Iron Man 2

[dj87]

just got back from the cinema

theres been a lot of negative reviews, etc. over here about the film this week, which annoyed me, as it seemed to v.much be a case of some bad journalist trying to make a name for themself, and others have done little more than conform.

fantastic film... really really enjoyable.

don't want to say to much until some more folks have got along to see it, though if anyone has any questions, i'm happy to spoiler some bits, etc. it

it has been accused of being erratically paced, but does in fact move along steadily, flows well, etc. I'd say it was perhaps a little more grown up than the first film, v.much character driven... i'm v.pleased indeed.

look out for the bit at the race track where Vanko is

being dragged away

...

he has no legs!

oh... and as always, stay till AFTER the credits!

Edited April 29, 2010 by bobafett

[TM2 Dinobot]

No spoilers, please. Just one question: As good as Ironman 1? or no?

[dj87]

No spoilers, please. Just one question: As good as Ironman 1? or no?

if i really had to pick a fave... i'd go for the original, but they're quite different films, yet the sequel is definitely faithful to the first. I certainly think comic fans will appreciate this one for what it is.

[gambitron]

Man you are lucky! Next week can't come soon enough for me! I have my tickets already and my Battle Tactics set showed up from AFX today which only heightened my impatience!

[magicmilner]

I also went to see this last night and loved every minute of it I agree it's not as good as the first but it's not far off i'm planing on going again

Also in case you haven't heard STAY BEHIND AFTER THE CREDITS

[NorthRaider]

Okay, just came back from the cinema.

For now I have only one spoilerish thing to say about this movie:

Black Widow totally stole the show. Am now more gutted than ever she's only a TRU exclusive.

[MiniFiend UK]

Here is the after credit clip of Thor's hammer on youtube. get it while its hot or before it gets pulled

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iii3jWQgUDw

[dj87]

Okay, just came back from the cinema.

For now I have only one spoilerish thing to say about this movie:

Black Widow totally stole the show. Am now more gutted than ever she's only a TRU exclusive.

yeah she did! *swoon*

so... now a few more of us have seen the movie, in terms of other mates we could see produced for wave 2, the only ones i can possibly think of are...

final battle Whiplash

military outfit Rhodey

agent Coulson

Howard Stark?

Senator Stern?

[NorthRaider]

I kinda want a Minimate of

"pimp daddy" Vanko from right after he takes out those guards in his cell. Complete with a mini cockatoo, of course

.

BTW, here's my own SPOILERIFFIC review of the movie

[buttheadsmate]

Never tell anyone that you've had a cockatoo.

[MiniFiend UK]

Never tell anyone that you've had a cockatoo.

We keep Snakes and lizards and have actually been in a pet shop when a woman has asked if she could get a cockatoo from the owner. His reply was he will have to ask his brother if he can help

[MINI_MYTE]

Just got back from an advanced screening of IM2. To quote Andy Bernard from the Office, the movie is "AWE-SOME!"

Get out there and check it out as soon as you can.

[Bob Harris]

Just saw a double feature of both movies last night and for me, the second part didn't turn out as good as it could be.

First things first, I'm a plot guy. A movie doesn't get me with explosions and cool effects unless they seem to add something to the story. Same thing applys to the characters.

I think the movie tried too much. The first movie had a very well plot that developed from the beginning to the end. Even the fight secenes - in fact there were only 2 1/2: intro/cave, Afghanistan, final battle - were all motivated and pushed the story forward. Brilliant! One of the best comic adaptions ever. The sequal has way too many stories going on and most of them are dealt with in two steps: mystery - solution. Take the Black Widow. Who's that hot chick? A,

she works for Fury

. That's about it. Does she add anything to the plot? No, sorry. Could you tell the whole story without even mentioning her? Well, I bet you can! Those Drones? They are cool looking Minimates, but what's their need for the story besides a couple of explosions and an (in my eyes pretty boring) action sequence? Sorry, nothing. Whiplash offered a charismatic character who could carry most of the story, why not concentrate even more on him? He would have been a great villain and a thread to everybody without the whole Drone thing. And

the final battle

with him? Come on, that was too easy!

He brought his, well, whiplashs to a whole new level, but in the first confrontation he was a bigger thread than in the end

. (Besides: Cool armor, when do we see him minimated?) And in my eyes,

Tony's fear to die was neither very plausible nor a good plot devise

. Don't get me wrong, I love Downey, jr. as Tony and he's awesome, but a lot of sub-plots were pretty useless. The biggest surpise for me on the other hand was Justin Hammer! Great character, great actor, great role!

In the end, I enjoyed it as a fan, but in my eyes it's nothing more than an ordinary nice movie. I usually don't do this, but it's nothing more than 2 1/2, maybe 3 out of 5.

[NorthRaider]

I fear once the movie discussion goes into full swing I might revert to my old Watchmen Wall Of Text Mode, so let's just tackle all this in baby steps, shall we?

We all have to remember that when the first Iron Man came out and became a huge hit a couple years back we were all surprised, and IMHO this was because for once we finally got to see a good, real fun superhero movie that wasn't founded on teen angst (coughSpiderMan) or ethically charged melodrama (NolansBatmancoughcough). That being said, it was a given that the sequel would have a LOT to live up to, and I'd much rather assess a film's merits based on how it holds up as a single story, considering its conformity to previously-established events (the first movie, NOT the whole of IM comic continuity) only to a slightly lesser extent.

So is Iron Man 2 as good as Iron Man?

To be perfectly honest, just barely. Though again you have to remember that the first movie was a real "lightning in a bottle" moment for superhero/movie geeks and comparisons between it and the sequel have a dangerous tendency of being a bit skewed

. To be fair it's not as bad as X3 or Spider-Man 3, though neither is it the pinnacle of cinematic "respectability" that is The Dark Knight. I will admit to being pleasantly surprised that the character turns were still plausibly adequate and the plotting was better than that in Watchmen, and I would probably put it on par with the likes of V For Vendetta or the first Hellboy movie.

tl;dr: I wasn't blown away, but Iron Man 2 was still some good, sweet fun to watch. And it thankfully didn't contradict or do away with too much of the developments from the first movie; it at least still feels like a natural progression of the first movie's narrative so it definitely ranks well on the Continuity scale.

And in my eyes,

Tony's fear to die was neither very plausible nor a good plot devise

.

On this point I humbly disagree a bit, though I do feel you on the random subplots problem. I actually thought Tony's whole mortality conflict was one of the film's more redeeming qualities. More than giving Tony a much-needed (your mileage may vary) big slice of humanizing humble pie via cheap drama, I felt it was a something of a long-overdue release for all that baggage he was carrying since movie 1. For some reason even after he beat Stane/Iron Monger, deep inside I still wasn't convinced that Tony was finally a "self-actualized" hero. As silly as it sounds it was only until Tony got shaken to his core YET AGAIN (hey, life works like that, suck it up) and became more secure in his place in the Stark legacy that I finally got that vibe from him.

Of course, there's always the chance I might change my opinion on this film after a second viewing.

[minimadman]

I just got home and I liked it. It's a very easy watch and a fun movie. I agree with Bob Harris on the whole Stark subplot thing. It seemed a little forced. I will likely being seeing this again within the next week with the wife so we'll see if it holds up to a second viewing.

[TM2 Dinobot]

Wow.

[minimadman]

Wow Brobot way to guard people from spoilers. You know you can manually enter the tags right?

like this

Edited May 7, 2010 by minimadman

[Trekker 42]

I have to echo the sentiments so far expressed: It's not as shiny and amazing as Iron Man. But it was still very very fun. The amusing nods to The Avengers always got a cheer out of me from

Tony using Cap's old shield as a way to level out a problematic pipe.

to

the aforementioned Mjolnir appearance

One performance that seriously surprised me was actually whoever played HOWARD Stark. He reminded me of

in SO many ways it's funny. Aparantly he was around in World War 2 working on the Manhattan project. Is it too much of a stretch to think that he'll be making an appearance in Captain America? After all,

Cap's shield

did wind up in Tony's house.

Rockwell's Hammer? I... honestly didn't like him. The acting was alright, but I think he overdid the obnoxiousness and godawful annoying factor. Show stealer? God no. Not even close. Hell, even Rourke's Vanko wasn't quite the show stealer I thought he'd be. What made Stane so much fun in the first movie was the interaction Tony got with him. Tony only got one personal scene with Vanko and only a few with Hammer and the Hammer scenes were SO obnoxious that I could barely stand it. The Vanko-Hammer relationship was actually quite funny, Vanko really knows how to push his buttons. But again, as I wasn't a fan of Hammer ro Vanko it was really a question of the lesser of two evils (I chose Vanko.)

Now Downey Jr. again kicked ass. Like, insane ass. Serious ass. But he's Robert Downey Jr. What do you expect?

Don Cheadle was surprising as Rhodey. I am honestly glad they replaced Howard. Not that I didn't like Howard. I think if Cheadle was in the first film he'd be terrible. And if Howard was in this one he'd be terrible. The role change for Rhodey to a MUCH more serrious character benefitted from an actor who portrayed Rhodey VERY seriously. I can't see Howard doing what he did.

And Samuel L. Jackson? HA! Born to play Fury.

So overall: Good performances, amazing action, and a overall good story. Not the best villains. In fact, overall mediocre villains. If you're going for them, prepare for disappointment. Instead, expect great stuff from Downey Jr., Cheadle, Jackson, and, oddly enough, Jon Favreau as the comic relief of Happy Hogan in one of the funniest performances in the film.

Edited May 8, 2010 by Trekker 42

[BannersID]

Okay, just came back from the cinema.

For now I have only one spoilerish thing to say about this movie:

Black Widow totally stole the show.

I completely agree with this. I thought the movie was good in the context of it being part of a bigger story but as a stand alone IM movie it was kind of underwhelming

[murderofcrows]

fucking rocked...everyone that says...not as good. seriously get over yourself. this movie is a blast and provides a positive role model for comic movies.

moc847

[NorthRaider]

One review of Iron Man 2.

Say what you will about the film, but it's still "smarter" than a lot of the dreck that goes through the cracks these days.

[buttheadsmate]

And Samuel L. Jackson? HA! Born to play Fury.

I,of course,won't see this movie for months hence & by the time I do, you'll all probably have forgotten it but this is one point I can comment on without spoiling myself or others. Samuel L. Jackson apparently (obviously) was approached for his approval before his depiction as (Ultimate) Nick Fury in the comic book. I guess most of y'all knew that but when I first saw the comic ,not that long ago I really found it difficult to take that Nick Fury was black. If I've used the wrong word ,my apologies, but I couldn't get my head around it. I have many black friends & I reckon they would have probably felt the same if ,say, Brad Pitt was to play the Black Panther . Nick Fury wasn't black ,he was a cigar-smoking white guy ......"what the F8ck are they playing at .....that's going too far !" Having thoroughly enjoyed the Ultimate (Avengers) after initially telling myself that this sacrilege "would be shit" I now see ol' Sam as being the absolute definitive Nick . As I said I haven't seen him play Fury but I feel that I have many times before....it's weird.

Born to play Fury ......I'd totally agree but being a big fan of his & knowing his life story to a degree .....such irony!

You see that I am a self-confessed racist & never really got over Connery ,Brosnan,Dalton & Lazenby playing James Bond.

Edited May 8, 2010 by buttheadsmate

[minimadman]

So you're at peace with Daniel Craig as James Bond?

[buttheadsmate]

Perfectly I'm also ecstatic that David Tennant aka Jocktor Who has finally been replaced by somebody from Gallifrey . Gallifrey is about 7 miles from where I live in England & I have had some relatively great times & 'space' there *

* You can say what you like about my stupid puns but .......that was f*cking awesome

Edited May 8, 2010 by buttheadsmate

[TM2 Dinobot]

See, I always had a hard time accepting that Nick Fury was white. He struck me as an out of date archetype, a hold over from WWII and his Howling Commandos. Ult Nick though is updated and relevant, and I could relate to this younger version. (He tells Pete that he was in collage 10 years ago) Ultimate Spidey really sucked me into Marvel comics, and I will admit that it skewed my perception of the universe. But I always get this funny look when gray-haired white-guy Fury shows up. I tend to have to remind myself constantly who he is.