Re: Iron Man 2 - Grading & Discussion Thread (spoilers guaranteed)
Iron Man 2
Rated: PG-13
My Grade: B
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Iron Man 2 is a follow up to the first Iron Movie released a couple years ago, it rejoins us with Tony Stark, a narcissistic billionaire who has made a powerful exo-combat suit that is powered by an implant in his chest the protects his heart from deadly shrapnel from an explosion. The stress of keeping his heart from being shredded and powering the suit is too much for the "Arc Reactor" and it is burning through the metal that powers its control ships and releasing deadly toxins into Tony's body. Tony is dying and as a result has become even more of a reckless douche. Meanwhile, the government is trying to get the "Iron Man Weapon" from Tony (because the government has never heard of property rights or the Second Amendment) while a competing defense contractor is trying to manufacture its own suit in-order to score a government contract. To get this contract the CEO of the defense contractor enlists the knowledge of the man who helped Tony's father develop an early version of the "Arc Reactor", the device that powers Tony's Iron Man suit, to help perfect an Iron Man suit to power America's armies.
Also going on is Tony makes his assistant, Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries who tasks Natalie Rushman as her assistant. Natalie turns out to be an undercover agent for SHIELD a government organization specializing in world-wide battles and then... Baah!
There's a lot going on in this movie. A lot of information, agendas and set-ups. It's almost like the first movie, part two... As a sequel to the "origin story" this movie should've spent more time focusing on Iron Man taking on a bigger battle and opponent but it spends a bit of time dealing with more story-setup for either the third Iron Man movie, the proposed Avengers movie or both.
Despite all of the set-up and exposition the movie is still pretty fun, action packed and well-acted. Before the first Iron Man movie Robert Downey Jr. didn't impress me much. His... "proclivities" and personal problems soured me on him some bit the first Iron Man movie was a lot of fun and then RDJ sold me with his brilliant performance in that same Summer's "Tropic Thunder." Favreau is someone I've always been a fan of, he's got a good screen-writing and directing style. His directing style is good here even if some of the fighting action scenes are a little too quickly cut and confusing, as is often the case in action movies these days, but he does a good job with the movie overall. The highlight of this movie is the great cast as everyone turns in a good performance. My only quibble is with Don Cheadle as "Rhody." Cheadle's acting style is too... "dramatic" and "intense" to work for a movie like this and, well, it's just plain jarring to swap actors in the same role in a franchise.
Scarlett does good with what she's given to do in this movie, but overall she's not given much. In most of her scenes she's just a cold, emotionless, bitch and not much else. She's there to look pretty, which she does, and to kick ass, which she does in her couple of action scenes. The highlight of this movie, as it was in the first, was the interaction between RDJ and Gwyneth Paltrow. They have a good chemistry here and it's a shame the scene in the back of C-130 where Pepper tosses the Iron Man helmet out of the plane, Tony goes after it, hopping out of the plane with the dated movie-quote of "You complete me!" Leaving this scene out, IMHO, was a mistake as it would've quickly shown the relationship the two characters have in moments and better showed the pain the two are going through in all of the angst they have over the course of the movie. Tony is arrogant, womanizing, DB and Pepper is the smart woman who puts up with him out of admiration and love. I think this scene would've been needed to show the two's relationship.
Bah. Whatever. The FX are good, the action scenes are good, but story seems a bit mixed up and lost. We're not even given a good, clear, reason why the movie's villain has such a grudge against Tony and is so set on killing him and using the exo-battle suits to destroy a city. At least I don't remember a good reason being given, the actor's accent is so thick and the sound in my theater turned up so high with so much bass it was hard to get everything he was saying. Also turning a good performance is Sam Rockwell as the aforementioned douchey ambitious defense-contractor hopeful.
Good movie, as many have said not as good as the first but not entirely terrible either. (I also think the first had a bit better sound track.) Certainly one worth seeing but a pretty mediocre start to a rather uninspiring. "Summer" Movie Season.
Iron Man 2
Rated: PG-13
My Grade: B
-------------------------
Iron Man 2 is a follow up to the first Iron Movie released a couple years ago, it rejoins us with Tony Stark, a narcissistic billionaire who has made a powerful exo-combat suit that is powered by an implant in his chest the protects his heart from deadly shrapnel from an explosion. The stress of keeping his heart from being shredded and powering the suit is too much for the "Arc Reactor" and it is burning through the metal that powers its control ships and releasing deadly toxins into Tony's body. Tony is dying and as a result has become even more of a reckless douche. Meanwhile, the government is trying to get the "Iron Man Weapon" from Tony (because the government has never heard of property rights or the Second Amendment) while a competing defense contractor is trying to manufacture its own suit in-order to score a government contract. To get this contract the CEO of the defense contractor enlists the knowledge of the man who helped Tony's father develop an early version of the "Arc Reactor", the device that powers Tony's Iron Man suit, to help perfect an Iron Man suit to power America's armies.
Also going on is Tony makes his assistant, Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries who tasks Natalie Rushman as her assistant. Natalie turns out to be an undercover agent for SHIELD a government organization specializing in world-wide battles and then... Baah!
There's a lot going on in this movie. A lot of information, agendas and set-ups. It's almost like the first movie, part two... As a sequel to the "origin story" this movie should've spent more time focusing on Iron Man taking on a bigger battle and opponent but it spends a bit of time dealing with more story-setup for either the third Iron Man movie, the proposed Avengers movie or both.
Despite all of the set-up and exposition the movie is still pretty fun, action packed and well-acted. Before the first Iron Man movie Robert Downey Jr. didn't impress me much. His... "proclivities" and personal problems soured me on him some bit the first Iron Man movie was a lot of fun and then RDJ sold me with his brilliant performance in that same Summer's "Tropic Thunder." Favreau is someone I've always been a fan of, he's got a good screen-writing and directing style. His directing style is good here even if some of the fighting action scenes are a little too quickly cut and confusing, as is often the case in action movies these days, but he does a good job with the movie overall. The highlight of this movie is the great cast as everyone turns in a good performance. My only quibble is with Don Cheadle as "Rhody." Cheadle's acting style is too... "dramatic" and "intense" to work for a movie like this and, well, it's just plain jarring to swap actors in the same role in a franchise.
Scarlett does good with what she's given to do in this movie, but overall she's not given much. In most of her scenes she's just a cold, emotionless, bitch and not much else. She's there to look pretty, which she does, and to kick ass, which she does in her couple of action scenes. The highlight of this movie, as it was in the first, was the interaction between RDJ and Gwyneth Paltrow. They have a good chemistry here and it's a shame the scene in the back of C-130 where Pepper tosses the Iron Man helmet out of the plane, Tony goes after it, hopping out of the plane with the dated movie-quote of "You complete me!" Leaving this scene out, IMHO, was a mistake as it would've quickly shown the relationship the two characters have in moments and better showed the pain the two are going through in all of the angst they have over the course of the movie. Tony is arrogant, womanizing, DB and Pepper is the smart woman who puts up with him out of admiration and love. I think this scene would've been needed to show the two's relationship.
Bah. Whatever. The FX are good, the action scenes are good, but story seems a bit mixed up and lost. We're not even given a good, clear, reason why the movie's villain has such a grudge against Tony and is so set on killing him and using the exo-battle suits to destroy a city. At least I don't remember a good reason being given, the actor's accent is so thick and the sound in my theater turned up so high with so much bass it was hard to get everything he was saying. Also turning a good performance is Sam Rockwell as the aforementioned douchey ambitious defense-contractor hopeful.
Good movie, as many have said not as good as the first but not entirely terrible either. (I also think the first had a bit better sound track.) Certainly one worth seeing but a pretty mediocre start to a rather uninspiring. "Summer" Movie Season.
