What's new

*** Official IRON MAN 2 Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

Ronald Epstein

Founder
Owner
Moderator
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jul 3, 1997
Messages
66,561
Real Name
Ronald Epstein
Patrick, you are being very kind to that review.

After being pleasantly surprised by the original
Iron Man film, I was dreadfully appalled by this
sequel. I can't even fathom how you go from one
extreme to the other as far making a quality film.

This sequel reminds me of every bad sequel
ever made from to Caddyshack 2 to Staying Alive
to The Matrix Reloaded. What do all three of those
films have in common? You go in with high
expectations and you wonder how the hell they
managed to ruin a great franchise.
 

nolesrule

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2001
Messages
3,084
Location
Clearwater, FL
Real Name
Joe Kauffman
Based on some of this discussion, I hope it's still in theaters when I had planned to go see it.

But our local newspaper movie critic, who is usually pretty accurate in his grading (or should I say in agreement with my tastes) gave it a B-.
 

oscar_merkx

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2002
Messages
7,626
I really enjoyed the IM sequel particularly as I am a huge IM comic fan.

To me it seems that the Demon in a Bottle storyline has influenced the sequel already simply because RDJ nails the character.

I also have the original comics somewhere in the attic, so anyone interested.

I thought that MR was perfectly cast as Whiplash as it is almost an extension of the role he was playing in The Wrestler.

I am off to see it again
 

Robert Crawford

Crawdaddy
Moderator
Patron
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 9, 1998
Messages
67,614
Location
Michigan
Real Name
Robert
Originally Posted by nolesrule

Based on some of this discussion, I hope it's still in theaters when I had planned to go see it.

But our local newspaper movie critic, who is usually pretty accurate in his grading (or should I say in agreement with my tastes) gave it a B-.
This movie will be critic-proof so I expect it to remain in theaters for a good while. I'm going to see it in a IMAX theater tomorrow morning and I usually don't pay much attention to reviews from critics or even other people in regard to comic book adaptations. Too many times, I've either enjoyed or not enjoyed these type of films which for the most part runs counter to the review consensus.



Crawdaddy
 

TravisR

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2004
Messages
42,429
Location
The basement of the FBI building
I liked it well enough. It's not as good as the first one but I certainly can't see any vast difference in quality between the two movies. Or in other words, I can't see how anyone who was a fan of the first one could hate this one (though I'm sure there will be plenty of people who do).
 

MikeM

Screenwriter
Joined
Nov 23, 1999
Messages
1,203
I really liked the first film, but this was just simply all over the place.
This thing needed to be tightened up big time.

Too many characters, too convoluted, too many fight scenes that didn't further the story (the party scene in particular) and too many attempts and snarky one-liners from Tony Stark that seemed to be pile-driven into every scene whether they worked or not. Often they didn't. It was, a mess. Great potential villain in Whiplash, it's just a shame that we barely see him in the film. Also, I like Don Cheadle as an actor, but he didn't have the same dynamic at all as Terrence Howard. Howard made you think if he wanted to, he could really kick the living shit out of Tony Stark when needed. Cheadle? I think Gwyneth Paltrow could take him!

Total disappointment.
 

Patrick Sun

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jun 30, 1999
Messages
39,660
Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein

Patrick, you are being very kind to that review.

After being pleasantly surprised by the original
Iron Man film, I was dreadfully appalled by this
sequel. I can't even fathom how you go from one
extreme to the other as far making a quality film.

This sequel reminds me of every bad sequel
ever made from to Caddyshack 2 to Staying Alive
to The Matrix Reloaded. What do all three of those
films have in common? You go in with high
expectations and you wonder how the hell they
managed to ruin a great franchise.
Granted, I didn't think the first Iron Man was "great", I thought it had charm and attitude supplied by RDJ, but it lacked in coherent or involving super-hero action at times (the last act's showdown just didn't do much for me), and this film does suffer as well, even though they pepper the frame with so many iron man suits in the last act, it's just all very confusing, dark, and again uninvolving. This is a directing deficiency of Favreau, who is more suited to do the funny character bits, but lacks the vision for great action set pieces and sequences.

But that being said, there are some really big laughs, and if you're a comic reader, they really nail some of the humorous scenes (like when Happy is repeatedly running Ivan into the fence with the car, that's what we hope to see in protagonists, and the panic level in that scene is hilariously high and pays off in laughs from a tense situation). When Happy gets his throw down from Natalie, the entire audience just oooh'd and aah'd and then laughed at Happy getting served by tiny little thing. That's the type of stuff that amuses us, I guess. But the "villain" set-up of both Ivan and Hammer wasn't written or performed well, but you could tell they were trying, but the script really lets them down, and no ad-libbing could salvage the lack of energy in their scenes, which failed to provide enough menace in the 3rd act, which was more than slightly confusing at times, but still had some decent exchanges between Stark and Rhodes. Again, since I saw it with a bunch of comic book fans, we got to laugh at stuff that perhaps the general audience would laugh as hard at as we did.

The writing was also kinda bad when it came to Stark's discovery of a new power source, that was just stuff that lacked tension or urgency and wasn't written all that well, just seemed like a clunky way to write themselves out of the hole they set Stark in from the start of this film.

I don't really have a huge urge to see this movie again, but I'd enjoy it more if I had a BD of it and could skip to the funny parts, I guess.
 

TravisR

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2004
Messages
42,429
Location
The basement of the FBI building
I think me and Patrick are on the same basic page with this movie. I didn't think the first was that great of a movie (and the bulk of what I liked about it is Robert Downey's performance and the movie's sense of humor) and I think the sequel is more or less on par with the original because of Downey and the humor again. Maybe it's telling but I haven't seen the original since the theater and I doubt I'll rewatch the sequel either.
 

Jose Martinez

Screenwriter
Joined
Dec 18, 2003
Messages
1,113
Real Name
Jose Martinez
Considering it made an estimated $52M on Friday, yeah, I think it's critic proof.


http://www.deadline.com/2010/05/iron-man-2-widest-release-in-history/
 

Robert Crawford

Crawdaddy
Moderator
Patron
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 9, 1998
Messages
67,614
Location
Michigan
Real Name
Robert
Somebody familiar with the comic book, fill me in on the Black Widow character in this film versus the comic book?





Crawdaddy
 

Josh Dial

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2000
Messages
4,504
Real Name
Josh Dial
Originally Posted by Nelson Au

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.

Stark reveals he is Iron Man multiple times in the comics (through the various iterations of the character, as it is Marvel after all). It's a running theme, almost. He'll "come out," and then retract it later, saying it was really a robot that he controls remotely, or that it was someone else in the suit. He's even made decoys in the past so "Iron Man" could appear in the same room. Later, he'll "re-come out" for some reason or another, and then retract it, and so on.


The character of Tony Stark is really quite flawed in the comics (as are most Marvel characters), and constantly battles personal issues.
 

Nelson Au

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Mar 16, 1999
Messages
19,042
Thanks Pat and Josh for clearing that up about Stark "coming out" in the comics.


I didn't realize that and it sure is a nice contrast to the other comic heros who hide their identity. I do like, as you said Josh, that this guy is very flawed. He is human.


I thought it was kind of funny they used John Slattery in the role of Howard Stark, almost from the same era as Mad Men. But with a bad hair dye job. The scene where he is talking directly to his son was a nice piece to bring him back from his mid-life/dying crisis.

I was curious why they replaced Terrance Howard with Don Cheadle. Don Cheadle was fine in the role, though he looked a tad miscast to me. It seemed unfair to recast him. I don't know the dirt, but it sounds like some politics.
 

Larry Sutliff

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jun 17, 2000
Messages
2,861
I only thought the first IM was "pretty good", so my expectations were in check. I liked IM2, maybe a little more than the first in some ways. It is all over the place and a bit messy, and in need of better editing. But overall I enjoyed the cast, the humor, and the action. Also, being a comics geek, I liked the little easter eggs sprinkled throughout the film. And who else felt that the opening title sequence was a masterfully edited little vignette(maybe better than anything else in the film, cinema wise!)?

It's not great filmmaking or anything, but IM2 was worthwhile to see in the theater, and I'll be buying the BD.
 

Robert Crawford

Crawdaddy
Moderator
Patron
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 9, 1998
Messages
67,614
Location
Michigan
Real Name
Robert
Originally Posted by Nelson Au



I was curious why they replaced Terrance Howard with Don Cheadle. Don Cheadle was fine in the role, though he looked a tad miscast to me. It seemed unfair to recast him. I don't know the dirt, but it sounds like some politics.

Chances are it was either about money or a personality clash between the actor and those making the film. Based on history, I pick the former.






Crawdaddy
 

Zack Gibbs

Screenwriter
Joined
Sep 15, 2005
Messages
1,687
It may not be fair to say simply due to their respective scripts, but Howard made far more out of his Rhodey than Cheadle managed. It's interesting how low key the character is in the sequel despite playing a more prominent role.
 

Larry Sutliff

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jun 17, 2000
Messages
2,861
I do think that the Birthday party scene may become as infamous as Peter Parker's John Travolta routine in Spidey 3. That was the films biggest flaw for me. It was almost embarassing to watch.
 

Josh Dial

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2000
Messages
4,504
Real Name
Josh Dial
Originally Posted by Robert Crawford

Somebody familiar with the comic book, fill me in on the Black Widow character in this film versus the comic book?





Crawdaddy

She's been around since the 60s, initially as a spy for the Soviet Union. She later defected to the US (an obvious tale of propaganda), and has been serving as a free-lance member of various superhero teams. Most notably, she often teamed up with Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos (later S.H.I.E.L.D.), and was part of lots of "guns, not powers" style adventures. As a story device, she is often the "should we trust her? I mean, she *was* a commie..." character who nobody but Nick Fury trusts. Of course, there is a scenario where it looks like she betrays everyone, only to be secretly working for Fury, on a top-secret mission of the utmost importance.


Artists like to draw her rack and ass, and highlight them in the frame, too.
 

Jose Martinez

Screenwriter
Joined
Dec 18, 2003
Messages
1,113
Real Name
Jose Martinez
http://marvel.com/universe/Black_Widow_%28Natasha_Romanova%29




Originally Posted by Robert Crawford

Somebody familiar with the comic book, fill me in on the Black Widow character in this film versus the comic book?





Crawdaddy
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Articles

Forum statistics

Threads
356,816
Messages
5,123,864
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top