darth silas
Posts: 4949
Joined: 1/10/2005
From: My living room
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Rgirvan44
Not so keen on this one I am afraid to say.
I was a fan of the first Iron Man film. I thought it captured the light fun tone that most comic book adaptations tried to avoid in order to be dark and gritty. Of course central to that was Downey Jr. who through sheer charisma elevated the film.
However, I didn't love it. It was solid, well made, but unremarkable. This is along similar lines, albeit with some fundamental story problems which didn't exist in the first one.
There are going to be spoilers from here on in. So
SPOILERS
- Stark is going to die due to the battery keeping him alive. That is a good jumping off point for the story. But there is no follow through. There are hints that the Expo and his work as Iron Man are his way of leaving behind a legacy, but it is never really explored. Nor do we ever see Stark really struggle with the poison in his system – its just some marks on his skin. It doesn't inhibit his ability as Iron Man. When you bring in an element like that, it really should make the hero suffer in order to make the victory sweeter for the audience. Here we get "Well that was easy” and done. A sub-plot that went no where and didn't tie in with anything else in the film. But of course Downey is so charming you don't mind when watching.
- Ok, we all know who Nick Fury is. Comic book geeks know who Nick Fury is. But what about general audiences? He pops up with no introduction. If I was an average cinema goer, it is likely I would be wondering why this guy was here and how he was connected to the story. They might as well have had a title card reading "AVENGERS PREQUEL MOMENT!” In fact all the Avengers stuff was really forced into the movie.
- Rourke. It's great having a bad guy stuck in rooms for the majority of the film. In fact he was pretty much wasted in this. Would it not have been better that the characters father had actually been wronged by the Stark Snr., giving Tony some guilt about the families history? No they are bad guys, and only bad guys. Actually I suspect in early drafts this was the case (so much is focused on legacy and Starks father), and Jackson was given some new lines to read removing that element.
- The action. In a list of things we want to see in an Iron Man film, the action comes second (Downey Jr. is number one). Sadly Iron Man 2 doesn't have a whole lot. A brief scene at the start and then a bit of a longer one at the end. However the final fight feels too easy. Whiplash appears and 30 seconds later it is over.
- Pepper Potts – making her CEO might have worked if it added anything to the story. She pretty much serves the exact same role she did in the first film.
- Why are there four different models of drones for each arm of the military? Oh, that's right, so there can be four different toys made. And what is the difference between an Army Drone and a Marine Drone anyways?
- Did anyone understand how the new element thing worked? Stark figuring all that out confused me more than the bit with the bullet in the wall in Dark Knight.
- We are told Iron Man has done all these great things, but we never see it. Even a montage of him solving the world's problems would have been welcome.
- The final scenes came off as a damp squib.
- And the opening shot of Iron Man. Nothing says epic adventure like a casual shot of the back of the suit.
- The new Rhodes wasn't as fun as the old Rhodes.
- Oh yeah, Scarlett Johansson was in this. She was ok.
- "Yes Jon, your crappy fight with Security Guard No. 2 will really work in the fight montage of Iron Man vs. the robot army and Scarlett hitting people. Only as long as you promise to mug some more for the camera.”
On a more positive note, Sam Rockwell was fun. While the second act was a bit of slog there were some nice moments, and Downey Jr. was as great as always.
In this new Marvel universe I would place this third behind Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. It's not a bad film, but it is one which is hobbled by a poor story and what I suspect is studio mandated set ups for Avengers, and making sure that there are plenty of toys.
Three stars.
p.s – the secret final scene- so not worth your time staying through the credits.
I agree with almost everything you said in that review.Primarily,the whole storyline about his chestpiece failing him.It was completely unecessary and went nowhere.It would have been far better to use the Demon in a bottle storyline from the comics.That way we would have really cheered him on as he made a comeback in the third act.
Disagree with your opinion on the new Rhodes though.Don Cheadle was way better i the role than Terence Howard was.
Like you said though,its not a bad film as such,just a disappointment as the first film set the bar so high and this failed to measure up.It was nowhere near as good as other Marvel sequels like Blade 2,Spiderman 2,and X2.
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Star Wars:Episodes 1,2,3,4,5,6.Taken together they are one giant movie and it is the greatest movie EVER.
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RE: By the time the action hits, the iron is starting t... - 
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