Iron Man 2 Review

[Westside Steve]

Iron Man 2

 

 

 

Well sequels are tough to pull off.

After the original installment you already have your groundwork and motivations set in place. So now it’s time to think of new and different situations in which the established characters can perform.

Sometimes that will lead to the producers taking the easy way out by relying on the popularity of the original to be enough, thereby skimping on the other elements of what makes movies good.

IRON MAN 2 has done a pretty nice job here. Rather than use no names they’ve shelled out the big money for a top-notch cast. Oddly enough it’s almost overkill as here there’s hardly enough hard core acting for the likes of Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L Jackson or Don Cheadle to do.

But fear not, Robert Downey Jr. is at the top of his eccentric game as Tony Stark, the creator and master of the Iron suit.

He’s still at odds with the US military who, as usual, wants to take the technology and turn it into a high tech weapon system.

Enter the bad guy, a big nasty Russian mug named Whiplash (Mickey Rourke sporting a pretty good accent) who had the know-how to replicate the fantastic powers of Starks invention.

One of Stark’s main rivals, a particularly irritating little bastard Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) has made the mistake of teaming up with Whiplash in order to beat the good guys to the punch with an army of robot warriors of their own.

So as all this in unfolding Stark is getting weaker and weaker as the energy cylinder in his chest is also poisoning his system.

Assuming he won’t live the year our boy lets his lifestyle deteriorate to the point of self-abuse.

 

But the important part of IRON MAN 2 is the acting. Crisp and well paced across the board these actors never let the high energy and fantastic scenery overshadow the human beings. Oh there may be a little more movie than actual plot but it rolls along just fine, with nary a look at the watch.

 

As to the human element you can’t help but applaud the fact that both Downey and Rourke seem to have made successful comebacks.

 

Without the element of surprise IRON MAN 2 isn’t quite as much fun as the original, and there’s not quite enough closure (probably waiting for #3) but it’s still a great ride.

 

B

 

WSS

Email westsidesteve@aol.com

[The Gipper]

Steve, I was less impressed with it than you were, though I agree that the actors were fine. It is like you said, there wasn't enough story to go around. The plot was thin and the writing weak. The cast did as good as they could with what little they had. It boiled down to being Transformers 2: all effects, no story or character development.

I do hope the third one will be an improvement. And there obviously will be a third one if you hung around til after the end of the credits you saw the scene where the one assistant guy went out to the New Mexico desert to inspect a huge hole in the ground.

[hoorta]

Finally caught Ironman II today, and the movie is right in my wheelhouse of what I like. OK, I think Gwineth Paltrow is really cute as Pepper.

 

Nice FX without the movie degenerating into a FX extravaganza.