Iron Man 2

[firecat]

firecat sums up Iron Man 2:

"We went through 2,500 toothpicks during filming!"

I was sort of entertained at times, but I found myself feeling annoyed or bored more than I expected. I really liked the Ivan Vanko character, in fact I liked him quite a lot more than Tony Stark or any other character, and I'm bummed that they seem to have killed him off.

I got the impression that the director asked everyone but RDJ to play their characters really flat, so that RDJ could play off them. The result was that Rourke played a real character because he has an astoundingly mobile face, and the others weren't given enough to do. It's clear from Sherlock Holmes, and heck even from the first Iron Man, that if you let an actor stand up to RDJ (and give them decent dialogue) you get a scene with lots of energy, but it seems as if that rarely happened in this movie.

My main response to the movie was wanting to go see The Wrestler again (Rourke does a great job in that movie) and wanting to go see Devil in a Blue Dress again to see what Cheadle is really capable of (he had nothing to work with in this movie; most of his scenes are a closeup of his left eyeball).

Scarlett Johansson did a good job with her character, but didn't really bring a lot of spark to her, although I sensed she could if she were allowed. The character does get to be both smart and physical, which isn't all that common in action movies, so that was cool. I enjoyed her fight scene but it was filmed in a weirdly unreal way that made it look like they'd used footage directly from the video game. Maybe she'll be able to make more of the character in future movies.

I was really, really, really annoyed about Gwyneth Paltrow's character. She comes across as nothing but a wimp and a nag, and Stark walks all over her constantly; there's no sense that they are equal-but-different. He tells her that he's making her CEO, and she sits down. Then she is quitting being CEO because "her body can't handle the stress" or whatever, and so he kisses her. And all the mincing around in six-inch spike heels, ew.

Comments

[firecat]

I thought Sam Rockwell did a great job, but I found the character SO irritating. (Although I understand that's the point...)

[sinanju]

This. The Justin Hammer from the comics (if I remember rightly) was more like Peter Cushing. Tall, silver-haired, elegant, and ruthless as a tank full of hungry sharks. That's who we needed.

And actually, we need no more than one, maybe two, villains. Not THREE. Either make the Senator a real threat (instead of just taking "no" for an answer) or dump him. Deep six Hammer. Make the story a grudge match between Tony and Danko, each of whom is absolutely convinced that HE is in the right and that other guy is a damn thief! (They flirted with this briefly, but it never really went anywhere.)

As for Pepper as CEO, my first thought when he did it was, "The skills that make for the world's best personal assistant are not the same skills that make for a world-class CEO." They're two different jobs. That said, if they're going to tell me otherwise, then yes--SHOW me that Pepper has what it takes. Despite my limited WSOD on that point, I really hoped we'd see Pepper running roughshod over Tony, now that she finally had the bit in her teeth. I really, really wanted to see Pepper finally able to tell Tony "No" and make it stick--on the big stuff, not just details.