IRON MAN 2 (includes trailer)
April 29th 2010 08:29
Iron Man 2 - in cinemas now
Iron Man 2, has many reasons to lure you in, if you’re anything like me, Mickey Rourke as the bad guy, is the first one. Followed by a strong cast including Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, Don Cheadle, Samuel L. Jackson and of course our main man Robert Downey Jr. reprising his role as the man in the indestructible suit of armour.
I must admit, as a young child and teenager I was a big lover of Marvel Comics and thus far most of the Marvel adaptations have done nothing but disappoint me (unlike it’s competitors over at D.C. who have had their moments with The Dark Night, Superman Returns etc.). Many of the Marvel films have ranged for downright weak (Daredevil), lukewarm entertainment (Spiderman) to the badly adapted, poorly realised ones that have failed to capture the essence, scope and appeal of it’s source material (X-Men, Wolverine etc). Yet I keep crawling back for more.
The first Iron Man was a capably made film that had some good qualities and for the popcorn fun that it was, it did the job better than most. From the success of the first film, the makers of Iron Man had to up the ante and deliver more spectacle than before and I can tell without any doubt that they have succeeded. Iron Man 2 delivers a knock out the park when it comes good old fashioned fun. Unlike many of the poorer comic adaptations, the characters in Iron Man 2 fit right in to the larger than life universe without ever drawing attention to it’s suspension of disbelief, everything fits here like a glove, comfortably and congruently. The film makers provide a confident and tremendously fun ride that manages to increase the scope of the first one without ever getting weighed down or unbelievable.
Don Cheadle as War Machine
The sequel picks up right where the last one left off, so be aware of that. Robert Downey Jr. plays Tony stark again, the show boat million air, who has a vulnerability he is hiding from the world with an arrogant facade. Since everyone knows he is Iron Man, his business rivals and super powered rivals go hand in hand as he continues to make life difficult for himself by pushing everyone away, personally. Robert Downey Jr. is awesome as usual, perfectly fitted to the character of Stark, amusing and at once self destructive. The story takes on a more frantic and furious pace in this sequel and in it’s attempt to capture the flavour of the comic book it branches out on the size of it’s universe, with plenty of surprises and nods in store for Iron Man comic fans.
The polished and pimped out cinematography by Matthew Libatique (Requiem For A Dream) helps to boldly capture this thrilling world of fast paced, slick fun. Writer Justin Theroux (Tropic Thunder) has written a darker sequel with a bigger scope to it, that encompasses several different character arcs which seem to be all leading to the upcoming Avengers film (talk about pressure) and director John Favreau ties everything together in a more than admirable way, considering everything he has to juggle.
Mickey Rourke as Whiplash in Iron Man 2
While the first Iron Man felt more light weight than this sequel, it did have a feeling of danger to it which is absent from the sequel, this instalment has a quality to it like it’s in cruise control and is lacking the dramatic tension, it’s a straight ahead action ride, where the characters stun you with their fighting skills and computer hacking know how. One of the things that almost sank the ship for me on the first Iron Man was the dreadful performance by Gwenyth Paltrow. She was truly horrible to watch and the film stood still every time she opened her mouth, fortunately she’s not quite as insufferable this time round, she’s not great but she never weakens the film either (which is probably due to less screen time). Actually a lot of actors have lesser screen time than you might expect, there’s a large story to go through here and it very much becomes an ensemble piece.
Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow
As usual Mickey Rourke steals the film as the main villain who has an axe to grind with Iron Man. Rourke brings in more of that darker quality I mentioned before with his raw, emotionally wounded performance, in fact with so many characters and actors, the film boasts quite a colourful gallery of heroes and villains from Sam Rockwell’s wormy, power driven scheming and jealousy to Scarlett Johansson, who is quite disarming as the ass kicking Black Widow. Another credit to the film is Don Cheadle who replaced Terence Howard from the last Iron Man film, Cheadle like on his best day gives a slow burning, perfectly paced, intelligent performance. Aside from the technical flaws in the film, my biggest gripe with Iron Man 2 is why Samuel Jackson played Nick Fury, he bears no resemblance to that character, physically or personally and clearly isn’t interested what so ever in bringing anything to the legendary character or even remotely trying to do something interesting as he sleep walks through the film.
The proper Nick Fury
All up – I can say that Iron Man 2 is a sensational time and one of the better comic book adaptations, definitely my favourite one since The Dark Night and a welcome surprise that I can say is superior to the original.
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Comment by Matt Shea
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
Thanks for having a look. Hope you can check out more posts, back when Cib was posting on 20/20, and I was only blogging sporadically we were constantly exchanging comments on everything we wrote - Cib actually reviewed one of my films that I made (I'm a film director and he did a review for it on his/your blog)
hope to hear back from you again!
Have a good weekend.
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure