First Impressions
I went to a midnight showing of Iron Man 2 tonight, to show my nerd solidarity. By myself, which is kinda pathetic, but I think it was worth it. The first one came out when I was still in high school (and it may have been AP season at the time), so I made the wise decision and did not got to the midnight showing (plus, I didn't realize how awesome it would be). So I wanted to go this time. And I did (and I plan to do all of the Avenger line movies (the newest Hulk (we shall forget that the earlier one existed and never speak of it again), the Iron Man movies, the coming Thor and Captain America movies and (drumroll) the Avengers movie that brings it all together!), 'cause I am that excited for them). And now, still a little pumped from the movie, I wanted to get my first impressions out there. Doubtless I will see this once (or twice...or thrice) more, and I may do a more in-depth thing later. But first impression?
It was AWESOME.
In a week or so (maybe less), I'll organize all my thoughts about the superhero movies and explain a little to my non-comic savvy readers about a some things I've mentioned here and more that I'll be mentioning there. But here's to make a long story short (too late!) (at least it was until I edited this, but I wanted to leave the Clue reference): the Iron Man movies have captured the comics (or, at least, my sense/experience of the comics) to a T. A T as in Tony Stark, because there could never be a better Tony Stark than Robert Downey, Jr. Thank you, RDJ, for taking this part. Everyone else was good, too, even though they changed the guy who plays Rhodes (I think I like this one better). I was especially surprised by how much I like Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and Mickey Rourke as Whiplash (he didn't impress me in the previews).
And the writing was so great. They got the snark right, they got the action right, and there was some real emotion (even more than the last one, which did have some). And it was hilarious. And I think it was even cleaner than the last one (at least figuratively): no swearing (that I noticed, and I don't actually remember if they swore in the last one), and, very surprisingly (considering this is Tony Stark we're talking about), no sex (although there were scantily-ish (not, like, bikini scanty or anything..although there were those Ironettes or whatever they were called...) clad women and a skin-tight stealth suit on Black Widow). And not bloody at all. (This last but about being cleaner is probably only important to my Mormon readers, but I think that's the majority of you, so I included it.)
Lastly (I promise), they avoided Spiderman 3 syndrome. I was worried, because from the previews, there were a lot of storylines going on. You had Whiplash with his vendetta against the Starks, the military drama, the mysterious buff suits Tony and Rhodes face together, Rhodes and Tony's relationship, Tony's and Pepper's relationship, Black Widow as a new character, background S.H.I.E.L.D. stuff going on, and then some stuff they didn't even have in the previews at all (or nearly)...There was a lot to cover. But it did not end up like Spiderman 3, where they just had too many storylines going on (a movie doesn't need 3 or 4 villains!). In Iron Man 2 they condensed it all nicely and it fit together like an especially well-made puzzle. It was a thing of beauty.
So, I highly recommend it. It was so great. There is an after-credits thing, but it may not be especially exciting to those not familiar with all the things going on to line up all the Avengers movies. Like the last one, with Nick Fury being revealed (another perfect casting...), which isn't exciting unless you know who Nick Fury is and what he is in charge of. But it made me squee. Well, it was more like a "Yeah!" with a double fist pump (which in this case is both fists going over my head at the same time), but you get the idea.
It was AWESOME.
In a week or so (maybe less), I'll organize all my thoughts about the superhero movies and explain a little to my non-comic savvy readers about a some things I've mentioned here and more that I'll be mentioning there. But here's to make a long story short (too late!) (at least it was until I edited this, but I wanted to leave the Clue reference): the Iron Man movies have captured the comics (or, at least, my sense/experience of the comics) to a T. A T as in Tony Stark, because there could never be a better Tony Stark than Robert Downey, Jr. Thank you, RDJ, for taking this part. Everyone else was good, too, even though they changed the guy who plays Rhodes (I think I like this one better). I was especially surprised by how much I like Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and Mickey Rourke as Whiplash (he didn't impress me in the previews).
And the writing was so great. They got the snark right, they got the action right, and there was some real emotion (even more than the last one, which did have some). And it was hilarious. And I think it was even cleaner than the last one (at least figuratively): no swearing (that I noticed, and I don't actually remember if they swore in the last one), and, very surprisingly (considering this is Tony Stark we're talking about), no sex (although there were scantily-ish (not, like, bikini scanty or anything..although there were those Ironettes or whatever they were called...) clad women and a skin-tight stealth suit on Black Widow). And not bloody at all. (This last but about being cleaner is probably only important to my Mormon readers, but I think that's the majority of you, so I included it.)
Lastly (I promise), they avoided Spiderman 3 syndrome. I was worried, because from the previews, there were a lot of storylines going on. You had Whiplash with his vendetta against the Starks, the military drama, the mysterious buff suits Tony and Rhodes face together, Rhodes and Tony's relationship, Tony's and Pepper's relationship, Black Widow as a new character, background S.H.I.E.L.D. stuff going on, and then some stuff they didn't even have in the previews at all (or nearly)...There was a lot to cover. But it did not end up like Spiderman 3, where they just had too many storylines going on (a movie doesn't need 3 or 4 villains!). In Iron Man 2 they condensed it all nicely and it fit together like an especially well-made puzzle. It was a thing of beauty.So, I highly recommend it. It was so great. There is an after-credits thing, but it may not be especially exciting to those not familiar with all the things going on to line up all the Avengers movies. Like the last one, with Nick Fury being revealed (another perfect casting...), which isn't exciting unless you know who Nick Fury is and what he is in charge of. But it made me squee. Well, it was more like a "Yeah!" with a double fist pump (which in this case is both fists going over my head at the same time), but you get the idea.
posted by Meg | 3:35 AM
1 Comments:
So people keep asking me what I thought about Iron Man 2, and I realize I have pretty much no first impressions. Other than thinking that when Tony and Jarvis (or whatever his computer's name was)were first talking it was an excellent use of secondary characters to convey information. Is that weird? Clearly I'll just have to see this movie again some time.
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