Iron Man 2 the movie - fan reaction
Warning! This is a review written by a crazy fan who got spoiled a bit by reading the novelization before seeing the movie and developed a crazy love for the aforementioned book. To follow, this fan has developed a possibly unhealthy attachment to Tony Stark from the first movie and both of the novels. In result, many of the complaints that will follow will make little to no sense for someone who has not read the novel. Or for someone who is, you know, sane. ;)
(It needs to be mentioned that I tend to overreact XD)
Iron Man 2 the movie
I spoiled myself with the novelization.
And by saying that, I don't mean that I had known the plot and it made the movie boring. No, on the contrary. I would love it if it was the case - I absolutely loved the novelization. I knew that it would be impossible to have it directly transferred to the screen - firstly, it would cause the movie to be significantly too long; secondly, some things (like characters' thoughts) are simply not easily transferable into an action movie. Still, I expected the essence of the story to be there - as it was the case with the first novel/movie. And, sadly, I was a bit disappointed.
But let as start with the positive things.
What I loved?
The humour. Some of the dialogues were simply hilarious and had the whole theatre in stitches. Tony's hearing in Washington as well as his exchanges with Justin Hammer were excellent.
Portable armour. I nerdgasmed so hard it HURT. It was fabulous, and the whole Monaco fight sequence was excellently done. Just fabulous.
Rhodey. Now here's one character who was presented quite well and none of his most important scenes got cut out. Don Cheadle did a great job.
Happy. Favreau as Happy was simply adorable. He had nice chemistry with Pepper. It's a shame that one of his best scenes that showed him in a more heroic light got cut.
Ivan Vanko. Mickey Rourke did a great job and made the character believable. It was his idea to give Ivan a pet... I liked that, it gave him more interesting personality.
Justin Hammer. Another very colourful character. Certainly, one of the most original and unusual villains. Or should it be “villain-wannabes”? Sam Rockwell was perfect for the role.
RDJ. If it wasn't for him, Tony in this sequel could have sucked so hard. As usual, his performance was top-notch. And his French is adorable. I feel for the actor who will, one day, take over Robert's role as Tony Stark.
Tony Stark's workshop. Another nerdgasm. I loved the holograms. SHIIIINY. And You and Dummy are cute. Shame they didn't get as much screen time as in the 1st movie.
The Stark EXPO. I WANT IT TO BE REAL.
What made me a sad panda?
Special effects. Seriously, they had the potential to be amazing. However, there were way too many scenes where the CGI artists either got lazy, or ran out of time... Tony/Rhodey fight, Rhodey landing at the army base, some of the scenes featuring Mark IV. Either the animation was too jittery, the colours were off, or the models didn't blend well with the background. It's just sad considering how well the first part was made - I genuinely couldn't tell where CG ended and reality started. Why the sudden regression? And it's not like the whole thing was done poorly. Those scenes that we've already seen in the trailers as well as some others were top notch, which made the botched ones stand out even more.
Furthermore, some of the effects looked really cheesy. See the moment where Tony installs his new RT. Moon Power, make up!, anyone?
Too much humour and gratuitous scenes. Too much is too much. Some of the jokes got tiring after a while. Some scenes were drawn out for too long. I didn't need to stare that much at ScarJo making googly eyes at everyone (and I really love ScarJo), or Nick Fury being campy, or Hammer molesting Vanko and making a dummy out of himself. Some scenes being simply overdrawn. It's not that those scenes were bad per se, but there were just so many much more interesting things in the script that could be brought to the screen.
Pepper. She didn't have that much print time in the novel either, but at least she was shown as a tough woman who significantly contributed to the demise of the Big Bad and could rule the Stark empire much more efficiently that Tony. In the movie she was mostly shown squeaking in distress, her competence was questioned by the media (and, sadly, Pepper resigning from the position at the end of the movie will just confirm their accusations in their eyes), and when she encountered a Mysterious Arc Reactor of Doom beeping in a time-bombish manner she just... sort of stared at it, until Tony arrived and swept her in his manly, manly arms. She stood up to Hammer, sort of, but it was a joined effort with Natasha and the SHIELD guys, and again, all Pepper did was stare. And, to be fair, call the police/security/more SHIELD guys (I forgot who exactly).
Tony. This is a character I really, really loved in the first movie and in the novels. I loved his fascinating mix of brilliance, arrogance, egocentrism, determination and drive to become a better person (although it took him quite a long time to even understand what the concept means). The problem is, in the second movie all those qualities except for egocentrism seem to have gone AWOL. Maybe I'm too harsh on him - after all, the poor man is dying. But still, he was dying in the second novel, too - and it didn't stop him from trying with every might to do something about it. Even when he was in Monaco he had Jarvis working on the problem, and couldn't wait to get back to his lab to start working again. At some point in the novel he conducts experiment number 486 out of possible 10490, and continues them until a nervous breakdown makes him want to forget everything at the birthday party. Watching him slowly wear himself down really got me feeling for him.
In the movie, rather than go back to his workshop and use whatever brain cells he has left, Tony prefers to die on Pepper somewhere on a sunny beach and possibly traumatize the poor woman for the rest on her life. Or, even worse option, hopes that the problem will magically solve itself.
And the worst thing is, it does. In the first movie we had a determined Tony who's a bout to die in a week and makes the Iron Man armour IN A CAVE!! WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!!! Here we have a wimpy Tony who needs to have the solution put under his nose by Nick Fury and Howard Stark. How it differs from the novel? In the novel it was pretty clear that if it wasn't for Tony's previous inventions (Jarvis, the Oracle grid - not the one in the movie, in the novel it was a powerful network of computers spread all over the world that Jarvis could connect to to increase his computing power, the HiPER based lasers, etc.) Howard's diagrams would be of little use. It was the combination of Howard's ingenuity and Tony's brilliance and determination that made things work. And it would take like 10-15 minutes of screentime to put that into the movie. (And I could totally find 10-15 minutes of footage that could be changed/got rid of).
Jarvis. Well, the problem is that he isn't there. He has one hilarious line early in the movie, but that's it. Which saddens me. As I had said previously, the thing that I adored in the second novel was that it didn't discard any of the characters from the first movie. Even Yinsen - or at least his memory - returned to have some influence on Tony. So did Jarvis - who evolved into an extremely competent AI, who could accomplish everything, from piloting various aircrafts, through hacking into secret databases, co-designing Iron Man suits and other technology (including a
portable PDA onto which Jarvis could download himself), finally writing a new kernel for War Machine. But it was his humanity that made him an interesting character. In some ways, he was more human than Tony was. It was funny to see him almost read in Tony's mind, occasionally spooking Tony. Their exchanges were great, and the AI made Tony think a few things over.
Maybe Jarvis was just too smart for the general public?
Tech-Ball. Another cool thing that maybe was too smart or too far-fetched for the general audience. Or maybe they just ran out of screen time... A shame. I really liked this shiny Chekhov's gun. It served many important roles in the plot: showing Tony's attachment to cool things, bringing our attention to Jarvis's snarkiness, helping (via Pepper) to obliterate the Big Bad...
...Aand that's it for now.
Do I think the movie sucked?
No, I think I just made a mistake reading the novel before watching the movie. It simply raised my expectation bar way too high (and the first movie didn't help).
For me, the second novel was even better than the first movie (not that it was bad, not at all, it's just that while the first movie was a great introduction story, the second novel could concentrate more on developing the plot, had better villains and wonderful, darker climate).
I think that Favreau tried just a bit too hard to make the movie appealing to the general audiences, so the movie got reduced to humour, action scenes, weepy scenes, and forced romance (and actually a lot of the scenes were present in the novel as well, they just had a totally different feeling when supported by other scenes that actually made them work).
And for the general audience, it seemed to work well enough - the people present at my showing seemed to have had a good time. It was not a bad movie, it just lacked the reality and grit of the first movie and the second novel.
I'll certainly give it a chance and watch it again!
And I seriously hope that some of my favourite scenes will make it at least to DVD cuts... Come on, "spanking my inner child will just make him horny"? "Nothing I love more than fruitful lines"? "Weirdly, a little horny"? "You need to find a boyfriend, you catty old woman"? "Are you proud of Hammer filling your void"? XD I went to the cinema to see those lines spoken. Come on, Favreau. I still have faith in you, do not disappoint me!
...And maybe considering Irvine to assist in writing the screenplay of the 3rd movie wouldn't be such a bad idea..? Just a suggestion.
ETA: Sorry for the typos. I did my best to correct them. *blush*
(It needs to be mentioned that I tend to overreact XD)
Iron Man 2 the movie
I spoiled myself with the novelization.
And by saying that, I don't mean that I had known the plot and it made the movie boring. No, on the contrary. I would love it if it was the case - I absolutely loved the novelization. I knew that it would be impossible to have it directly transferred to the screen - firstly, it would cause the movie to be significantly too long; secondly, some things (like characters' thoughts) are simply not easily transferable into an action movie. Still, I expected the essence of the story to be there - as it was the case with the first novel/movie. And, sadly, I was a bit disappointed.
But let as start with the positive things.
What I loved?
The humour. Some of the dialogues were simply hilarious and had the whole theatre in stitches. Tony's hearing in Washington as well as his exchanges with Justin Hammer were excellent.
Portable armour. I nerdgasmed so hard it HURT. It was fabulous, and the whole Monaco fight sequence was excellently done. Just fabulous.
Rhodey. Now here's one character who was presented quite well and none of his most important scenes got cut out. Don Cheadle did a great job.
Happy. Favreau as Happy was simply adorable. He had nice chemistry with Pepper. It's a shame that one of his best scenes that showed him in a more heroic light got cut.
Ivan Vanko. Mickey Rourke did a great job and made the character believable. It was his idea to give Ivan a pet... I liked that, it gave him more interesting personality.
Justin Hammer. Another very colourful character. Certainly, one of the most original and unusual villains. Or should it be “villain-wannabes”? Sam Rockwell was perfect for the role.
RDJ. If it wasn't for him, Tony in this sequel could have sucked so hard. As usual, his performance was top-notch. And his French is adorable. I feel for the actor who will, one day, take over Robert's role as Tony Stark.
Tony Stark's workshop. Another nerdgasm. I loved the holograms. SHIIIINY. And You and Dummy are cute. Shame they didn't get as much screen time as in the 1st movie.
The Stark EXPO. I WANT IT TO BE REAL.
What made me a sad panda?
Special effects. Seriously, they had the potential to be amazing. However, there were way too many scenes where the CGI artists either got lazy, or ran out of time... Tony/Rhodey fight, Rhodey landing at the army base, some of the scenes featuring Mark IV. Either the animation was too jittery, the colours were off, or the models didn't blend well with the background. It's just sad considering how well the first part was made - I genuinely couldn't tell where CG ended and reality started. Why the sudden regression? And it's not like the whole thing was done poorly. Those scenes that we've already seen in the trailers as well as some others were top notch, which made the botched ones stand out even more.
Furthermore, some of the effects looked really cheesy. See the moment where Tony installs his new RT. Moon Power, make up!, anyone?
Too much humour and gratuitous scenes. Too much is too much. Some of the jokes got tiring after a while. Some scenes were drawn out for too long. I didn't need to stare that much at ScarJo making googly eyes at everyone (and I really love ScarJo), or Nick Fury being campy, or Hammer molesting Vanko and making a dummy out of himself. Some scenes being simply overdrawn. It's not that those scenes were bad per se, but there were just so many much more interesting things in the script that could be brought to the screen.
Pepper. She didn't have that much print time in the novel either, but at least she was shown as a tough woman who significantly contributed to the demise of the Big Bad and could rule the Stark empire much more efficiently that Tony. In the movie she was mostly shown squeaking in distress, her competence was questioned by the media (and, sadly, Pepper resigning from the position at the end of the movie will just confirm their accusations in their eyes), and when she encountered a Mysterious Arc Reactor of Doom beeping in a time-bombish manner she just... sort of stared at it, until Tony arrived and swept her in his manly, manly arms. She stood up to Hammer, sort of, but it was a joined effort with Natasha and the SHIELD guys, and again, all Pepper did was stare. And, to be fair, call the police/security/more SHIELD guys (I forgot who exactly).
Tony. This is a character I really, really loved in the first movie and in the novels. I loved his fascinating mix of brilliance, arrogance, egocentrism, determination and drive to become a better person (although it took him quite a long time to even understand what the concept means). The problem is, in the second movie all those qualities except for egocentrism seem to have gone AWOL. Maybe I'm too harsh on him - after all, the poor man is dying. But still, he was dying in the second novel, too - and it didn't stop him from trying with every might to do something about it. Even when he was in Monaco he had Jarvis working on the problem, and couldn't wait to get back to his lab to start working again. At some point in the novel he conducts experiment number 486 out of possible 10490, and continues them until a nervous breakdown makes him want to forget everything at the birthday party. Watching him slowly wear himself down really got me feeling for him.
In the movie, rather than go back to his workshop and use whatever brain cells he has left, Tony prefers to die on Pepper somewhere on a sunny beach and possibly traumatize the poor woman for the rest on her life. Or, even worse option, hopes that the problem will magically solve itself.
And the worst thing is, it does. In the first movie we had a determined Tony who's a bout to die in a week and makes the Iron Man armour IN A CAVE!! WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!!! Here we have a wimpy Tony who needs to have the solution put under his nose by Nick Fury and Howard Stark. How it differs from the novel? In the novel it was pretty clear that if it wasn't for Tony's previous inventions (Jarvis, the Oracle grid - not the one in the movie, in the novel it was a powerful network of computers spread all over the world that Jarvis could connect to to increase his computing power, the HiPER based lasers, etc.) Howard's diagrams would be of little use. It was the combination of Howard's ingenuity and Tony's brilliance and determination that made things work. And it would take like 10-15 minutes of screentime to put that into the movie. (And I could totally find 10-15 minutes of footage that could be changed/got rid of).
Jarvis. Well, the problem is that he isn't there. He has one hilarious line early in the movie, but that's it. Which saddens me. As I had said previously, the thing that I adored in the second novel was that it didn't discard any of the characters from the first movie. Even Yinsen - or at least his memory - returned to have some influence on Tony. So did Jarvis - who evolved into an extremely competent AI, who could accomplish everything, from piloting various aircrafts, through hacking into secret databases, co-designing Iron Man suits and other technology (including a
portable PDA onto which Jarvis could download himself), finally writing a new kernel for War Machine. But it was his humanity that made him an interesting character. In some ways, he was more human than Tony was. It was funny to see him almost read in Tony's mind, occasionally spooking Tony. Their exchanges were great, and the AI made Tony think a few things over.
Maybe Jarvis was just too smart for the general public?
Tech-Ball. Another cool thing that maybe was too smart or too far-fetched for the general audience. Or maybe they just ran out of screen time... A shame. I really liked this shiny Chekhov's gun. It served many important roles in the plot: showing Tony's attachment to cool things, bringing our attention to Jarvis's snarkiness, helping (via Pepper) to obliterate the Big Bad...
...Aand that's it for now.
Do I think the movie sucked?
No, I think I just made a mistake reading the novel before watching the movie. It simply raised my expectation bar way too high (and the first movie didn't help).
For me, the second novel was even better than the first movie (not that it was bad, not at all, it's just that while the first movie was a great introduction story, the second novel could concentrate more on developing the plot, had better villains and wonderful, darker climate).
I think that Favreau tried just a bit too hard to make the movie appealing to the general audiences, so the movie got reduced to humour, action scenes, weepy scenes, and forced romance (and actually a lot of the scenes were present in the novel as well, they just had a totally different feeling when supported by other scenes that actually made them work).
And for the general audience, it seemed to work well enough - the people present at my showing seemed to have had a good time. It was not a bad movie, it just lacked the reality and grit of the first movie and the second novel.
I'll certainly give it a chance and watch it again!
And I seriously hope that some of my favourite scenes will make it at least to DVD cuts... Come on, "spanking my inner child will just make him horny"? "Nothing I love more than fruitful lines"? "Weirdly, a little horny"? "You need to find a boyfriend, you catty old woman"? "Are you proud of Hammer filling your void"? XD I went to the cinema to see those lines spoken. Come on, Favreau. I still have faith in you, do not disappoint me!
...And maybe considering Irvine to assist in writing the screenplay of the 3rd movie wouldn't be such a bad idea..? Just a suggestion.
ETA: Sorry for the typos. I did my best to correct them. *blush*