Annnnd I'm back after a long, long time away. Sorry nonexistent readers but I've been guilty of one of the greatest sins of blogging: procrastination. I give my word that this summer, I will update this thing on a semi-regular basis. Anyways, on to the review! (Of course, beware of the many spoilers I will put here)
Iron Man 2
There was a lot of good will going into this movie. Iron Man 1, though not the best superhero movie ever made, was one of the slickest. Tony Stark was, by far, one of the most rounded, well-thought out superhero film protagonists that I've seen in a long time. He felt like the bastard child of Jack Sparrow and Bruce Wayne. Now, just him alone would've made a great film, but his supporting cast was also terrific and the chemistry between him and them is what made that film.
The problem with Iron Man 2 is not that this chemistry is lacking. Far from it. In fact, that is one of the best parts of this film. The problem here lies more with the script. Sure, there are some great back-and-forths, some good character moments, and the action was, for the most part, great (thank you Taratovsky). What's lacking here is the threat and a firm narrative.
With every superhero film, there always has to be a threat to our hero and their loved ones to overcome. Either it is external and internal. Well, mostly external. Tony Stark is dying. That in itself is a great threat to have the film centered on. However, the problem here is with the external. The villains in this film are pretty weak.
If you would base Ivan Danko's threat based on his look, then you'd probably think that he was a pretty intimidating villain. In action, that's a different story. Once the heroes get their acts together, they swiftly eliminate him and any other threat he brings along with him. Justin Hammer, technically the film's other villain, works more as a comic foil than anyone that could be a legit competitor to Stark's empire. How this man and his company got his military contracts here are beyond me.
The only real villain to this piece is the palladium that's slowly killing Stark. The scenes where he's testing his blood toxicity level had more menace to them than most of the scenes with Danko and Hammer. Their joint competency was about as effective as the Iron Man suits being developed in North Korea and Iran during the Senate Hearing scene (yeah, referencing the movie within the movie review, blew your mind yet?).
The other problem I had was that, at times, there was just way too much going on. It didn't get to that point that it was Spider Man 3 redux but, on top of having this film, there was an entirely different film happening in the background. That film was called The Avengers Year 0. Yes, I love it that Marvel is finally putting together its universe but the scenes with Nick Fury felt so out of place in this film. It felt like the director was saying "You know, we need someone to introduce the Howard Stark thing to Tony...but we need to get people pumped for the Avengers movie coming out in a couple of years. Lets combine them!" Black Widow, though her action scenes were pretty amazing, her existence felt perfunctory. She was there to A) look sexy and B) show you how bad-ass that Avengers film all the Marvel films are talking about will be.
I'm not saying Iron Man 2 is a bad flick. It is well worth a gander this summer season. Personally, I'm just slightly disappointed with it because, as an unwritten law, the second superhero film is the best. If, perhaps, the Avengers or the third Iron Man turn out to be all sorts of fantastic, unlike every third superhero film, than I will forgive the film for its faults. Then again, that is a pretty steep hill to climb to make the third superhero film work. If any of you can name one good third installment in a superhero franchise, you will win the entirety of the lost city of Atlantis and free pass to explore Area 51.
Score: 7.5/10
Sunday, May 9, 2010
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