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iron man 2
May. 9th, 2010 10:47 pmContext: I saw the first Iron Man because our passes didn't work on Speed Racer (I was one of those crazy people who liked Speed Racer, btw), and I must confess that it was a little much for me. I know, "too much" is basically the definition of a superhero movie, but the whole uber-American rock star CEO thing was just not something I could get into.
This Movie: Because of the above, I actually ended up liking Iron Man 2 more than Iron Man. Things go wrong in this one. There's some doubt cast on the viability of the military-industrial complex, both for a nation and a person. The whole thing is basically a metaphor for nukes - right down to flashbacks to Iron Man's dad making '50s era, Jetsonian promotional vids for technology that will save the world, etc. - so fittingly the two big specters in this movie are: 1) Dangerous, angry people who've been steamrolled by America and its shiny, fancy nukes making shitty, dirty nukes; 2) Nuclear energy turning out to be poisonous in the long-run. And in the end, the bravado is toned down. I for one appreciated this. My favorite scene was probably Iron Man's disastrous birthday party that kind of highlighted how ridiculous the "techno-fantasy" can become. No wait, my favorite scene was actually the one where Iron Man (or rather the guy that wears him, Tony Stark) presents Pepper with strawberries as an apology, and it turns out that's the one item she's allergic to. That's what I mean: things go wrong for the rock star CEO in Iron Man 2. I mean, I was actually rooting for him at the end here, and I wasn't rooting for him in the first one.
The action is a little meh on this one, to be honest - my eyes kind of glazed over - but since The Dark Knight my standards for action sequences have gone up astronomically. There's also this whole subplot with the Avengers that I thought could have been junked, because introducing random people who look like they're from another superhero universe just distracts, frankly. If I was not sitting with someone who knew who the hell these people were I would have been going, "who the fuck are these clowns?" And do we really need to have the "climactic" battle between weaponized mechas intercut with Scarlett J. in a leather catsuit using sexy martial arts to take down security guards? Don't answer that. My point is I'm here to watch medium-sized robots fight, and Scarlett unfortunately reminded me way too much of this Scarlett, from this horrible, horrible movie. That's bad.
Overall, though, I liked the movie and can recommend it.
4s Marry 4s, 7s Marry 7s: Yes. But I think Pepper is awesome, so YMMV. I thought the snippety interaction between RDJ and Paltrow was one of the best things about this one, and the saving grace of the first.
This Movie: Because of the above, I actually ended up liking Iron Man 2 more than Iron Man. Things go wrong in this one. There's some doubt cast on the viability of the military-industrial complex, both for a nation and a person. The whole thing is basically a metaphor for nukes - right down to flashbacks to Iron Man's dad making '50s era, Jetsonian promotional vids for technology that will save the world, etc. - so fittingly the two big specters in this movie are: 1) Dangerous, angry people who've been steamrolled by America and its shiny, fancy nukes making shitty, dirty nukes; 2) Nuclear energy turning out to be poisonous in the long-run. And in the end, the bravado is toned down. I for one appreciated this. My favorite scene was probably Iron Man's disastrous birthday party that kind of highlighted how ridiculous the "techno-fantasy" can become. No wait, my favorite scene was actually the one where Iron Man (or rather the guy that wears him, Tony Stark) presents Pepper with strawberries as an apology, and it turns out that's the one item she's allergic to. That's what I mean: things go wrong for the rock star CEO in Iron Man 2. I mean, I was actually rooting for him at the end here, and I wasn't rooting for him in the first one.
The action is a little meh on this one, to be honest - my eyes kind of glazed over - but since The Dark Knight my standards for action sequences have gone up astronomically. There's also this whole subplot with the Avengers that I thought could have been junked, because introducing random people who look like they're from another superhero universe just distracts, frankly. If I was not sitting with someone who knew who the hell these people were I would have been going, "who the fuck are these clowns?" And do we really need to have the "climactic" battle between weaponized mechas intercut with Scarlett J. in a leather catsuit using sexy martial arts to take down security guards? Don't answer that. My point is I'm here to watch medium-sized robots fight, and Scarlett unfortunately reminded me way too much of this Scarlett, from this horrible, horrible movie. That's bad.
Overall, though, I liked the movie and can recommend it.
4s Marry 4s, 7s Marry 7s: Yes. But I think Pepper is awesome, so YMMV. I thought the snippety interaction between RDJ and Paltrow was one of the best things about this one, and the saving grace of the first.
