Starting Iron Man 2 now.

I remember experiencing some pretty powerful disappointment after seeing this the first time. Iron Man was a special movie and I expected something similar in the sequel. It’s long been on the bottom of the MCU pile for me. Let’s see if that changes.

I loved the last 20 minutes of Civil War. Some of the greatest scenes of tension and emotion in the MCU.

You're all wrong.

1. The Dark Knight

2. Batman (1989)

3. Logan

4. Spider-Man 2

5. Avengers

ARrgh I am behind three weeks. Next week all four. Just need someone to remind me.... time to ok google this.

I’ll pester you on your wall  

Do that on Saturday morning next week! 

So this is the first movie with which I'm struggling with the score.

First off, it's not as bad as I remembered. It's still a poor movie, but not a disaster.

So, here's the bad stuff:

Some manic direction by Favreau. He's kind of all over the place, refusing to dwell on any plot line for too long. This is cause by and/or aggravated by a screenplay that's far too busy.

Here's an action movie that wants to tackle the following themes or storylines: Tony's fight with his own mortality; Tony's stewardship of his company; Tony's relationship with his father (and his father's legacy, which includes Vanko); the government's involvement with the Iron Man suit; SHIELD's involvement with the Iron Man suit; Tony's brotherly relationship with Rhodes; Tony's relationship with Pepper; a business rivalry between Stark and Hammer; Tony's inability to cook eggs; and so on.

It's too much, and as a result much of it is underdeveloped. The movie just kind of spins its wheels for 120 minutes, and then delivers the audience unto a numbing, perfunctory action scene -- the same denouement that threatened to spoil the first Iron Man.

So, what's the good. Well, the action and the dialog. The cast here has great chemistry. Much of the writing is clever and funny and heartfelt -- to the point where I'm sure some of it is improvised. Even as the plot went nowhere, I was interested in the relationships between and among the characters. That's nothing to sneeze at.

Some of the action is good too. While the Monaco race scene suffers from some sketchy CGI, I like the brawl involved. Watching Tony scramble for his suit, and then put it on (in one of the more bad-ass and visually inventive sequences in the MCU) was good stuff. While I really dislike the final fireworks show with an army of disposable robots, the scene of Tony and Rhodes going back-to-back and fighting together worked for me -- especially after they butted heads throughout the film. The Vanko shows up and spoils it.

So, final thought: this is a manically-directed, busily-plotted movie elevated by the charisma, conviction, and enthusiasm of its leads.

This is somewhere between a 4 and a 5. I'm going to be generous and give it a 5.

Heh, when I first gave my thoughts on Iron Man 2, I thought I was going to be alone on giving it such a low score.  I was under the impression people disliked Hulk even more.  The Incredible Hulk movie has some issues, but I feel like it is a good movie at the core, but it had a lot of execution problems.  Iron Man 2 seems like the opposite to me.  It doesn't really have any sort of solid core, but there are various parts that are interesting and that saves it from being a total disaster.

Yeah I think that sounds right. Hulk has a good story with a clearly defined arc for its protagonist. Things just get a little lost in the second and third acts. Iron Man 2, conversely, is a jumble of plot points held together tenuously by a charismatic group of actors.

Struggled to find my copy of Iron Man 2, but I did. If anything this is helping my sort my DVDs out. :P

So, I think while not the strongest of films, it's pretty decent. I will start by saying Sam Rockwell is great in this as he is in most things. The whole premise of the film is odd however, Tony has to find a way to cure odd poisoning by 'rediscovering' an element which his dad found and hide in the layout of an expo? ... what?

The villains side of things was a bit lackluster too, he wants Tony dead because his dad 'stole' the designs from some russian guy but he's made the technology and used it. Just release the plans on the internet instead of letting Tony control it and sorted. :P

This weird amalgamation of Whiplash and Crimson Dynamo okay but as individuals it would have been better. Maybe if there were 2 villains to counter the 2 heros.

Eitherway, it's decent as a film. 5/10.


Fanboy time, Whiplash deserves better. Justin Hammer should be British.