Iron Man 2

Iron Man 2

Please note:  This is a TWO Chick review.  The first starts before the jump, and the second is featured after!

Warnings:  PS, ES

by Laura

Let me just begin by saying I’m a comic book geek. I love both Marvel and DC comics, but I’m more of a Marvel girl. I grew up watching and reading the X-Men and Spiderman series and LOVED THEM.  However, I’m not as familiar with the Iron Man series. But I got caught up quickly after the release of the first movie.
Jon Favreau returns as director, as well as Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark (AKA Iron Man) and Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts. Newcomers include Don Cheadle, who takes Terrence Howard’s place as James Rhodes, Scarlett Johnsson as Natalie Rushman/Romanoff, Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer and Mickey Rourke as Ivan Vanko, just to name a few of the big names. And boy does this movie surpass all my comic book expectations.

It begins in Russia with Ivan Vanko’s father dying as he’s watching Tony Stark declare that he’s Iron Man. Jealousy takes over Ivan as his father dies, saying “It should have been you” instead of Tony Stark there on the TV screen.  Ivan then gets busy creating his own weapon, thus becoming Whiplash. He waits for the time to get his revenge on Tony.

Fast forward six months to the Stark Expo. Tony obviously has fun with his invention of the Iron Man suit, as that’s how he introduced himself at the expo. People adore him (HELLO, I DO TOO). At the expo, we find out while Tony’s backstage that Tony has some health issues: What’s keeping him alive is killing him at the same time. After the expo, Tony gets subpoenaed by the Senate Arms Committee. He’s to appear in DC at 9 a.m. the next day.  Queue the senate hearing. The government wants Tony’s weapons and he absolutely refuses to hand them over, making some cracks at the senators here and there (a very well acted scene I might add). This is where we meet Justin Hammer, Tony’s main weapons competitor, who tries to discredit Tony and his use of the Iron Man outfit. Tony uses his technology to discredit Justin with classified videos of his failed Iron Man prototype failures. HILARIOUS I tell you.

Knowing that he won’t be around much longer, Tony and Pepper have a talk before they head to Madrid (I think?). He hands over his company to Pepper, who is in utter shock, because she also found out that he “gave away” a collection of paintings she had gotten together.  In Madrid, Tony has his first encounter with Ivan. Tony decides to do things his own way (after having a little talk with Natalie about what he would do if this were his last day of life) and Pepper freaks out. Ivan causes a crash and Tony and other drivers are pretty banged up. Police are everywhere, sirens going off, and Pepper and Happy (Tony’s bodyguard) get to Tony and get him the Iron Man suit.

Then, the battle begins with Tony and Ivan, with Nick Fury showing up here and there to guide Tony, and Tony’s inner demons come out, causing him to lose his best friend (Roadey) who also at the same time takes his War Machine suit and gives it to the government.  The last battles are epic, I think. Fury tries to get Stark to join the Avenger initiative, which will open up the setting for the entire superhero flick of the same name. Stick around after the closing credits, as there’s a little hint as to what other movies are to come.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. The acting, the special effects, the writing. GREAT STUFF.

I give it five robots out of five.

Warnings:  L, PS, XS

by bradeatspeeps

I am a superhero type of girl, but I have never been into Iron Man.  The character never appealed to me.  In the same way that Batman was only a superhero because he had a lot of gadgets and insane karate skills, Iron Man is only made super by his suit and his insane brain power.  The difference is that Batman is likable and actually heroic, and Iron Man is mostly just a douche.  I only watched the first Iron Man movie about a day before I saw Iron Man 2, so the story was fresh in my mind.

Iron Man 2 tells the continuing story of Tony Stark, and now his suit has made him even more famous, and he is loving it.  He is not, however, loving how Congress wants him to turn over the suit to the government.  Besides that, his rival, Hammer, is trying to duplicate the suit, and this random guy from Russia is trying to get revenge for what Tony’s dad did to his dad.

LOL WAT?

That’s basically the problem with this movie:  TOO MUCH WORDS. For an action movie, there is surprisingly little action, and what action there is…well, it’s not good.  I can find little fault with the actors in the movie, and I place the blame soley on the shoulders of the director, Jon Favreau, who does double duty as director and supporting actor.

The pacing is TERRIBLE.  The action scenes are paltry.  The action SHOTS are laughable.  This movie is just a big mess, and though I won’t say that I loooooved Iron Man, I have to say that it was a solid movie, and it was fun to watch.  Iron Man 2…not so much.

Robert Downey Jr. plays a good Tony Stark, but that is only because he ISN’T playing Tony Stark.  He is playing Robert Downey Jr.  It doesn’t matter because he makes the movie brilliant in those times when he’s not mired down by the less than stellar supporting cast.  I also can’t hate on Sam Rockwell because even though I do not like the actor, I though he was a perfect weasely foil.  My biggest complain about the cast of this movie is Mickey Rourke.

I love Mickey Rourke.  Mostly because you can tell he’s absolutely batshit crazy.  And I thought that when he was cast as Whiplash that the producers had done a great job.  They DID do a great job, except for the fact that Rourke’s scenes were too short, too few, and too far in between.  It seemed a waste to even have him appear in the film for as much as we saw him.  I have the same complain with Scarlett Johansson.  I love me some ScarJo, but I found her endlessly irritating in this movie.  I had no idea what her purpose was.  Originally, Black Widow was brought in to seduce Tony Stark, and she was a bad guy (before eventually turning over a new leaf and joining S.H.I.E.L.D.).  She seems to start that way, but instead of giving her a point and making her interesting, they just gave her a few impressive fight scenes and a skin-tight catsuit.

Fine. Whatever. I hate that skinny, athletic bitch anyway.

I’m not a Gwyneth Paltrow fan at all, but I find her really easy to like in these movies, and that didn’t change.  I do have a problem with the fact that she was made CEO of Stark’s company, and then…what?  What is HER function? To flail around uselessly and then make out with Tony at the end?  In the same vein, at first I was annoyed that Terrance Howard had been replaced with Don Cheadle, but in the end, it worked out all right.  However not even this upgrade could really save what turned out to be a mostly terrible supporting cast.

In the end, I found Iron Man 2 to be watchable, but it doesn’t compare to the first, which I found mildly entertaining at best.  Pacing problems, ridiculous action scenes, and a cast that slogs along behind the incredible force that is Robert Downey Jr. make me wish I had waited for DVD.

3 plutonium cores out of 5.

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