11:00 PM 5/12/10 · Like a lot of folks I was eagerly awaiting Iron Man 2 in a sort of fevered haze. Finally saw it, opening weekend, and had a blast. It was a great film, filled with joy and special effects and more than a few truly evil teases as to other things, and I highly recommend it to everybody.
Is it just me or did Garry Shandlling put on extra weight for this film? I am admittedly a little fuzzy as to why Tony Stark mistook Stan Lee for Larry King...
...but other than those, great film!
Spoilery type stuffs:
This is not to say I didn't have a few issues with it. They were slight, for the most part, but they still remained. Like I thought Whiplash was well handled but I don't understand why he needed to build an entire suit of armor for himself. It's a little thing, hardly worth mentioning, but it remains fresh in my head.
Mickey Rourke plays Whiplash, the son of the man that helped Stark's father develop the arc reactor technology. There's something up with his fingers I couldn't figure out. They seem a tad inflated at the tips, much too big for such delicate electronic work. I'm not sure if this was a character thing or something specific to just how Rourke is built.
The story of Iron Man 2 is as much different as it is the same to Iron Man 1...kinda sorta maybe...ish. It's clearly a different story but it seems to develop on a character level, specific to Tony Stark, identically to the first. In both movies he starts out extremely filled with himself, massive egotist and feeling the technological superiority, then something happens that knockes him off his high horse, and then he becomes stable and self assured and humble. Which leads me to believe that if there's an Iron Man 3, although the way this movie ends I don't think Stark will be in the armor, somehow or other he's going to be starting at the same place and goe through all the motions he did in the 2 previous films.
Admittedly, there's a smidge of a difference here. Tony is dying of palladium poisoning. The element that powers the arc reactor that keeps his heart beating, which presumedly retains a slight charge as he seems fine when he's switching the battery, has been gradually leaking into his system. He is largely stumped on how to fix the problem beyond some interesint purifying drinks and the fact he won't tell anybody he's dying. This also has a lot to do with his recent bout of manic behavior because he's determined to leave a legacy, his stamp on the world, before he checks out.
Captain America's shield is clearly in this movie. We see it, though it's handled rather disgracefully. My blurb about that damned shield:
Clicky! Justin Hammer is in this and he's as much annoying as he's kinda been castrated character wise. He's a blowhard, a totally superficial individual who thinks the entire world should rise and fall between his knees. The man is beyond pathetic, the only thing going for him is he's got shitload of money. This is a far cry from the Justin Hammer of Marvel comics who was a very powerful man and not at all like this flamboyant jerkwad.
You absolutely need to keep watching until the end of the credits. I won't say why that is exactly...though the icon on this post may have something to do with that. I couldn't really say.
The trailers all allude to a romantic relationship existing between Tony & Pepper. Hate to burst your bubble, it's not in the movie. They're not together. That whole scene where she kisses his helmet and tosses it out the airplane? Not so much.
The Black Widow was as much a delight as a slight disappointment. I know this is really a canon thing with me but consider this. While he's in SHIELD for the movie and wears one of their uniforms, truthfully she's the only one we really see in one of their trademark outfits, there is something on her outfit that isn't traditional SHIELD garb. Her Widow's Bite; the bracelets/gauntlets. In the comics these both shoot her cable lines so she can webswing as well as fire energy bursts. She's wearing them in the movie but doesn't use them for anything even once. That was a little disappointing.
Getting back to Whiplash, as much as the full suit of armor bothered me...it kinda bugged me more that it was just a standard gray. I mean he's a Russian in a full suit of battle armor and even though it's clearly established that he's Whiplash, a bit of a ruddyer rust color wouldn't've put them out so much...
...yeah, I was kinda hoping futiley for a Crimson Dynamo.
Sue me.
In the first movie the arc reactor in Tony's chest powered the armor. It seems that now the one in his chest is secondary. To better manage energy, each suit of armor has its own arc reactor built into it. This is really the only way that Rhodes was able to use the silver armor when he and Tony got into it. Also, a fully dressed Tony puts on briefcase armor (silver & red goodness) and you can see the arc reactor incorporated into it as it's still forming.
I think that's about it. While I did enjoy the story, little complaints notwithstanding, there was a sort of lull in the middle. I was loving it all the way through but my enjoyment level kinda slacked off a bit for about 5 or 10 minutes in there. It wasn't that long, given the length of the film, but it was still noticeable to me.