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Although Iron Man 2 didn't quite get up to the bar set by Iron Man I, I feel it was worth the price of theater tickets to see on the big screen and well worth investing in the DVD when it's finally released (this from somebody way too cheap to pay for theater tickets or cough up for most DVD's when we can borrow them free from our library).
The chemistry between Stark and Potts was as good if not better than before. Potts character as an extremely classy, competent and pragmatic woman is built upon nicely and a positive role model for our daughters without needing to transform into a superhero herself. Her grace and the chemistry between her and Stark (including his clumsy attempts to woo her) is the surprising reason so many -women- have been attracted to this movie. No spoilers here, but towards the end you'll be like "it's about time!!!"
Ivan Vanko was credible as the villian ... he's evil and you're glad to see him defeated, but you understand where he is coming from. You'll feel sad at the end as though a beautiful but viscous dog is put down because he can't be rehabilitated. I wish they'd emphasized a tiny bit more the process by which Vanko builds his competing "suit" and his relationship with his pet bird as sci-fi fans like the technical stuff while women enjoy relationships that help them understand people. It helps if you understand Russian when Vanko speaks (though Rourkes' Russian isn't that good) because some of the comments Vanko mutters under his breath in Russian that the movie never bothers to translate are actually quite funny (such as when he mutters "sleeshcum mnoga gavariche" to Hammer which loosely translates into "you talk too much.")
Some people have complained about the director writing himself into the script. I didn't mind and loved when Black Widow slammed him to the floor in the boxer ring scene and also towards the end when Hogan's so pleased with himself for having defeated one security guard and then he looks around to see Black Widow has defeated a dozen more.
Black Widow was great ... another strong and classy woman to inspire my daughters. Her exposure was just about right in this movie, but I hope they highlight her character (and her kick-butt martial arts skills) quite a bit more in the upcoming Avengers.
Don Cheadle was okay as Warmonger. I liked Terrence Howard in IM1 and felt they wrote him out of the script too much when viewing the deleted scenes (to the point many things didn't make sense until viewing the deletions), so I was glad to see Cheadle fill in the details of the relationship between Stark and Rhodey in IM2. However, since Cheadle is such a great actor, I was disappointed to see him take such a pronounced "best buddy sidekick" role. Cheadle needs to be stronger as a superhero in his own right in Avengers and IM3.
The Hammer character just didn't work for me ... at all. I like him as a stand-up comic, but one or two comic interjections into the characters weaseliness would have been plenty. One slightly-warped-has-a-sense-of-humour weapons manufacturing billionaire industrialist is plenty ... two is one too many. The wasted time spent injecting humour into his character would have been much better spent on Stark spending time improving the suit or solving his power problem.
As for Iron Man himself, he was great, but the producers focused too much on drunken incidents of Starks self-destructive behavior when he thinks he's dying and not enough on the tech-building aspect of Stark trying to solve his own problem. Watching Robert Downey Jr. go through this same self-destructive process in real life was quite enough, thank you very much, and a good 20 minutes of IM2's drunken antics would have been better spent on other issues. Like Downey in real life, the viewers want to see Stark move beyond his problems and become emotionally strong and self-disciplined like the actor who portrays him. Watching Stark build and test the suit in IM1 (both gorgeous -and- brilliant) is what attracted many viewers to the first movie ... I feel they downplayed the tech too much (like where did the suitcase suit come from?) in IM2. Stark in IM1 is "everyman," the inspiration for intelligent people everywhere to simply -choose- to use your intellect to create a solution for unsolveable problems and, in the process, make yourself a better person. Stark is a man who, quite literally, is dying from a broken heart but still has enough heart left to choose to make the world a better place. The Marvel Iron Man/Stark character has always been about the humanity of the man inside the suit, not just the suit itself, some of which was lost in IM2 in their attempt to throw too many characters and sub-plots into the mix.
The whole get-drunk-at-the-party-destroy-the-house-fight-with-Rhody scene should have been completely deleted and that time devoted to more comic build-it-test-it-have-a-mishap-then-solve-it scenes like was done in the first movie. Stark also had more "emotional" moments in IM1 (such as fear when he first sees the electromagnet in his chest or getting choked up when he tells Pepper he knows what he's doing is the right thing to do) which were totally missing in IM2 (like ... the dude is dying ... where's the emotion!!!) One or two of the "drunk" scenes would have been better spent having Stark come to grips with his relationship with his genius dead father.
Another distasteful element ... the directors attempts to tie Stark to Howard Hughs by adopting his dislike of germs or people touching him is barking up the wrong tree. We want a strong Iron Man, not a neurotic one. Ditch the Hughs defect analogies and play up the similarities to of Howard Hughs strengths instead!!! Nobody wants to think of Iron Man/Stark ending up in a Vegas hotel room surrounded by cups of his own urine like Hughs!!!
I sure hope Downey does a Russell Crowe and decides to "keep the body" when he does Sherlock Holmes 2 this time around!!! It's none-too-hard on the female eyes watching Downey flex those gorgeous iron-hammering arms, six-pack abs and chest muscles (okay ... female leering here ... probably not relevant to a movie review).
Some action-hero buffs have complained about too much underlying "talk" and not enough action. I don't think it was simply lack of action that lost this movie it's 5th star, but rather the fact it dragged too long between the first few action scenes than we had to wait to have them all lumped up at the end. Not all movie viewers are 14-years old ... we like drama and a well defined thread underlying the action ... but IM2 just didn't do as good of a job as tying together the action and sub-scripts as IM1. Too many "chiefs" (actors and sub-plots) and not enough "firemen" (testing the suit) to do the work in this movie. I hope they clean things up for Avengers and IM3.
In summary ... not as good as IM1, but still worth buying the DVD and watching it a million times even if you're cheap like me.
| Additional Blu-ray options | Edition | Discs | Price | New from | Used from |
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September 17, 2017 "Please retry" | — | 1 | $8.49 | $3.01 |
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September 28, 2010 "Please retry" | — | 1 | $8.51 | $0.88 |
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April 26, 2016 "Please retry" | — | 1 | $26.50 | $4.17 |
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