Same guy, new suit
Saw Iron Man 2 this afternoon. Enjoyed it. Thumbs up. It was loud, it was flashy, it was comic-booky. Perhaps it didn't quite carry the emotional depth of the first one, but that's because the first one had the origin story, and Iron Man's got a pretty good origin story. I thought the fight scenes were more effective, which is definitely an improvement on the first one.
I actually expected this movie to have a sophomore superhero jinx. Things were pointing that way -- too many villains, too many heroes, too many characters period, but it really worked out OK in my opinion. Mickey Rourke is the villain; Justin Hammer is there, sure, but he never really rises to the level of "villain." He's not effective enough. In fact, wasting Justin Hammer as a character is probably my primary complaint about the movie. He's nowhere near as effective as his comic counterpart (who is also known for employing supervillains), and I think we probably didn't need another evil businessman type villain after Stane in the last movie. What we really needed was a classic Iron Man villain...like the Crimson Dynamo.
Which is exactly what we got, to be honest. Sure, the character was named Whiplash, but if you look at the comics, Mickey Rourke wasn't playing Whiplash (an effete mercenary with a thing for whips); he was playing Crimson Dynamo, who has about 10 different origin stories, but many of them involve the Soviets attempting to make their own Iron Man. Crimson Dynamo is too good of an Iron Man villain to pass up, and this is about the only way to make him work in a post-Cold-War era, so well done to the writers for figuring that out.
As usual, Robert Downey Jr. was excellent. To the nerds, it's obvious that he's playing the version of Tony Stark from Marvel's Ultimate line, since the "regular" Tony Stark is something of a hero. Maybe not the best one, but definitely heroic, selfless, and responsible. Ultimate Tony Stark is arrogant, self-destructive, and careless, and I can't stand him. I can't stand any of the Ultimates, really, so that's no surprise. But Downey makes me like what's essentially the same character, which is remarkable. I was cheering his snarky one-liners during the Senate committee meeting, which surprised me.
Yes, the "let's invent a new element...which conveniently comes in triangular form" thing was stupid. Almost disbelief-breaking stupid. Fortunately, I managed to edit in "substance" for "element" in my head, and everything worked OK after that. Generic movie unobtanium; I'm fine with that.
I enjoyed Sam Jackson's larger role in this movie, and SHIELD appearing to be both competent and dedicated, as opposed to the background presence they've been so far. I'm totally OK with ramping up the "shared universe" elements in this movie, since, as a comic fan, I can follow the connections with ease, because I already know what they are. Maybe if you're on the outside of that fandom, it looks like unresolved plot threads, I don't know.
I was also OK with Don Cheadle as Rhodey, which I didn't expect to be. I thought Terrance Howard did a fine job in the first one (which I watched last night), so I didn't think replacing him was necessary. I still don't, but I'm not holding it against Cheadle, either. I don't really think either was better in the role, although I did like Cheadle's delivery in the final scene he was in.
And yeah, I'm a nerd, so I loved the comic book references. I loved the Black Widow's wrist-thingies. I loved the references to Happy Hogan's boxing background. I loved the two seconds that Mrs. Arbogast appeared. The only thing I would have loved more is if the SHIELD agent had been named Jasper Sitwell, but that ship sailed in the first movie.
Final verdict: A total summer action movie; worth seeing. And I'm feeling good about the Captain America, Thor, and Avengers movies as well.
And oh yeah...if you don't already know, just because it's a comic-book movie: Stay until after the credits.
I actually expected this movie to have a sophomore superhero jinx. Things were pointing that way -- too many villains, too many heroes, too many characters period, but it really worked out OK in my opinion. Mickey Rourke is the villain; Justin Hammer is there, sure, but he never really rises to the level of "villain." He's not effective enough. In fact, wasting Justin Hammer as a character is probably my primary complaint about the movie. He's nowhere near as effective as his comic counterpart (who is also known for employing supervillains), and I think we probably didn't need another evil businessman type villain after Stane in the last movie. What we really needed was a classic Iron Man villain...like the Crimson Dynamo.
Which is exactly what we got, to be honest. Sure, the character was named Whiplash, but if you look at the comics, Mickey Rourke wasn't playing Whiplash (an effete mercenary with a thing for whips); he was playing Crimson Dynamo, who has about 10 different origin stories, but many of them involve the Soviets attempting to make their own Iron Man. Crimson Dynamo is too good of an Iron Man villain to pass up, and this is about the only way to make him work in a post-Cold-War era, so well done to the writers for figuring that out.
As usual, Robert Downey Jr. was excellent. To the nerds, it's obvious that he's playing the version of Tony Stark from Marvel's Ultimate line, since the "regular" Tony Stark is something of a hero. Maybe not the best one, but definitely heroic, selfless, and responsible. Ultimate Tony Stark is arrogant, self-destructive, and careless, and I can't stand him. I can't stand any of the Ultimates, really, so that's no surprise. But Downey makes me like what's essentially the same character, which is remarkable. I was cheering his snarky one-liners during the Senate committee meeting, which surprised me.
Yes, the "let's invent a new element...which conveniently comes in triangular form" thing was stupid. Almost disbelief-breaking stupid. Fortunately, I managed to edit in "substance" for "element" in my head, and everything worked OK after that. Generic movie unobtanium; I'm fine with that.
I enjoyed Sam Jackson's larger role in this movie, and SHIELD appearing to be both competent and dedicated, as opposed to the background presence they've been so far. I'm totally OK with ramping up the "shared universe" elements in this movie, since, as a comic fan, I can follow the connections with ease, because I already know what they are. Maybe if you're on the outside of that fandom, it looks like unresolved plot threads, I don't know.
I was also OK with Don Cheadle as Rhodey, which I didn't expect to be. I thought Terrance Howard did a fine job in the first one (which I watched last night), so I didn't think replacing him was necessary. I still don't, but I'm not holding it against Cheadle, either. I don't really think either was better in the role, although I did like Cheadle's delivery in the final scene he was in.
And yeah, I'm a nerd, so I loved the comic book references. I loved the Black Widow's wrist-thingies. I loved the references to Happy Hogan's boxing background. I loved the two seconds that Mrs. Arbogast appeared. The only thing I would have loved more is if the SHIELD agent had been named Jasper Sitwell, but that ship sailed in the first movie.
Final verdict: A total summer action movie; worth seeing. And I'm feeling good about the Captain America, Thor, and Avengers movies as well.
And oh yeah...if you don't already know, just because it's a comic-book movie: Stay until after the credits.