s a scene where he’s drunk in the Iron Man suit, firing off it’s weapons to show off for a bunch of drunk chicks. Whatever… Kinda funny, but mostly just irritating. -SPOILER END-
Another bad casting issue was Mickey Rourke. Not that he did a particularly bad job, just that it sorta felt like there was no reason for him to be there. I admit that I don’t know a whole lot about Iron Man villians, and have NEVER heard of Whiplash before, so maybe he actually looks a lot like the character? I dunno, either way the performance felt inconsistant and campy.
Also, I have no problem with Jon Favreau being in a movie he directed, but this felt a little overboard. I mean, sure he was in the first Iron Man movie too, but in this one, he seems to be around too much and is even in one of the fight scenes.
There is also an actress who plays an assistant to Sam Jackson’s Nick Fury, though I don’t recall the actress, and her performance was nothing memorable. Your typical “badass chick in leather catsuit” flipping around rediculously in fight scenes and showing no emotion in non-fight scenes. Meh, I’m sure that’s how the character was written so I can’t say if it’s her fault.
Editing: There seemed to be a lot of unnecessary scenes in the movie that added nothing to the overall narrative. I don’t wanna list them all out for spoiler reasons. This made the movie much longer than I felt it needed to be and much of that extra time was spent either showing how “quirky” of a billionaire Tony Stark is, which I felt we saw enough of in the first movie.
Action Sequences: This is why you see a superhero movie right? Well evidently not in this one. I won’t say too much about them, but they were, in my opinion, completely forgettable, unusually short (all of them combined probably take up 15 minutes of the movie), and just uninspired.
To summarize, I had hopes that this would be the movie to see this summer, but as it currently stands, I happen to think Kick-Ass, was an infintely better superhero movie, despite it’s flaws and moral issues.
Rating: 2 / 5
July 18th, 2010 on 12:09 am
Iron Man 2 is a huge step down from the first movie. To be fair, it is still pretty entertaining, but in many ways it is like The Incredible Hulk, except it goes in the opposite direction. Where that movie improved on Hulk in many ways(mainly by embracing the Marvel Universe), this film ends up being of comparable quality, but by comparison to the first film it is a huge let down.
Actually, in a lot of ways it’s a huge let down. There really isn’t a conflict to speak of, outside of a few plot contrivances. Tony Stark is dying. Except he’s not really dying, as it seems everyone and their brother has a way to fix his problem. Tony Stark has some corporate rivals. Except they’re jokes, never really threatening in any way. Tony Stark has someone who has a grudge against him, someone’s who might be as brilliant as Tony in a darker way. Except their confrontations are both resolved in anticlimactic moments of action. Moments, at best.
The whole problem with the film is that it is all tell and no show. Tony Stark famously says that he has privatized world peace. Except we never see anything close to him actually doing that. In the first film we got a tease of Iron Man fighting warlords and terrorists. Here, we get magazine covers and people talking about vague accomplishments of Iron Man, saying that he’s “on watch,” but we never see any of it. Then Tony has a breakdown later in the film, a drunken brawl with his friend. Nick Fury shows up and says he’s been neglecting his duty and causing messes for Fury to clean up. Except, again, we see no neglect, we see no mess.
All in all, there are only really 2 action sequences in the entire film. The first, the famous racecar showdown, is great. Legitimately great. Until it becomes a joke where John Faverau makes himself the big hero. The second big sequence is decent, but it is overly dark, and when it’s time to be over it’s just over. Iron Man whips out a couple of super weapons and ends the battle in seconds.
All in all, the problem, to my mind, seems that Faverau wanted to just let the characters riff on each other, eating up screen time cheaply and spending his money on really big but not very exciting action sequences.
That said, there are the elements of a great film here. All the returning actors are great(except Faverau himself, who is just a series of bad jokes in a part that is inexplicably prominent), and Rockwell and Rourke are fantastic as the new villains. Rockwell is hilariously smarmy and annoying, playing an arms dealer who wants to be unscrupulous and underground, but isn’t really up to being as threatening or evil as he wants to be. Rourke brings a nice quiet intelligence and menace to his role, playing well off of Rockwell and Downey. I’m actually quite glad that Faverau isn’t that involved in The Avengers, as this movie just seems like an exercise in filmmaking excess. And not even the good kind of excess, that involves over-blown action sequences.
Rating: 3 / 5
July 18th, 2010 on 2:28 am
Of course it is important to understand that this is a movie based on a comic strip. It is not and was never intended to be great cinematic art but it is a fun movie and entertaining.
Property Destruction = 4 stars — The Taliban must be dying of envy
Special effects = 3 stars — lack of creativity and more and more iron men doesn’t make the special effects better.
Screen Play = 4 stars — saved by final scene with Senator Stern which was very clever
Character Development = 4 stars — Good supporting cast
Acting = 4 stars — Downey may be a waste as a person but he has immense talent and it is fully used in this movie. Well done. Paltrow also does a great job and given a much better chance to show her talent in this sequel. Mickey Rourke also did an excellent job especially with the accent. In fact the entire cast did a great job.
Sound track = 2 stars — the sound track at the beginning was so annoying it destracted from the movie rather than enhancing it.
Personal Hygiene = 1 star — I am sort of tired of seeing the leading men walking around looking like they haven’t shaved in days or taken a bath in weeks.
Nevertheless this is a fun movie — not quite as good as the original but fun nevertheless. Downey and Paltrow are a pleasure to watch and probably saved the movie because it would be hard to imagine anyone else playing these parts.
Rating: 3 / 5
July 18th, 2010 on 2:56 am
After proclaiming to the world that he indeed is the Iron Man, Tony Stark must find a cure to prevent his death which could be due to the heart that he has installed in him. The second problem that he is faced with is in the form of certain Russian science wacko, Ivan Vanko ( Mickey Rourke ) colluding with a ratty Sam Rockwell, then there are the usual chemical attractions with his assistant ( Pepper Potts) Gwyneth Paltrow. Scarlett Johansson, along with Don Cheadle and Samuel Jackson trying to get him to join Avengers ( new movie) keep things afloat.
The first hour was great and the action fast paced to keep things interesting, some have claimed that they found the first half was boring. I thought it could have been more engaging than the first one especially if the goal is to make the sequel better than the original and not just make pots of money trading on the past glories. I found it simply okay…..Three stars…6/8/10
Rating: 3 / 5
July 18th, 2010 on 3:00 am
This review is based on the perspective of an older viewer who was asked by a younger relative to accompany him to see this film. If you fit into this category, you will be able to survive the 90-minutes or so without any real difficulty. In fact, despite all of the pyrotechnics and noisy special effects, the storlyine has elements of humor and human interest. The “Justin Hammer” and Gary Shandling characters, in particular, were hilarious and will keep you laughing.
Rating: 3 / 5