Iron Man 2

I went to the midnight showing of Iron Man 2.  Let me preface this by saying that aside from the first full trailer of the movie, I did not check out any of the other previews or online fun.  Hell the closest I came was the Burger King commercials.  No real reason, just wanted to go into the movie without feeling like I already saw most of it.  Let me say, the movie was awesome and the only bits I did see from the previews, were not really in the movie anyways.

As before, Robert Downey Jr. was great as Tony Stark.  He pulled the smug, party-going, super genius off as well, if not better than in the first movie.  I have heard some complaints about the party scene, but to me it was well done.  We are not ready to see Tony with an actual drinking problem.  Right now, it has to seem funny and not a problem.  In the next movie (or maybe the Avengers movie) we should start to see him drinking more and more while he is alone, having no fun…you know, that whole downward spiral thing.

The rest of the cast was pretty good, Sam Rockwell and Mickey Rourke were great villains.  I actually thought Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer was very cool.  He comes off as the Tony Stark wannabe.  Maybe it’s because I always think Rockwell is pretty funny in just about any role.  Scarlett Johannson was also fine as the Black Widow.

The plot was actually the weakest part of the movie.  Not saying that it was a bad story or anything, it was just fairly simple.  Revenge against Stark, Stark being poisoned by his reactor, Rhodey becoming War Machine, Stark solving problems…fairly simple.  I was not expecting any big twists or anything, but it would have been nice to be a little surprised.  Fortunately, the movie does it so well that I did not mind.

The only problem I had with the movie was the whole discovery of the new element that helps cure Tony.  Why would someone hide a new element in a diorama?  That is weird.  It would have been better if Nick Fury would have called someone and said “Dr. Richards, how close are you to that cure we talked about?”  Meaning Reed Richards, the person smarter than Tony Stark.  That would have been awesome.

Speaking of Nick Fury, I have read complaints out there about how this movie spent too much time setting up the other Marvel movies as well as the Avengers movie.  Yeah, it took like two minutes to set them up.  So distracting…

Again I predicted the after credits scene:  it was Agent Coulson calling Fury and saying that they found it in the New Mexico desert.  As they pan across a crater, we see Thor’s hammer.  Yes, I am pretty excited for the Thor movie now.

Comic Book Movie Grade:  A

Author: Ngewo