*** Official IRON MAN 2 Review Thread

*** Official IRON MAN 2 Review Thread

Saw Iron Man 2 with a mostly sympathetic crowd of comic folk, so it may skew my reaction to the film a bit.

The film is is hodge-podge example of screenplay writing, with most of the funny bits being pretty funny, while the pacing is also saddled with poor on-screen chemistry between Sam Rockwell and Mickey Rourke, I mean, most of their scenes together just stop the film dead in its tracks.

Robert Downey, Jr. mines Tony Stark's confidence and killer instinct for all they are worth, but amps up the smugness and the debuchery by a magnitude, but for an explainable reason.  Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts is mainly a perfunctionary foil for Tony, and does bring some laughs from her role.  Don Cheadle as Jim Rhoades was fine, though there were an uninvolving plotline for his role in the film.  Scarlet Johansson's butt should get its own credit because you could tell Director John Favreau really enjoyed displaying it on the big screen.  I didn't have much issue with Johansson's take on the Black Widow with the material she had.

The film itself doesn't have a cohesive narrative, and its resolution doesn't quite have a good dramatic build-up to the finish line.  It's a messy film, littered with some funny scenes and lines (I wouldn't doubt it if some of them were ad-libbed, just like in the first installment), but it's also very unfocused, and feels incomplete, although its running time was over 2 hours.  There's maybe 90 minutes of plot that is stretched out to 2 hours.

The action sequences aren't great, there is too much close-in shots, not enough wide shots, or when it's wide, the action isn't interesting.  Also, it's much more interesting to have the camera going at the speed of Iron Man, and giving us the action from that viewpoint, than from a static view point, and things are just whisking by quickly and uninvolvingly so.  That being said, there is a couple of sweet moves that go by far too quickly to be fully appreciated in the final act.

I give it 2.75 stars or a grade of B- (mainly for the funny bits).

Based on the reviews, I expected a worse film. Iron Man 2 isn't as good as the first film, but it's no worse than any of the major films last summer, and noticeably better than most of 2009's offerings. The story needed some work. It really did. The thematic elements regarding legacy were ham-handed at best, and left to dangle too often. My other major beef is the villains were undeveloped. Hammer existed to be pathetic, and that is weak. On the plus side, RDJ is as good as ever, and the action was quite a bit better than the first film. I enjoyed Don Cheadle. Paltrow was mostly wasted. It just needed more of a story. Worth a theater viewing, though. 7.5/10, Chuck

I liked this movie way more than I thought I would.  All the bad reviews had me lowering my expectations.  But overall I really like it.  The part that I really hated was Happy driving the wrong way on the racetrack.  Maybe I was just caught up in our brand new IMAX theater.  Looked great, sounded good except for a little too much bass.   Needed to tone that down, had too much low end sometimes when people spoke.

Guess I'm out on an island as one who really enjoyed the movie.  Sure, I can see the accuracy of some of the comments in this thread but I still found IM2 to be very entertaining.

You're not alone, Jim. I saw it this afternoon with some like-minded sci-fi and action movie geeks from work, and we all had a blast with it.

Well based on this thread my expectations were quite a bit lower by the time I saw the film today and it surpassed them.  I guess that's the thing about low expectations, but I enjoyed the film. 

 

I understand a lot of the criticism being leveled at the film.  Like most have said already, the second half is stronger than the first.  It was one of the first things my wife said after the film.  It definitely has it's problems, but I thought it was a long way from an unwatchable mess.  I found it to be an enjoyable mess.

I saw the movie earlier this evening and really enjoyed it.  The middle did drag some but at the same time it actually did serve to develop the characters and storyline.  I would definitely recommend it and will eagerly buy the blu-ray in a few months.

The movie did not drag for me. But two things kept running through my head. In the comics, does Stark really reveal he is Iron Man? That whole business at the party and sitting in the donut bugged me too, but not as much as some of you. Just seems like the reveal he is Iron Man was not a smart move, so I guess it made some sense that the government would be on him like that. It was a better movie then I thought it would be, and I think I got what I paid for. I agree, the action scenes at the end were way over the top and I felt the climax at the end of the first movie with Jeff Bridges character was so anti climatic.

Took my wife and son to a viewing this morning. Holds up decently. The flaws are still there, but the high points also stand out. The soft story is really buoyed by the characters and the actors. I don't think the film needs to be critic-proof. The audience seemed to enjoy it just fine.

I liked the film too but not as much as the first one.  Iron Man 2 was good but underwhelming.  However, I did like the action scenes more than the first movie.

 

My real big gripe though was I watched it in IMAX.  Only saw two trailers in front of it:  Inception and Shrek 4.  No Super 8 teaser.  So was kinda bummed out on that.  :-)

I have to concur with some of the previous posts about this film.  I enjoyed it and thought this sequel was not as good as the first one in some ways, but it was better than the first one is some other ways.  I particularly like the action sequences better in this film.  Of course, my most enjoyable moments in the film was when Scarlet was on the screen.

 

 

 

 

 

Crawdaddy

After reading some of the reviews, I was almost expecting this to be Batman and Robin bad. Turns out I enjoyed it almost as much as the first. The middle did meander some but the characters were solid and the action pretty decent. I'd give it a B-.

I guess my expectations were successfully lowered.  Watched earlier today and was surprised, enjoyed it a good deal.  It wasn't "Great" but it was definitely light, and I thought a few moments recalled some of the best of the comic series.  Decent.  B.

I enjoyed it.  Thought it was on par with the first film.  I would watch it again.  I didn't think the first was the greatest comic book movie I had ever seen, but both were very enjoyable, entertaining films. 

Saw it, loved it...  I am tired of non-comic book people bashing some of the comic book elements in this film, for instance Tony at the party. Anyone who did not get what they were getting at with that scene was  probably also disappointed when they heard RDJ was playing Tony Stark in the first film, I knew it was a perfect fit right away.

 

I am enjoying the build up to the Avengers.

I give this movie a solid 4/5

Saw it with my family Friday and we all loved it.  I found it humorous, exciting & well-acted by all.  I just wish ScarJo and Rourke had more to do.  The crowd cheered and applauded during 2 sequences -- that hasn't happened to me since ROTK.

 

****.5/*****

I thought it was okay; an enjoyable enough movie, but it didn't have the spark that the first one had. Generally a good supporting cast, although I grew tired of Rockwell's relentless smugness. Interesting that the action sequences haven't gotten much discussion and no one seems to mention them as a highlight (although I did enjoy the racetrack scene). The army of drones at the end reminded me of the Golden Army. I also would have liked to see more of Shield and Sam Jackson. Still, this movie more than kept the franchise alive. There will be an IM3 and, of course, The Avengers.

Not even close. I enjoyed every bit as much if not more than the original. I'd give it a very big and 3 1/2 out of 4 stars.

^ Yeah, I don't know about other forums but the reaction here seems to have been pretty positive for the most part.

Saw it, loved it.  Pretty much on par with the original, which is probably my favorite superhero film.  I saw it with my dad and he didn't get the after credits tag scene at all.  Haha.

Saw it last week at a theater in Manila...thought it was a decent film though I prefer the first one overall.  Downey's smugness as Stark kind of grated me this time around and I preferred Terence Howard in the first film over Cheadle's turn as Rhodes.  Also, I also thought that Mickey Roarke was underused as well, but he was damn good in the scenes he was in.  I'm sure I will enjoy this even more the second time around when I get the blu-ray.

 

3/4 out of for me.

Went and saw Iron Man 2 at my local cineplex in what must have been the tiniest screen in the building, and the picture was flickering all thru the ads and trailers.. The movie started in darkness so we missed the Marvel logo, plus the projectionist had forgotten to open the screen further for the widescreen image so the edges of the film were projected on the screen wall for about 10 minutes before suddenly opening up. WTF?

 

The first Iron Man was better but I still enjoyed the sequel, Robert Downey jr was a charismatic hero and Don Cheadle a good replacement for Terrance Howard, who I couldn't picture as an action hero. Gwyneth Paltrow was fine as Pepper Potts and Scarlett Johanssen is pure eye candy as the athletic and deadly Black Widow, who gets to have her own fight sequence here. Looking forward to seeing more of Scarlett's Widow in The Avengers.

 

 

Mickey Rourke is an okay bad guy, but not much is done with him, he grins a lot and growls but won't be remembered as one of the better comic book villains, he's no Joker or Doc Ock. I grinned at Cheadle's opening line, "It's me. I'm here. Deal with it." Which I'm sure was aimed at people who didn't like Howard being replaced or were surprised to see Cheadle in the role.

 

I was disappointed that for an expensive summer spectacular the film had even less action than the first film, it seemed that way to me. A little more action and less babbling between Stark and Potts would have been preferable. But I had a good time with it.

 

3 out of 5.

well I might get flamed for this but I really enjoyed the film. thought it was very entertaining. although didnt think too much to Scarlett's acting bit other than excellent! Soundtrack was really good as well.

I liked it almost as much as the original but what was missing, and what I enjoy most about the original, was seeing Tony's journey of discovery designing and building the suit, that's loads of fun to watch as was his first flight.

 

Here I suppose we were supposed to get that same feeling when he was developing the new element to keep himself alive but it just wasn't the same thing. Also, in some scenes the suit didn't match the CGI suit, during the dinner party when he was drunk and making an ass of himself I thought for a second he was wearing a mock-up of the suit but no it was supposed to be the real one.

 

That all said it was a great ride, Micky Rourke was creepy and pretty threatening, especially during the stellar race track attack and Sam Rockwell was appropriately slimy to watch. I've saved the best for last, though...Scarlett!

 

I almost couldn't handle her in this film, she was off-the-scales HOT and she had me and every other red-blooded male in the audience gasping and squirming in our seats, hell at one point I was tempted to pour my large soda over my head lol.