Iron Man 2: Grading, Review, Discussion **SPOILERS**

Re: Iron Man 2 - Grading & Discussion Thread (spoilers guaranteed)

I think we needed to see one more confrontation between Stark and Vanko before the climax to give the ending just a little bit more oomph, and the climax itself needed something more as well. There was nothing really at stake -- Vanko just shows up, and wants to kill Stark, but it's such a thin motivation (that we saw in the last movie, and almost every other superhero movie) that it was so blase and boring.

 

Re: Iron Man 2 - Grading & Discussion Thread (spoilers guaranteed)

I don't think it was a case of Rourke being bad. It was that the writers gave him nothing. After being soundly defeated, he moves to the background for most of the movie. He doesn't seem to be affecting anything. He barely says anything and gives off almost no sense of menace before he hatches his plan and is easily defeated. Just what the hell were Favarau and company thinking with this one?

Add to it Sam Rockwell's character, who is so silly he isn't even a threat to Pepper Potts and you have the most underwhelming villains in a superhero movie in a long time.

 

Re: Iron Man 2 - Grading & Discussion Thread (spoilers guaranteed)

I completely agree. I mean, Vanko proves he's a credible threat in the Monaco sequence, but that's about it. He doesn't really do anything after that besides mull around and work on Hammer's drones and his own retrofitted suit, which apparently wasn't all that great since it didn't last long anyway.

Hammer was a waste of a character. I mean, I liked how he was a sort of wannabe Tony Stark doppelganger, but Hammer barely posed a threat beyond his drones. One of my complaints about the second act of the film is basically you have the two villains standing around and talking about their evil plans, but they don't really do anything. It gets old and tiresome quick.

 

Re: Iron Man 2 - Grading & Discussion Thread (spoilers guaranteed)

Well if I might digress...I'm not that familiar with Crimson Dynamo but from my flirtations with Iron Man isn't he considered a B-Level character in the first place compared to say Mandarin? I think the point of Ivan was that someone else was able to duplicate the arc reactor technology and create a suit...not that he was going to be a formidable foe for Tony. I wouldn't be shocked if we learned in the third movie that the Mandarin and Ten Rings has continued to watch Tony and manipulate events from behind the scenes. Perhaps this is fanboy thinking on my part but I never saw Whiplash as a threat to Tony either just a means to an end, a pawn in a larger plan.

 

Re: Iron Man 2 - Grading & Discussion Thread (spoilers guaranteed)

^Crimson Dynamo is one of those villains that started off as a major threat but dropped down the ranks after a while - especially since the name has been used by several enemies over the years.

 

Re: Iron Man 2 - Grading & Discussion Thread (spoilers guaranteed)

^ Yeah isn't there like six of them or something like that?

 

Re: Iron Man 2 - Grading & Discussion Thread (spoilers guaranteed)

^Fourteen, if you count the kid who found the suit accidentally.

 

Re: Iron Man 2 - Grading & Discussion Thread (spoilers guaranteed)

I have no problem with Whiplash being a ploy, but I just hope the payoff is really great in the third film (if Mandarin is indeed the villain pulling the strings) because as a consequence it made the second film weaker as a result.

 

Re: Iron Man 2 - Grading & Discussion Thread (spoilers guaranteed)

^ I'll agree with that. I still am of the opinion that this is a set up by the Mandarin and since Favs has stated that he'd like to use him in the third movie and it's a matter of handling him the right way I guess we'll have to wait and see.

 

I thought it was as good as the first but I seem to be in the minority. I really enjoyed seeing Iron Man and Warmachine fight together. Could have done without black widow though.

 

Re: Iron Man 2 - Grading & Discussion Thread (spoilers guaranteed)

...that was never going to be as good as Tony's because no-one is as technolgically savvy as he is, so the genuine fear created when Iron Man was taken out by Whiplash at Monaco is all but eliminated and the general public have their faith in Iron Man protecting them restored.

 

Re: Iron Man 2 - Grading & Discussion Thread (spoilers guaranteed)

Well, Mandarin's hand in this was there but it was subtle:

That guy who gave Vanko his passport was supposedly a Ten Rings operative.

Perhaps in return for this, Vanko gave them the knowledge of how to build their own minature arc reactors? We never knew just WHY that guy helped Vanko and what he got out of it. And Vanko's tatoos indicated he was part of the Russian Mafia.

 

Re: Iron Man 2 - Grading & Discussion Thread (spoilers guaranteed)

^^^^
I saw where John had said that. What would've been big as a nod would be to have that guy speak a line to the effect, "The Ten Rings is happy to assist you in this matter against Stark".

In other IM: 2 news its 10 day US total now stands at $211m with a WW total of $427m in 17 days. Not to shabby at all. For comparison sake IM 1 did $318/585 total.

 

Re: Iron Man 2 - Grading & Discussion Thread (spoilers guaranteed)

I'm sure there'll be some kind of flashback montage when the Ten Rings is revealed, if they're doing things that subtly, or at the very least a Villainous Speech. "Oh, Stark, we've been going after you for ages. How did you think an impoverished Russian criminal got to Monaco, or how a gang in the desert made a deal with your right-hand man?"

 

Re: Iron Man 2 - Grading & Discussion Thread (spoilers guaranteed)

I think there was a lot going on, but it just didn't mesh together quite as successfully as I think the filmmakers were hoping for. I dunno. I felt honestly bored by certain parts of the movie, and elements just didn't feel that compelling or interesting, whereas in the first movie, there was never a dull moment, and all of the elements at play were either interesting or compelling to watch.

 

I loved it. Great action, effects but fully captured the humanity, the personalities and issues of the characters in play. And all the easter eggs...it's a good time to be a super hero/comic fan.

 

Hammer is what Tony could have become with brains or conscience but he's there just to make Tony look awesome in comparison.

 

^ Pretty much it I just think they could have done more with him rather than making him a carbon copy of Tony which he pretty much is just on an annoying level.

 

Re: Iron Man 2 - Grading & Discussion Thread (spoilers guaranteed)

And Spider-man 3 showed how much we all love retconning our villains ...