A #nerd's review of Iron Man 2
#TalkNerdyToMeLover's Troy Robbins
There are two ways I look at movies:
I tear them apart and put them back together again.
I look at the movie as a whole. Here it is. I can’t change anything. Did I enjoy the movie or what there something in the movie that ruined the entire thing for me?
One of my complaints about this movie has been that Jon Favreau, the director, went on record for saying that he didn’t want to use a criminal called the Crimson Dynamo because he didn’t want the movie to just be a bunch of guys in metal suits fighting one another. HELLO. Isn’t that exactly what this movie was?
Tony was in his Iron Man armor when he fought Rhodey who was in an earlier version of the armor. Then Rhodey and Tony fight a bunch of drones, android versions of Iron Man’s armor. Then they fought Whiplash who was wearing a suit of armor with the energy whips built into it.
Granted, the androids, and Whiplash’s whips, made the fights different then just fighting another armored criminal, but there still wasn’t enough of a difference to not use Crimson Dynamo.
The movie, however, was great and picked up where the last one left off. When Iron Man 2 (IM2) comes out on DVD you can watch 1 and 2 back-to-back and it will flow seamlessly.
I like when movies do that.
The first Iron Man ends with Tony revealing his identity to the world. This movie is all about his life as an “out of the closet” (so to speak) super hero. The government wants his armor as a weapon. His archrival, which is really every government on the planet, is trying to duplicate the armor. The movie, however, focuses on one in particular, Justin Hammer.
Justin is a weapons manufacturer, similar to Tony, but not as successful. He’s kind of a goofball character who fumbles through the weapons business, yet, is supposed to come across as being an equal to Stark Industries. With all that being said, however, Sam Rockwell (the actor) played the character beautifully. He was funny, interesting, and really stood out in the movie. Problem was he wasn’t a villain to be feared. As the movie’s kingpin, Hammer should have been portrayed as Tony’s biggest threat, but that role went to Whiplash.
Mickey Rourke played the Wrestler, um, I mean, Whiplash. (There wasn’t much of a difference in my opinion and I haven’t even seen the Wrestler yet.) My biggest problem with Whiplash was that we were supposed to buy him as a brilliant engineer like Tony is.
I didn’t buy it.
Mickey as a person, and no offense to him, doesn’t look like he’s the type to know how to turn on a computer, yet alone use one. He comes across as too much of a street thug who visits a really bad stylist throughout the movie. The shot should have shown his father building the whips and Ivan (Whiplash (Mickey)) using the weapons.
Throughout the movie Tony had dealings with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement Logistics Division, aka SHIELD. The head of the government organization, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) has a much larger role to play in this movie then he did in the previous one. For those of you who don’t know, Nick Fury makes a cameo appearance after the credits at the end of the first movie where he asks Tony if he’s interested in joining the Avenger Initiative.
In the sequel Nick Fury keeps an eye on Tony in hopes of using him in the Initiative. According to Natalie Rushman’s analysis of Tony, SHIELD now only wants to use the Iron Man armor. They’re no longer interested in using Tony Stark.
Even though he was only present as an observer, without any real action, Sam Jackson played the character as true to the comics as possible. This works. I would have liked to have seen Nick in some action, but he’s going to show up in some of the other movies as well as one of his own rumored).
Scarlett Johansson was sent to keep an eye on Tony and analyze him. Posing as an employee of Stark Industries she called herself Natalie Rushman. Later in the movie she was revealed as a SHIELD agent named Romanoff, aka Natasha Romanoff, (aka Natalia Alianovna Romanova in the comics). She even had a major action scene. Throughout the last part of the movie Natalie’s character disappeared. Once she was revealed as a SHIELD agent her only purpose was to be an action star. Like most sequels there was too much of a focus on the fight scenes and not enough on character moments. I’m actually okay with this. I believe Hollywood is waiting for a future movie to reveal more about the Black Widow (her comic book codename).
SHIELD Agent Coulson, who appeared in the first movie, is in this movie as well. However, half way through the movie he’s called away to New Mexico.
Virginia “Pepper” Potts continues to serve as Tony’s love interest in the movie. Along with that role she was also named Stark Industries new CEO. Gwyneth (Pepper) Paltrow’s purpose was only to worry about Stark Industries. Her concern and her feelings for Tony took a backseat to everything else. Gwyneth’s entire role could have been left out of the story and the movie still would have worked. Especially considering that she resigns at the end of the movie. I guess that means she’s going back to being his personal assistant, but the movie didn’t specify this.
Popular movie actor Don Cheadle replaced Terrence Howard as James “Rhodey” Rhodes. Can anyone tell me why? Rumor has it that Terrence wanted too much money for the sequel. Rumor also has it that the studio just wanted to work with Don Cheadle and didn’t have an opportunity for the first movie. When the opportunity arose in this movie, the studio jumped at the chance.
Don Cheadle brought nothing new or interesting to the role. A lot of people complained that Terrence Howard wasn’t that good in the first movie. Some say that this is why the studio wanted to replace him. I say that it wasn’t Terrence that ruined the role. I say that it was the role that ruined Terrance’s performance as James Rhodes. The character just wasn’t written very well.
I was also disappointed that Tony Stark made a reference to Rhodey being a War Machine, but didn’t actually give him the codename.
Robert Downey, Junior perfectly reprised his role as Tony (Iron Man) Stark. I’ve read a few reviews that people had a problem with his character this time. He wasn’t the carefree smartass that he was in the first movie. I agree that there was a change in Robert’s portrayal, but that’s only because the movie, and the performance, was great. He was dying, so of course he’d be a little more emotional. If he had acted like he did in the first movie then he’d, A) be an unbelievable character, not very human or realistic, and B) the sequel would be like watching the first one over again.
I hate when sequels seem like watching the first movie over again.
One part of the movie showed Tony’s drinking problem that he has in the comic books. But it wasn’t shown enough. He just got drunk in one scene. There wasn’t enough of a problem to be a problem. That was kind of disappointing. Tony’s alcoholism is well known in the comic book community and it would have been nice to see that as his problem in this movie instead of his chest piece killing him.
For those of you who missed it, there was a scene at the end of the movie, after the credits. Don’t worry I’m not going to spoil it here. Wait for the DVD and fast forward.
After Iron Man 1 credits Nick Fury showed up. At the end of the Incredible Hulk, before the credits, Tony Stark made a guest appearance. It’s a way of connecting all of these movies together, creating a sense of continuity. Some have said that trying to create a connection between the movies has ruined them. Each movie, beginning with Iron Man, will only act as a prequel to the Avengers serving no other purpose. The belief is that the stories are going to suffer because all of the time and energy is being spent on the Avengers script. I say, however, that these movies are better because they’re all building up to something much larger then themselves.
For those of you who don’t know there’s a Thor movie coming out in 2011. A few months later there’s a movie called First Avengers: Captain America. In 2012 – Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, War Machine, Nick Fury, Black Widow, Hulk, and possibly Hawkeye, Ant Man, and Wasp will come together as the Earth’s Mightiest heroes, the Avengers.
One last thing - during Iron Man I when Tony was in the suit and it was being taken off he tells Pepper, “You’ve seen me doing worse things then this,” I’m paraphrasing of course. If you look under Tony’s right arm you can see something. It’s round, red, white, and blue. That same object is shown in this movie when Agent Coulson hands the object to Tony who uses it to prop up Tony’s device. The object Agent Coulson hands over, for those of you who don’t know, is CAPTAIN AMERICA’S SHIELD. How awesome is that?
Overall the movie was great. I wasn’t bored, uninterested, or disappointed with the movie. The story was great, the acting was great, the special effects was off the charts awesome. It was a great movie and is definitely HIGHLY recommended.
P.S. Did anyone notice that Tony didn’t name the new element he put into his chest. I say we call it, Starkonium.
Another P.S. There were two scenes in the commercials NOT in the movie.
1) Pepper is with Tony, in armor, sans-helmet, and kisses his helmet, then throws it out the back of a plane. He leaps out and says, “You complete me.”
2) Tony is standing behind Natalie Rushman who is wearing one of the Iron Man’s gloves and fires it.
Disappointing when the movie trailer is edited before the movie itself is edited.
