OFFICIAL: Rate & Review Iron Man 2

[S.A.A.D.]

Originally Posted by jmc

It still drops the ball even if you do judge it on it's own merits. This issue isn't so much that it doesn't live up to it's predecessor, from a pure story telling perspective it just gets it wrong.

I disagree,people were expecting this to be better than Ironman.

[night0205]

jmc - I respect your review because it didn't focus to much on Iron Man 1, but we have to admit that Iron Man 1 effects our thinking and expectation of Iron Man 2, and for many Critics who are writing reviews focus way to much on Iron Man 1, instead of Iron Man 2. Most of the reviews I've read say the movie is a GOOD film, yet then they go "it's not as good as Iron Man" and give it a lower rating... That kind of nonsense it what I'm talking about. Everything about the review was mostly positive, except for a couple things, but because of their comparison to Iron Man 1, they drop the rating purely based on that alone.

At least that's my impression.

[jmc]

Originally Posted by night0205

jmc - I respect your review because it didn't focus to much on Iron Man 1, but we have to admit that Iron Man 1 effects our thinking and expectation of Iron Man 2, and for many Critics who are writing reviews focus way to much on Iron Man 1, instead of Iron Man 2. Most of the reviews I've read say the movie is a GOOD film, yet then they go ''it's not as good as Iron Man'' and give it a lower rating... That kind of nonsense it what I'm talking about. Everything about the review was mostly positive, except for a couple things, but because of their comparison to Iron Man 1, they drop the rating purely based on that alone.

I actually think it's because of IM1 that the critics are being so kind to the film and giving it a pass of 'Good' coz if this was the first entry for the character I'd put money on it being ripped to shreds. I also think it's why a lot of fans will give it a free pass.

Originally Posted by S.A.A.D

I disagree,people were expecting this to be better than Ironman.

In all honesty, it shouldn't have been that hard to at least equal it, the ingredients were there at the start of the film.

[night0205]

jmc - that's also true. I mean look at Spider-man 3. If that was the first film released do you think it would get a 63%. However, the positive things I've heard about Iron Man 2 I never heard about Spider-man 3. I guess I'll just have to see it myself, but I have a feeling I will like it. Many people have compared it to Spider-man 2, and if so, I'm impressed. Spider-man may have been extremely corny under Raimi, but SM2 used the best elements of that corniness without going to far, like he did with 3.

[meowth49]

Originally Posted by night0205

jmc - that's also true. I mean look at Spider-man 3. If that was the first film released do you think it would get a 63%. However, the positive things I've heard about Iron Man 2 I never heard about Spider-man 3. I guess I'll just have to see it myself, but I have a feeling I will like it. Many people have compared it to Spider-man 2, and if so, I'm impressed. Spider-man may have been extremely corny under Raimi, but SM2 used the best elements of that corniness without going to far, like he did with 3.

i dont get what was so good about sm2. i hated it. 2 and 1/2 hours of every single character having a one on one scene with every other character talking about peter and mary janes relationship. doc ock was irrelevant, hary osborn cried the whole time. boring boring.


we're so lucky with the iron man films, getting way more than we deserve as hardcore comic fans. IM2 is a great entertaining film. its solidly leading up to thor, cap and avengers.

[jmc]

Originally Posted by night0205

jmc - that's also true. I mean look at Spider-man 3. If that was the first film released do you think it would get a 63%. However, the positive things I've heard about Iron Man 2 I never heard about Spider-man 3. I guess I'll just have to see it myself, but I have a feeling I will like it. Many people have compared it to Spider-man 2, and if so, I'm impressed. Spider-man may have been extremely corny under Raimi, but SM2 used the best elements of that corniness without going to far, like he did with 3.

Personally, I think those claiming it's up there with SM2 are deluding themselves, but hey if you end up liking IM2, more power to you.

[night0205]

What did I like about Spider-man 2? Purely, I think it was the first stab at the real hardships of being a "hero", and you felt sorry for him. It was sappy, but for me I think it worked. I mean everyone was praising Kick Ass, because he tried to help some dude who was getting beat up by 3 guys, but in Spider-man, he had delt with that a hundred times before, yet he still walked away and let that guy get beat up because of his selfishness. Kick Ass was hit and miss with me by the way, it had some great parts, and it had some horrid parts. Very mixed, but because of that, it will never be that great in my book. The greatest thing about it was the tipped hat towards LOST.

Iron Man 2, from what I hear, is a similar journey that Spider-man 2 presented. That's what I hear anyways.

QUESTION: Did they edit out the "you complete me" line?

[White_Knight191]

So I saw Iron Man 2 yesterday. The movie was pretty good but I gotta admit that I overhyped it maybe a little too much.
It's an awesome sequel and a great movie for the summer blockbusters. I think we really saw the Iron Man suit at full power this time wich was great obviously.
Robert Downey Jr. was great as always.
Mickey Rourke was great too.
Don Cheadle picked up the rol from Terrence Howard excellently.
Sam Rockwel was brilliant. Scarlett Johansson was good to.
Samuel L. Jackson was great as always and Gwyneth Paltrow was pretty good to.
ILM did a great job with the CGI and stuff. The action was mindblowing but I thought that the final battle scene with Crimson Dynamo was a little too short, but brilliant.
Overall I give this movie a 8/10.
Oh, and the after credits scene gave me a nerdgasme!
Btw srr for bad English

[White_Knight191]

Originally Posted by night0205

QUESTION: Did they edit out the "you complete me" line?

Yes, they did edited the entire scene out.

[Mr. Earle]

Originally Posted by insider1970

But you know what? I think it's not the overall quality of the film that's less worthy than the first one, in my opinion it's the fact that the element of surprise and novelty is not there any more. We have seen all that before. But that's just my opinion.

I think so too. It was the novelty of IM that got them but now that they had to build on it, the critics arent so interested about what happens to Tony Stark and the Marvel U.

Originally Posted by Juggernaut33

You see, I didn't like the first Iron Man all that much. I mean yeah I thought it was entertaining and all and Robert Downey Jr. was just pefect casting as Tony Stark but other than that, it just felt a little bland to me. The plot was kinda thin so were the supporting characters and the third act felt kinda rushed. Overall, I thought the first one established the tone but other than that, it was kinda bare-bone for me. And well critics (most of 'em at least) all agreed that Iron Man 2 was not as good as the first one so I was kinda shocked because judging by the trailers and all it just felt like they'd improved upon the first one: the storyline seemed more compelling, the supporting characters seemed to have been fleshed out, the action looked a 100 times better and the villain looked promising (how can you go wrong with Mickey Rourke!). Well I'm happy to say that I absolutely 150% DO NOT agree with the critics. The second one is far better than the first. I think most critics enjoyed the fact that Iron Man (the first one) was sort of...how sould I put this...light...y'know like not too complex, just plain straightfoward and that's not Iron Man 2. I think they just took the first Iron Man and improved upon it, it's more complex, fun and entertaining. If you loved Iron Man 2, you're gonna dig Iron Man 2 at the very least.

I havent seen the film, but i agree with you about IM1. It was too thin and simple for me as well. Judging by the trailers, IM2 is way more packed which i welcome, hoping that they dont screw up and that the action scenes are sufficient.

[Mr. Earle]

Originally Posted by jmc

Spoiler Free review. Just got back from seeing Iron Man 2. My review is as follows.

Firstly, let me say that I found the first film to be awesome, perhaps a little over praised but still a solid foundation to develop a good franchise. Iron Man 2 starts off with a bang, but unfortunately ends with a wimpier. Seriously, I'm pissed this is the best that was offered.

As I sat through the first 40 or so minutes of the film my initial reaction was 'Man, I'm not sure what the critics were on about', the story was solid, the pace good, Stark was charming and charismatic, the villain a genuine threat to Iron Man, the action sequences great, it's was an Iron Man film.

Then something weird happens, the air gets sucked out of the movie, it seems to forget what exactly it was doing, it turns into a mish mash of, well something. Iron Man seems to just disappear, Tony no longer seems to be doing anything particular, Whiplash becomes a glorified mechanic, and the whole Nick Fury/Avengers stuff is horribly stuffed in for no justifiable reason. Iron Man 2 annoyingly stops doing what it started, there's no more threat to Iron Man or for anyone else for that matter, it becomes a big ball of 'meh', the story breaks down, the action dries up, it's like they just put the breaks on.

RDJ is probably the saviour of this film, without him in the lead I have no doubt this film would be received worse than what it currently is. He brings his A game here thankfully and is the best thing about the movie, you can't help but take notice when he's on screen. His interactions with Gwyneth Paltrow are the best scenes in the film, both of them play off each other nicely.

Micky Rourke as Whiplash starts out great, as I said he was a genuine threat in that first act, but then becomes nothing more than a secondary character that doesn't do a hell of a lot else throughout the rest of the film, it's a wasted character. It's a real shame that the character wasn't allowed to be developed further, an opportunity missed here for Whiplash to be one of the great superhero movie villains.

Scarlett Johannson may as well not even be in this film. Black Widow serves no purpose to the story other than to fight a bunch of dudes at the end and and somehow become an instant expert in how to reboot War Machine's suit. She's just kinda 'around' and probably gets less screen time than Jon Favreau does (what's up with that Jon?).

Don Cheadle is fine, wouldn't say he better than Terrence Howard but he's not worse, the character as a whole doesn't really do much other than partner Stark at the end.

I'll give props to Sam Rockwell, he's a joy to watch and you can tell he really laps up the role as Hammer, but again, he's not really threatening or menacing for than matter.

A shout out to Garry Shandling, that guy is hilarious in just about anything, he's quite funny in the few minuets he's on screen.

The action, well it's limited, there's the Monaco Race sequence which is great to watch, and the finale, and that's about it, the only other time Iron Man shows up is when he and Rhodey duke it out at Stark's birthday party. For all the talk of not enough Batman in TDK, there's a distinct lack of Iron Man in this film, I'm certain this will be a complaint. The big boss finale, well anti-climatic can best sum it up.

The Avengers thing is a real annoyance, it is forced into the film for no other reason than to promote what's coming up, it serves as a 15 mins commercial that only comic fans will get, those who are unaware of the Avengers coming up will no doubt be baffled as to who the hell Sam Jackson is and what the hell he is doing here. There's no introduction for the many who weren't aware of his end of credit cameo in film one, nor does he do anything vital, he just appears (Note to Marvel: the majority of the audience don't follow these films as closely as us, think about that). It does nothing but waste time and slow the pace of the film further, time which could have been better spent on continuing with what was started.

Overall, Iron Man is an oddity, it's not bad, it's just we deserved something better than what we got, the first 40 mins was exactly what the rest of the film should have been. I don't know what went wrong but my suspicions are that Marvel was too focused on setting up the Avenger rather than focusing on Iron Man, in which case this film should have called Iron Man 2: Prelude to the Avengers. It seems like Favreau has no say in this film except act one, that's where the film feels like he's firmly in control, after that it becomes Marvel's movie. It won't rank next to the likes of TDK, or X2 or S-M2, anybody going into the theatre thinking this will be up there with the great sequels best leave that line of thought at the ticket counter. My best advice is to soak up the first act of the film because the rest is a let down. I'll be generous and give this 7/10.

Great review man. I finally understood why people and critics have problems with the movie. You explained everything very well.

Now i am very disappointed, especially for Whiplash who looked like he could become one of the great villains in movie history, what with all that iconic dialogue, the accent, the eccentric appearence. Too bad he missed the opportunity.

[The Bruce]

For a 3. one they need to chill on build up for other movies. Too much avengers trailer going on.

Also Tony's B-day party was Spidey 3 bad.

[White_Knight191]

Can anybody tell me what was the song in the fight scene between

Spoiler!!! Click to Read!:

Tony and Rhodey at the B-Day Party?

[matrix_ghost]

Originally Posted by White_Knight191

Can anybody tell me what was the song in the fight scene between

Spoiler!!! Click to Read!:

Tony and Rhodey at the B-Day Party?

There are a couple of songs playing there.

I caught two.
1 Queen - ANother One Bites the Dust
2 Daft Punk - Robot Rock

[White_Knight191]

Originally Posted by matrix_ghost

There are a couple of songs playing there.

I caught two.
1 Queen - ANother One Bites the Dust
2 Daft Punk - Robot Rock

Thanks man. I think it fitted the scene well.

[dusk20]

i just got back from seeing. Loved the movie and can't believe I've been hearing so much bad things about this movie. A few reviews in Australia have been saying that compared to the first, it's no good. Some people are saying it's filled with to many characters and not enough time is given to Hammer and Vanko, but seriously, they time they are given in the movie is enough.

Hammer is such a great character in this movie and i was not looking forward to his appearance at all. Simply because I thought he was going to be another Stane type of guy. But he really is like a pathetic version of Stark. Pathetic in the fact that Stark gets all the press.

Okay, because I;m not sure how to put spoilers tags, I'm going to post the rest of this in the morning (my time). if you have any questions about the movie, and I mean any questions, just ask me or private message me if you want major spoilers.

If i get a chance, I'll post a reviews with spoilers up in the morning.

[Kent]

Originally Posted by dusk20

I;m not sure how to put spoilers tags

[spoiler*]text to that would otherwise spoil people goes here[/spoiler*]

but without the *s

Glad you liked it.
In my opinion it's definitely a more uneven movie than the first Iron Man, which was far more consistent quality wise, but I still think it manages to edge the first film out by a tiny bit.

[hugekent]

Saw it today, liked it a lot. Positives were: the action and effects; RDJ, Rockwell, Cheadle and Rourke's acting; it was really quite funny, and not just Tony Stark; and it seemed to move at a swift pace despite all that was goingon. Negatives were: it was a little too overstuffed, but definitely not enough to destroy the movie like SM3; Vanko came across as cold despite having a back story. I just didn't care about him at all.

Overall it was a very enjoyable viewing experience. I can't see any reason why most of you here won't like it.

[jmc]

Whoops forgot to vote!

Just on a side note I'm gonna be curious to see how much fans are willing to overlook in this film. I get the sneaking suspicion from reading various threads and blogs that a lot of fans have made up their minds about the movie ahead of time.

[kaijunexus]

Originally Posted by matrix_ghost

There are a couple of songs playing there.

I caught two.
1 Queen - ANother One Bites the Dust
2 Daft Punk - Robot Rock

They play Robot Rock during an Iron Man/Rhodey fight? Automatic 10/10.

[Sharkboy]

Just got back from Iron Man 2.

Long story short, it's good, Very enjoyable, the early prattle about it being another spider man 3 were way exaggerated. Yes the movie is very very busy and at times it feels like it cannot chew the load it's bitten, but no character feels truly underused or passed over in a way that it ruins the film. The film is very much a Tony Stark film, RDJ's performance is brilliant. Could say there was no real threat in this movie unlike the terrorist cell in the first, theres also a bit of a slowdown in the 3rd quarter of the film, but i enjoyed it overall.

the good parts:
- the opening, with Vanko, the score has considerably improved and it shows during the Vanko scenes, his theme was quite good.
- Iron man enters the expo, it was way over the top exactly how it should be, seeing iron man fly through the air to AC/DC is super cool.
- The Monaco scene, at this point we are pretty much gagging for iron man, 30 mins into the film and only a small glimpse of him, the film baits us just enough to finally give us his suitcase modeled suit, and it's a great scene.
- Starks birthday party, oh yeah its the scene where stark pee's his own suit and goes wild and crazy, it's funny and it's kinda hard to watch seeing how pathetic RDJ portrays Stark at this point, however it serves as a great origin for war machine and the ensuing fight in starks pad, the dust up to the tune of daft punk, is a great geeky moment.
- Black Widow kicks ass....nuff said
- The ending fight, still not perfected by Favreau, but much much better than Iron Man 1's finale. I espescially liked the much hyped ex-wife bullet that Hammer so brilliant hyped up, and the pay off to that joke was pretty sweet.

All in all i didnt think Iron man 1 was all that amazing, but it was a great film, and so is this, it's on the level of the first one, i can see people prefering this to the first, and vice versa. It's not the knockout punch people were expecting, but it certainly lives up to (and in my opinion surpasses) the first one.

8/10

[Sharkboy]

Originally Posted by kaijunexus

They play Robot Rock during an Iron Man/Rhodey fight? Automatic 10/10.

It was very very cool, made the scene all that much cooler.

[Kent]

Did anyone else love the Robocop 2 homage (it has to be, right?) where

Spoiler!!! Click to Read!:

Tony Stark shows footage of the failed Iron Man copies to humorous effect, very much like the failed Robocop copies in Robocop 2. Though the sequence in Robocop 2 was a bit more grim.

VIDEO-CLick to Watch!:

[Sharkboy]

Originally Posted by Kent

Did anyone else love the Robocop 2 homage (it has to be, right?) where

Spoiler!!! Click to Read!:

Tony Stark shows footage of the failed Iron Man copies to humorous effect, very much like the failed Robocop copies in Robocop 2. Though the sequence in Robocop 2 was a bit more grim.

VIDEO-CLick to Watch!:

Im glad im not the only one who immediatly flashed to robocop 2.

[SWAT]

I thought the movie was great. The movie was exciting and very funny. Better than the first in some ways in others, not so much. But overall, yes.

"Taste like coconuts... and metal.... YEAH!"