I went to see this today, and I must say I really enjoyed it. The first had some great moments for me (and a fantastic first half), only falling flat with the climactic battle. Thankfully the sequel had a more even tone, even if it did not quite recapture the dizzying and perhaps unorthodox (by superhero movie standards) tone that was set in the origin sequence within the first movie.
The casting was great and no-one felt out of place. I liked the interplay between all the leads and the supporting actors, and Don Cheadle was an improvement over Terrence Howard in my opinion. Probably the most enjoyable performance for me was that of Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer, basically a Tony Stark-wannabe who is at once pathetic and would-be Machiavelli; a great performance throughout, and hopefully Hammer will be back along with promised appearance of the Mandarin in Iron Man 3.
It isn't high art. It doesn't push the boundaries of the genre in the way that movies such as Dark Knight, Watchmen and Kick-Ass have arguably done, but I really enjoyed it nonetheless, and this time the all-action climax which was always going to be part of the movie felt more tense and fitted better with the progression of the various story-lines.
And to anyone who hasn't been to seen it yet; consider staying for the end credit scene. My friend Wayne was a little indifferent to that scene when he reflected on it to me, and my wife was much more so when she did so after we left the cinema (the only two in the audience who did stay to watch it mind you), but I really got a kick out of it being a fan of comics, comic book movies, and especially the idea of an interconnected superhero movie universe that Marvel is building. No spoilers, but it is one of the longest waits through credits I have sat through for a 'bonus' scene.
I would have to disagree with you here. I though the fisrt half was slow, with the dialogue being uninspired and messy. It only picked up when the fighting started,and teh climax was great-very explosive! I liked the cammeo by Captain America's shield. Thought the extra scene at the end was a bit of a let down too- hardly worth sitting through all those credits. on teh whole- very good film, but not a patch on number 1
ReplyDeleteThe Second Iron Man was WAY better than the first, like all action flix the first half is always slow while it "sets the scene" as twer. If two was this good roll on three (which is looking more and more likely to have the Mandarin as the Villain).
ReplyDeleteRob - the shield was alos in the first Iron Man movie. Re: the dialogue; I thought it was pretty clever at times, especially in the Senate hearing scene - not the kind of scene commonly seen in a superhero movie. As for the end scene, for me it is the implication that is key. We have three movies (Iron Man; Iron Man 2; The Incredible Hulk; soon to be six with Thor, Captain America and Avengers in the next 2 years) that are indentifiably and explicity interconnected, yet are not one single franchise. In movies I cannot think of anything comparable.
ReplyDeleteThis is not about spin-offs (except arguably Avengers), but discrete movie franchise strands that reward fans with the cameos and inter-weaving of concepts: Cap's shield in IM 1 & 2; the reveal at the end of IM 2; Tony Stark pitching up in The Incredible Hulk; Agent Phil Coulson in IM 1 & 2 and soon Thor; Nick Fury in multiple movies; the Hulk footage near the end of IM 2; SHIELD gets a mention in IM 1 & 2 and The Incredible Hulk; everyone - Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, Nick Fury, War Machine - coming together in Avengers. Books have done that. comic books have done that. But this is pretty amazing to do something like that in movies. So for me the implications of that end-credit scene are greater than the scene itself.