I thought the one-time dual-wield laser death blossom gauntlets were pretty awesome.
That was a good movie. I didn’t love Iron Man, the original or the sequel, but I liked them both. They were enjoyable to watch.
No Black Sabbath? How can you do an Iorn Man with no Sabbath. Can’t we even get a little riff in the credits. Sheesh.
I didn’t think it was bad, but I liked the orignal better. There was way too much talking and setting shit up in this one – the relationship between father and son in the Stark family was weak sauce. The movie would have been better served with another battle scene.
I was totally confused with the Black Widow character. I suppose people more familiar with the series knew right off who she was supposed to be? She seemed like a love interest, but Stark was already into his CEO/secratary, so it was just sort of strange how Black Widow fit into the movie–romantic interest, protector, spy? I didn’t help that I am not that familiar with her character from the comics.
Why did Stark ask her into the boxing ring upon meeting her? That just seemed strange – hot chick from legal comes into the scene, so let me invite her into the ring, then leave her with my weak ass sparing partner. I thought she did a great job with her fight scenes (and longed to have her pummel me) but it was just a strange way to present her character.
There was never really much thought that Stark would really be into Black Widow, the sexy was more for the audience than for the movie itself.
As for the boxing ring, he did it because it was the most inappropriate thing he could do in that situation, and thats how Tony operates.
No, I got that-- it’s part of Stark’s “I’m passing on my legacy” theme along with him handing over control of Stark Industries to Pepper. If anything, I felt that was under explored by the movie; I thought it would have been very cool to parallel Tony getting ready for a world without him along side of Stark Sr.'s making the world ready for for his heir, but they really didn’t go in that direction.
Understand that I’m OK with Tony implicitly letting Rhodes have the suit, I’m more irritated by the way Rhodes handled it. For instance, say you’re at a party, and you see that your best friend is drunk and about to get in his car and drive home. You take his keys from him so he doesn’t hurt himself or anyone else. Good on you. Then you think, “Hey, my friend has a pretty nice car, and I’ve now got the keys. I think I’ll just keep the car. In fact, I’ll hand it over to my boss, who will pimp it out and enter it as his car in my best friend’s car show.” Even if your friend decides against activating OnStar to shut the car down, that’s still a dick move in my book.
That was just a subset of the more irritating government’s “Well, you’ve invented something we want, so we’ll just be taking it now” subplot, which would have been easily eliminated (or at least stifled) by anyone who’s studied Constitutional law up to the Second Amendment.
Then again, I really didn’t want to pay $12 to see “Iron Man 2: The Intellectual Property Wars”, so I can just chalk it up to comic book drama. Like I said, I did thoroughly enjoy the movie, it’s very firmly rooted in the “Good” category of my mind, it just had some glaring flaws that kept it from being in the “Great” category.
Oh, come on now. I can think of at least one thing more inappropriate than inviting her into the ring. It just seemed like a strange thing to do, unlike the strangely appropriate behavior (for Stark) of peeing in his suit.
Rhodes had orders to obtain the iron man suit, remember he said he was trying to keep the military from sending tanks to his house for the suit?
But when he got to Stark’s party and saw the mess he was doing he knew he had to do something about it.
I don’t think he did; I may be mis-remembering the conversation Rhodes was having with the general prior to arriving at Tony’s birthday party, but I think all he did was guarantee that Iron Man would be back on duty in 24 hours, not “I’ll just steal the suit”. I don’t mind if that was his motivation, I just think that the fact that they didn’t devote any screen time to the fact that he just betrayed his best friend’s trust was a disservice to his character and to the Rhodes/Stark dynamic.
In other news, I’m pretty sure that the Element that Tony re-discovered is supposed to be Vibranium. Someone mentioned seeing a map of Antarctica in Stark Sr.'s things, which is one of two sources of Vibranium on the planet, along with Wakunda, which may or may not be the African country highlighted on the monitor in the SHIELD safehouse. Also, Vibranium is a crucial component of Captain America’s shield, which is clearly incomplete in the movie. If so, awesome.
Also, I’m still holding out hopes that the Hulk is going to be the threat that the Avengers assemble for; in the SHIELD safehouse, on one of the moitors, a reporter is speaking live from an “incident at Culver University”, which is one of the big set pieces where the Incredible Hulk took place, indicating that Tony’s appearance in that movie happens just after the events of IM2. Again, if so, awesome.
The government sent Rhodes to get Iron Man back on duty. Rhodes probably made the decision after the fight, that given Tony’s current state, trying to take the suit technology forcefully would have been bad for both sides. The government would get AN iron man on duty by taking it himself.
I suppose you’re right; in fact, the story to works best if you are, but it would have been nice if the actual narrative explicitly dealt with this. Even a single line, like “Well, I hate that it came to this, General, but you were right: Tony is simply out of control” would have probably fixed it for me. Also, it would have been nice if they put in a throwaway “Locate Pepper Potts” line prior to Tony just magically knowing where she was during the countdown sequence, but that’s just me (to be fair, the countdown sequence was already too long to be threatening).
Just got back, really liked it. The only thing I felt was lacking was that Sam Rockwell was underutilized. I get that Ivan was the main villain, but all Hammer seemed to be was an inept Tony Stark when I thought he could’ve done a far more menacing job rather than being so bumbling. With Ivan stuck in a lab for most of it, it would’ve been nice to give Stark some kind of actual adversary besides metal poisoning.
The Disney comparisons to Tony’s dad were hilarious. And I really, really liked that Stark spent the entire movie trying to tell Pepper how he felt. While I wanted them to get together, I don’t know that I’m thrilled they actually put them together there at the end. Though the whole roof scene with Tony, Pepper, and Rhodey was hilarious.
Why the hell wasn’t the “you complete me” thing where Pepper kisses the helmet from the trailer in the movie?
Edited to add: Oh, and Rhodey said exactly what I was thinking in that final fight scene. Why didn’t he lead with that? So that got a HUGE laugh from me.
Most of what mmalloy said applies here.
I liked Ivan’s story arc, unlike a lot of the folks here. He was Tony in a dark mirror. He gets kidnapped by a guy who wants him to build a weapon. He goes along with it but, in the end, obtains his freedom by using his technology against his imprisoner. I also like that they didn’t kill off Hammer.
While Mjöllnir was awesome, I’m a little disappointed that there were no references to the Ten Rings or the Mandarin. I kept hoping for a cameo from Ed Norton, too.
Saw it in IMAX earlier today, just got home.
That was my sister’s favorite part of the trailer. She’s going to be disappointed.
I kind of thought that Scarlett had more of a point to her character than just looking hot and taking names. She served in part as a romantic foil for Pepper. (And yes, that job necessitated looking hot.) I was kind of surprised Pepper and Tony ended up together at the end because I thought there’d be at least one movie where he was with Natasha. I say that because it’s clear Marvel is drawing extensively from The Ultimates for the movies, which is also why I think we may be seeing Scarlett playing a villain down the line.
I agree that the final fight was way too short, but we already had the suit-vs.-suit fight in the first movie and we didn’t really need another one. Rourke looked imposing enough, but there really wasn’t any way to logically drag out the fight when it was a 2-on-1 battle.
Finally, did anyone else get a really strong Robocop 2 vibe from the scene that showed the failed tests in Korea and Iran, and Hammer’s test? There was some serious dark humor on display there, especially with the suit twisting the guy in half. I had the same funny-but-disturbed reaction to that scene as I did when I saw OCP’s latest creations.
So wait – you’re saying that Pepper and Tony getting together was supposed to be a surprise? Holy cow! They are totally acting like they’re a couple from scene 1.
I guess it’s possible that Scarlett was supposed to be a romantic interest but there really was just no chemistry there. RDJ did what he could (“I think you should apologise now”) and it just kinda bounced off her. It actually felt like Jon Favreau set up more scenes with himself and Scarlett, what with her climbing all over him in the ring and the melee at the Hammer facility, and I can’t find it in my heart to blame him for that.
Like Dufresne, I thought they’d drag out the bickering for at least another movie.
And Jon Favreau was hysterical. “I got him!”
Plus, now they have to actively harm the relationship to have that same tension between Tony and Pepper in later movies, instead of just continuing the will-they-or-won’t-they drama. Shows like The X-Files and Castle have shown that the strategy works very well. Resolve it too soon and you get Spider-Man 3.
I agree, but then, I think saying that also shows how much higher the bar has been set of late.
I felt my $9.50 was well spent (student discount bitches!). I liked it but it seems to pretty much ride off the special effects and actors. Plot was nothing to write home about (Demon in a Bottle without the Bottle and Armor Wars and some other stuff?) and there was too much “Avengers” in Iron Man II. If we get yet another Ironed up villain because of more angry businessmen, I’d say Iron Man III is fucked, certainly. RDJ can only do so much. But really for less than the price of the last three issues of Invincible Iron Man, I can’t really complain. I had fun, I look forward to the Avengers, and using Cap’s shield (which looked totally bizarre and way too modernized by the way) in that manner was hilarious. But it’s clear to me that these Marvel movies (like their animated brethren) will never reach the heights of their DC counterparts.
You people are depressing me with your ticket prices. Its currently $13.50 to see a movie at the theater closest to me, and that’s for a regular theater, not imax or 3d.
I think I need to move to Idaho or something