Hey folks and friends. Well its finally here, after all the waiting, trailers, posters, and promos we finally got Iron Man 2, and boy is it a good piece of film making. I will keep most of this review spoiler free and I will give my breakdown of the film. I shall begin with the story.
Story: The story takes place 6 months after the events of the first film and The main focus is on Starks battery has gone haywire sorta speak and his seek of a cure. Pepper is now dealing with a greater responsibility and role with Tony. Meanwhile a man connected to Tony is seeking revenge and builds his own arc reactor device and aims to take tony out in Monaco. Stark has to now deal with his health, company, villains, friends, and family issues and lead the world into a new future. I really loved the story, it was very solid, well paced, and the subtle nods to the ever expanding movieverse was great. I give the story an 8/10, it was much more solid than the first film and really builds up from where the last one ended.
Acting: This has one of the best ensemble casting to any recent super hero films, I might say its got a much more solid casting than the first Sin City or Watchmen. Robert Downey is superb in the role of course and takes the character in some great directions of this story. He's a tad more reckless and thrill seeking in this one than in the first. Paltrow did great as Pepper Potts once again, she is able to ground Downey's performance and character. Don Cheadle did an AMAZING job as Rhodey/War Machine, I love how he made the character step up his game and wouldn't bow down to Tony even tho they are friends. I loved Johansson as the Black Widow, she felt like a femme fatal for this universe, although she didn't have a Russian accent at all I'm gonna have to dock a point, other than that she was perfect. Mickey Rourke as the REAL villain Ivan Vanko/Whiplash(which is never mentioned btw) was a really great counter part to Stark and his technology, he had less than what Tony had and he made something really awesome and bad-ass. Sam Jackson brought pure awesomeness with the role of Nick Fury, he pretty helped kick start the third act and that was a great way to bring him in, he wasn't needed throughout the whole film. Last but not least is Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer and DEAR ONE ABOVE ALL WAS HE AWFUL, I'm sorry if any Rockwell fans read this but he was terrible in this movie, every scene he was in he looked uncomfortable, his speech pattern was awkward, his dialogue was hokey, his overall portrayal of a character whose supposed to be Starks rival was terribly done. I hope we never see him again in this franchise. I wanna give a big shout-out to the guy who played Howard Stark, he was really great and theres one scene(all who saw know what part it is) really got me and my mom(happy mothers day.lol) teary eyed. So overall I really enjoyed the actors(EXCEPT ROCKWELL) so doing the math I give the Acting a 8.5/10
Action: This film had many more sequences of Stark in the suit but he only had 3 fight scenes(first in the beginning with whiplash, second in the middle with the mark II, and the epic finally makes three with the hammer drones and the real villain). One thing Favreau hasn't quite yet perfected is extending the fight scenes, for the most part they last under five minutes(at best), but I think drawn out and we get into the New Trilogy of the star wars films(and we don't want any repeat of that). So I give the fighting a 9/10, I loved all three parts but the second was my favorite becuase of one thing...DAFT PUNK!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.....ahem...next topic
Easter Eggs: This is the last part of my review and boy do we get some great easter eggs. The Third act more or less slams us with a mess load of them. One of the earliest ones was the suitcase armor, its color scheme was based off the West Coast Avengers armor. One which was super quick was the badge the woman had, it looked like Cap's shield. We get so much at the end, we get hints of Thor, "a bigger problem in the southeast", we have a better showing of Cap's shield, we have that hologram map in the back that shows blips of activity(Stark, Thor, Hulk, Cap?, Black Panther?, Red Skull?, and Namor?), the new "element" Tony makes may or may not be Vibranium(never said), and of course the post credit scene of Mjlonir which made me squeal with delight(the entire audience that stayed clapped like crazy) There was so many easter eggs it didn't hurt the film at all, its trying to cement the universe into a greater reality and showing Tony really isn't alone out there. So that gives the easter eggs a score of 10/10, so much build up now its put up or shut up time for Marvel.
So the final overall score I give the film is a...8.8/10. I really loved the film, I thought it was well done and it will make lots and lots of money of course. I liked the acting, all but one person, and the action scenes were well paced and properly placed and the easter eggs were just icing on the comic book movie cake. Til next time...BlackAirs out!!!