Angelus said:
I pretty much agree with this assessment, although, upon rewatching it, I feel like the redemption arc is muddied a tad with him ending the movie arrogantly announcing to the world that he is Iron Man. I mean it was a great line, and a fun way to end the movie, but it rather undercuts his growth as a character. The movie starts with showing us how he was far too arrogant, self obsessed, and didn't really give a shit about anything other than his own amusement.....then we get his redemption arc, trying to change his ways, wanting to be more responsible, trying to actively be a force for good, etc.....and then with that last line he kinda just goes back to "Ya, this is all about me, how awesome I am, and how you guys should all pay lots of attention to me and my greatness!" It's not a big deal in the grand scheme of this being a very good movie, but in hindsight, it should have been warning sign for the follow up movie, as they clearly were intent on having his character growth mean nothing, and bring him right back to where he was so they wouldn't have to think of anything new or compelling. Anyway, 8/10 sounds about right. In my memory it was closer to a 9, but rewatching it I'd say 8 is definitely more appropriate. |
So I'm gonna harken back to this, having just finished watching Iron Man 2, because that ending - that undoing of Tony's redemption and character arc - really just carries right on through into this sequel, and I think it's really a big reason this movie already starts on a bad foot. Even if you just watched Iron Man 1, and think of that final "I am Iron Man" line as just a fun way for the movie to the end, it quickly becomes apparent here, that it's far more than that. It's Tony going back to being a completely arrogant, 0 fucks to give, pompous asshole. Sure....he's a fun pompous asshole, just as he was to start the first movie, but a pompous asshole nevertheless. They basically hit the reset on him, for the sake of some lame jokes ala "you can count on me to pleasure myself," wanting give him the exact same character arc he already had the last time around, and in the process, undermine both movies.
The whole Monaco GP scene.....ok, even if I ignore how everything about it is pretty much BS (ya....no....definitely everything), because it's still a relatively fun action sequence. The problem is that it instantly takes the villain from this possibly relatable guy who's dad got screwed over by the Starks, who's constantly seeing this pompous ass Tony on TV, acting like the king of the world, wanting to just take him down a peg or whatever....to a homicidal lunatic willing to murder just about anyone in order to make a point.
Aaaand....honestly, I'm writing these thoughts down here while I'm watching it (so the the opening sentence is kind of a lie), and already at this point I really just wanna turn off the movie. Also, we see Tony's blood toxicity go from 20some percent, to 50some in like a day or something. With that kind of rate of progress, how is he not dead already...? Fuck this movie.
Potts, and Tony's relationship with her that was established in the first movie is also completely undercut here. In the first one, he's shown to trust her implicitly, with his life. Here, he refuses to share anything with her, instead simply signing over his company to her while keeping her in the dark about anything as it pertains to him and his well being. Really, they could have cut her out of this movie, made an offhand comment about Tony making her CEO of Stark Industries, and nothing about this movie would change much.
Now lets cut to a scene of Hammer wining and dining Ivan, while eating Italian ice cream, flown in from San Francisco, because it's hard to sell that Hammer is even more of an ass than Tony, but by god that'll do it, and Netflix says I still got an hour and twenty minutes of movie left. Fuck.
In other news, at the start of this movie, I made a big deal about how the government/US military can't have the Iron Man suit, but half an hour later, I'll act like even more of a pompous ass to make sure they literally walk in and take it (which I'll now pretend was my plan all along, cus you know....dying). They'll apparently never be able to do anything significant with the technology, besides sticking some more missiles in it, so idk why I didn't just give them one in the first place if that's all it took to make them happy, buuuuuuuut whatever.
Lets cut back to Scarlett Johansson being hot to temporarily distract you from how shit this movie is.
You know what....no...I'm done. There's still like an hour of movie left, and frankly, I got other things I could be doing. As I recall there was a fun, well directed action sequence with Iron Man and War Machine near the end somewhere. I'll give this movie one point for that, one point for introducing Black Widow (plus reminding me how much I loved her with that long hair), and one point for Don Cheadle. 3/10.
Last edited by Angelus - on 12 January 2018
