Iron Man 2
Tony Stark is Iron Man, the man said it himself and now he is coming to grips with what that means. Suffering from illness and being relentlessly pursued by the military, the government and his business rivals Stark is fighting to maintain his control over the weapon he created. When a ghost from his fathers past emerges from the shadows, Iron Man will have his hands full as he fights for his life and his freedom.
What I Liked:
It's Iron Man, one of my favorite films from 2008 is back and kickin' butt. Its hard to not like Iron Man, it's got action, humor, high tech gadgetry and robots! The action is solid and highflying this time around as Tony Starks enemies are beginning to come up even to the Iron Man weapon. They are dangerous and devious and will stop at nothing to kill Stark. As usual this film takes the great geeky gadgetry of the first and builds upon it. Stark's interfaces are still the coolest around (and look, no iPad) and they make every geek worthy of the title salivate with lust. When Stark is deleting files by literally throwing them across the room, that is cool (impractical but still cool) and I so wanted one. I enjoyed the slower overall pacing of the film compared to its manic forefather which hit the ground at a sprint and never looked back. This time we can sit back and appreciate the stunts that Iron Man pulls and marvel at the imagery. The film is highly polished and very well done on a technical level much as the original was and it still never gets old watching Iron Man fight.
What I Didn't Like
While over all the film was pretty decent I must say that it started off pretty slow and awkward. This awkwardness continues throughout most of the film. The writing team this time around is much smaller this time and that may be why the batter, which was so good in the first film is rather flat this time around. This awkwardness also comes from the actors performances, who never really seem to deliver. Evearything feels a bit overdone, like everyone was trying to out do the first film and overshot the mark. This story has a darker context to it than the first Iron Man did; Tony is sick, he is facing the end of not only his career as Iron Man but the end of his life as well. The potential of such a time could do wonders in showing us Stark's true character, the man behind the persona of the wild, brilliant, genius, arrogant and brash Tony Stark. We are instead shown cheerleaders and race cars as Tony tries to bury himself in fun and pleasure. Make no mistake this is exactly how Stark would act but we are not as empathetic towards his character simply because that is all we see, there is no soul searching, no brooding on the matter. In the end it basically amounts to nothing, “oh yeah, didn't I tell you.” and it's lazy. Another thing that bugged me consistently throughout the film was Tony's movement when he is wearing the Iron Man suit. I have not seen the first film in a while but I don't remember Tony's movements being so noticeably robotic. This only at certain times too, one minute he is almost doing the “robot” but if he needs to knee a guy in the face apparently the suit runs smooth as silk. Its a little thing but one that annoyed me nevertheless, if the suit hampers movement then Iron Man needs to fight like that, if the suit is fluid then there is never a need for jerky robotic movement. Keep in mind the pacing is much slower this time around which only serves to show us an ever growing number of plot holes and inconsistencies as if they were on parade. Yes Iron Man had its share of these irregularities as well but you didn't have time to dwell on them because Stark was off blowing up something else, again.
In Conclusion:
Iron Man 2 is not as good a film as its predecessor but this does not make it a bad film, after all Iron Man set the bar impressively high for its sequel. The film starts off slow, with little real action and lots of awkward scenes but once it hits its stride, Iron Man 2 shows that it can be every bit as fun to watch as its forerunner. The characters are not as well done, and little time is spent building upon what we already knew of those that transferred in from the first movie, leaving the film and its script rather shallow. The action is great, the gadgets are cool and the jokes can be pretty funny but the ponderous pacing at the beginning could have been put to better use and the plot, while decent, is definitely not the most complex motion picture to grace the screen. It is a rather mixed bag, one that ultimately does little to distinguish itself from the crowd of films coming out this summer. It is a movie that is still fun, still enjoyable but one that is firmly in the shadow of its predecessor. Make no mistake though, the summer blockbuster season has started with a bang!
