Iron Man 2 Spoilers
A more detailed review. Specifically, costumes, as that's what I do.
So, I was not a fan of the Iron Man 2 costumes. I think they completely missed the mark. Costumes were designed by Mary Zophres, a very talented designer. Her most successful movies seem to be in 1940s to 1950s Americana, an era which is extremely important to comics to begin with. However, Iron Man 2 suffers from too much money and not enough taste.
Take Tony Stark's Expo suit, for example. It's one of the first pieces of clothing we see in the movie and it's just strange. Cut like a double breasted suit, it features invisible closures, shiny pinstripes, and a jacket long enough to make Robert Downey Jr. look like he's wearing a dress. It's really quite unfortunate. It looks expensive, sure, but then so did all the Brooks Brothers suits from the first film and those weren't distracting.
Zophres has Downey Jr. in heeled dress shoes for most of the movie. This is a pretty standard move especially as Don Cheadle is much taller than RDJ, but the shoes worn are extremely chunky, looking more like Doc Martens than fancy dress shoes. In addition, RDJ's pants are then bootcut to cover the stacked heel. Instead of expertly tailored suit pants, RDJ looks like a cowboy in business clothes. I mean, it's one approach, but the tailored excellence of the first movie just worked so well. The only time RDJ looks comfortable is when he's wearing casual clothing - probably the actor's own. His best look is when he marches into Pepper Pott's office with a box of strawberries, wearing an open jacket and slip-on Vans. Mostly because he's walking normally and not stomping around in chunky heels.
The same applies for the women. Hobble skirts and stilettos, firmly established by the first movie, make their return. But now the hobble skirts are even tighter, the stilettos equipped with platforms (maybe if we didn't put all the women in platforms, we wouldn't have to put RDJ in heels?). Scarlet, perfectly capable of walking in heels, now stumbles along in far more leopard print than Black Widow has a right to wear. Gwyneth stands prim and proper the entire film, because it's far too difficult for her to move. The dresses both women wear are beautiful in their own rights, but out of place in a comic book movie. The asymmetrical origami looks, while appropriate on the red carpet, are not as common at business gatherings or where women are dressing for power. Scarlet's dresses are just weird looking - low cut, all of them, but the dress itself looks as though it's squashing her breasts flat against her chest without giving her any cleavage. We can see her bra behind pretty much everything that she wears, but honestly - she looks far more comfortable in the catsuit.
There are two looks I do really like - Gwyneth's polkadot two piece at the race (normal looking business wear with excellent detailing) and Scarlet's first outfit with high-waisted slacks with wide legs. It works for her bodytype and allows her to do stunts at the same time. As awesome as Black Widow is, I doubt Scarlet can kick ass in a hobble skirt without ripping it to shreds.
In contrast, the costume designer of the first movie is far lower profile than Zophres, but she really appears to have pinned down the cartoon-to-real-life dynamic without going over the top.
Now for some movie specifics:
- I LOVED the Captain America shield bit. HELLO.
- I also appreciated the "How do I go to the bathroom in the suit?" gag
- Tony Stark creating a new element, wtf. Not a fan. Especially with the designs hidden National Treasure style in the layout of the Stark Expo.
- I was unsure about the particle accelerator in his basement, until I remembered that Tony Stark built the Mark I in a cave. With a box of scraps.
- As mentioned previously, having coffee with Nick Fury at a donut shop is pretty much the best part of the movie.
- Actually, everything with Nick Fury in it is the best part of the movie.
- Jon Favreau put himself in the movie WAY too much.
- The Thor Hammer landed RIGHT OUTSIDE of Albuquerque. That made me laugh. All the people commuting to Santa Fe would have seen it.
- Okay, seriously, WHAT ELEMENT did Tony Stark create? It was completely unrelated to anything else and served as a deus ex machina (ha...literally). I was hoping for some sort of Marvel related reveal, like he created Adamantium or something, but apparently not.
- I did NOT think the story was confused or had too many villains - I think everyone worked well together and the story, while weak, was relatively straight forward.
- Whiplash was taken out relatively quickly, but it was by a mechanic seen previously so the narrative was sound. However, I'm still wondering how Tony knew Pepper was still on the Expo premises.
-In case you can't tell, that NEW ELEMENT thing really bothers me. The audience even had a guilty-laugh at it, because it was so awkward.
- Whiplash was actually a far more interesting villain than I gave him credit for. Not to mention the performance was pretty good and Justin Hammer was kinda hilarious.
That's all I've got. Now I'm waiting for Prince of Persia and TLA.
So, I was not a fan of the Iron Man 2 costumes. I think they completely missed the mark. Costumes were designed by Mary Zophres, a very talented designer. Her most successful movies seem to be in 1940s to 1950s Americana, an era which is extremely important to comics to begin with. However, Iron Man 2 suffers from too much money and not enough taste.
Take Tony Stark's Expo suit, for example. It's one of the first pieces of clothing we see in the movie and it's just strange. Cut like a double breasted suit, it features invisible closures, shiny pinstripes, and a jacket long enough to make Robert Downey Jr. look like he's wearing a dress. It's really quite unfortunate. It looks expensive, sure, but then so did all the Brooks Brothers suits from the first film and those weren't distracting.
Zophres has Downey Jr. in heeled dress shoes for most of the movie. This is a pretty standard move especially as Don Cheadle is much taller than RDJ, but the shoes worn are extremely chunky, looking more like Doc Martens than fancy dress shoes. In addition, RDJ's pants are then bootcut to cover the stacked heel. Instead of expertly tailored suit pants, RDJ looks like a cowboy in business clothes. I mean, it's one approach, but the tailored excellence of the first movie just worked so well. The only time RDJ looks comfortable is when he's wearing casual clothing - probably the actor's own. His best look is when he marches into Pepper Pott's office with a box of strawberries, wearing an open jacket and slip-on Vans. Mostly because he's walking normally and not stomping around in chunky heels.
The same applies for the women. Hobble skirts and stilettos, firmly established by the first movie, make their return. But now the hobble skirts are even tighter, the stilettos equipped with platforms (maybe if we didn't put all the women in platforms, we wouldn't have to put RDJ in heels?). Scarlet, perfectly capable of walking in heels, now stumbles along in far more leopard print than Black Widow has a right to wear. Gwyneth stands prim and proper the entire film, because it's far too difficult for her to move. The dresses both women wear are beautiful in their own rights, but out of place in a comic book movie. The asymmetrical origami looks, while appropriate on the red carpet, are not as common at business gatherings or where women are dressing for power. Scarlet's dresses are just weird looking - low cut, all of them, but the dress itself looks as though it's squashing her breasts flat against her chest without giving her any cleavage. We can see her bra behind pretty much everything that she wears, but honestly - she looks far more comfortable in the catsuit.
There are two looks I do really like - Gwyneth's polkadot two piece at the race (normal looking business wear with excellent detailing) and Scarlet's first outfit with high-waisted slacks with wide legs. It works for her bodytype and allows her to do stunts at the same time. As awesome as Black Widow is, I doubt Scarlet can kick ass in a hobble skirt without ripping it to shreds.
In contrast, the costume designer of the first movie is far lower profile than Zophres, but she really appears to have pinned down the cartoon-to-real-life dynamic without going over the top.
Now for some movie specifics:
- I LOVED the Captain America shield bit. HELLO.
- I also appreciated the "How do I go to the bathroom in the suit?" gag
- Tony Stark creating a new element, wtf. Not a fan. Especially with the designs hidden National Treasure style in the layout of the Stark Expo.
- I was unsure about the particle accelerator in his basement, until I remembered that Tony Stark built the Mark I in a cave. With a box of scraps.
- As mentioned previously, having coffee with Nick Fury at a donut shop is pretty much the best part of the movie.
- Actually, everything with Nick Fury in it is the best part of the movie.
- Jon Favreau put himself in the movie WAY too much.
- The Thor Hammer landed RIGHT OUTSIDE of Albuquerque. That made me laugh. All the people commuting to Santa Fe would have seen it.
- Okay, seriously, WHAT ELEMENT did Tony Stark create? It was completely unrelated to anything else and served as a deus ex machina (ha...literally). I was hoping for some sort of Marvel related reveal, like he created Adamantium or something, but apparently not.
- I did NOT think the story was confused or had too many villains - I think everyone worked well together and the story, while weak, was relatively straight forward.
- Whiplash was taken out relatively quickly, but it was by a mechanic seen previously so the narrative was sound. However, I'm still wondering how Tony knew Pepper was still on the Expo premises.
-In case you can't tell, that NEW ELEMENT thing really bothers me. The audience even had a guilty-laugh at it, because it was so awkward.
- Whiplash was actually a far more interesting villain than I gave him credit for. Not to mention the performance was pretty good and Justin Hammer was kinda hilarious.
That's all I've got. Now I'm waiting for Prince of Persia and TLA.