Official Blog For Author Thomas McClurg

Been a while since i posted. Strange how a week or two can go by and it just slips my mind, Anyway i wanted to do a review on Iron Man 2.

The tough thing with Sequels that i’ve noticed, especially big budget comic book sequels, (and this could mean the second or third movie in the series) ix the difficulty of handling the problem of more.

It isn’t such an issue when the first movie was just okay or just average or whatever, but when the first move is as good as the first Iron Man, how do you top it? In my opinion this is a dangerous road to follow, as a fan i’m not really looking for bigger and better because at some point along the way that formula becomes impossible to maintain, thus dooming you to fail. Rather I want solid. Instead of using the first movie as a measuring stick, just set out to make another excellent movie. You did it once, why can’t you do it again?Yet time and time again, it still becomes about more and more stuff.

One of my favorite examples of this is to contrast Spider Man 2 with Spider man 3. the former is one of the best super hero movies ever, while the latter flounders on pretty much every level except the “More” guage.

They throw so many different villains and sub characters at you and then try to weave a storyline that does them all justice while managing screen time and so on. The end result is a forgettable, dissatisfying movie experience.

So how did Iron Man 2 do?

I think they skirted the edge of the problem of more but ended up coming out with a highly enjoyable movie.

For starters you have more characters. You see more of his chauffeur, more of Col Rhodes, he gets a new assistant/ninja babe, Nick Fury shows up, and we have two villains, (Okay, technically you might say the first movie had two villains as well, but really after Stark escaped the terrorists they became a non factor for anything more than bad guys for him to beat up.)

The danger is trying to overcrowd the script with scenes featuring as many different stories and people as you can which is ultimately counter productive. In Iron Man 2, while they added new characters, the focus is still placed heavily on Tony, everyone else revolves appropriately around him, so the new characters slide right into the story without getting in the way.

As for the story, it’s a comic book story, so be prepared to suspend your imagination. Seeing as that’s why i go to the movies, i enjoyed it quite a bit. Maybe a little helter skelter at points, maybe leaves a few things under developed, but you don’t really care because what you are watching is so much fun, and that’s primarily Robert Downey Jr. doing his thing.

His portrayal of Tony remains excellent, and he does an great job of showing off his egocentic nature while balancing it with flashes of more redeeming human qualities, making him one of the most interesting super hero characters i’ve ever seen. Contrast with somone like superman who’s nothing but boring in both his incarnations. Not so with Tony Stark.

The banter with Pepper Potts and anyone else for that matter is more prevalent than the first movie which adds a greater sense of humor to the story, but somtimes it feels a little much. If it wasn’t so much fun, you’d probably shake your head and wonder why the characters are sniping each other at such an inappropriate time. Since it is so rapid fire, you just get swept away and the story movies on before you can really formulate a complaint.

As for Pepper and the rest of the supporting cast, she remains Tony’s best avenue for push and pull dialogue. They replaced the actor who plays Col Rhodes, somthing i am 99% of the time vehemently against. In this case however, it felt like trading up. Normally the actor they are replacing is someone i like and is being replaced with someone i like less. Not so in this case and i felt Don Cheadle brought a needed sense of strength and posture to the Col’s character.

Hammer was great as the sleazy second rate weapons developer, equal parts pathetic and devious. As for Ivan, he was a lot of fun as a villain, i just wish he could have gotten more screen time. The whip things were cool, but most of the time when we see him, he’s alone, buildilng something, or controlling something. His interactions with other people are brief, and when he does have them, he doesn’t say much. He only ever has one real face to face conversation with Tony, and that’s short to. Seemed like he was the most underutilized part of the movie, the one part where i wanted more.

As for the other new additions, Scarlett Johansson as the new assistant/ undercover S.H.I.E.L.D Agent was largely non descript. I mean she’s beautiful, but mostly cold and stone faced in her interactions with others. No real personality to speak of, she nevertheless is serviceable in the role. Tony needs a new assistant, and hey, why not her? The scene were she beats a lot of people up was pretty cool though.

The one character i was the most worried about them adding was Nick fury. Since he’s a major player from another whole comic book series, i didn’t want him bullying his way into the movie in ways he had no business doing. Thankfully you don’t see him much, but when you do it’s important and memorable. My fears were quickly put to rest to say the least.

As for everything else. The special effects were great. Lots of action, lots of fun, lots of humor, lots of banter from Tony and those around him. The negatives you might find are nit picky things and are far outweighed but all the other positives. When i left the theatre i was left with the best of feelings you can have when leaving a sequel. The kind that leaves you free to enjoy both movies on their own merits.

It’s a satisfying success in my book.