Iron Man 2 Review

ATTENTION – THIS ARTICLE WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR IRON MAN 2.
If you haven’t seen the movie yet I suggest you watch it first, then read this post and any comments.

I went to the midnight showing of Iron Man 2.  Overall the movie was entertaining but there were some things I thought were kinda stupid.  I’m not a comic book reader so my opinions are rather untainted in comparison to someone who grew up reading Iron Man comics and have strong emotional ties to the characters and story lines (i.e. 99% of the people in the theater).

I really enjoyed the first Iron Man but was worried that they were going to take the ingredients that made the first one so enjoyable and just double the recipe.  Fortunately John Favreau kept it under control.

Rawksauce!

Special Effects

I thought the special effects were very well done.  Some times the action sequences of movies are waaaay over done.  Fortunately the special effects used in Iron Man 2′s action sequences were pretty well balanced and not overdone.

Fight Scenes

Most of the fight scenes were pretty exciting.  I appreciated the fact that they weren’t overdone as well.  They were exciting and entertaining to watch.

Tony Stark

In the first Iron Man, Tony Stark’s smugness was entertaining.  In Iron Man 2 it was just as entertaining and fortunately not annoying.  Kudos to Robert Downy Jr.  Once again he did a great job.

Weaksauce!

The Villains

Ivan Vanko grew up with an alcoholic dad who spent the better part of his life in a vodka fueled rage towards Howard Stark and his legacy for what Howard did to muscle him out of Stark Industries as well as the United States.  Ivan’s GENIUS idea to exact his vengeance on Tony Stark was to make some static charged whips.  Whips…Really?!

He managed to do some damage while on the race track in Monaco but once Tony Stark put the Iron Man suit on it was game over.  So he gets hired by Justin Hammer who is really jealous Tony Stark’s intelligence as well as his success both with Iron Man and with the ladies.  Ivan has access to Justin Hammer’s deep pockets to make a competitor to Iron Man that Justin can sell to the government.  In secret, Ivan is also making his own secret weapon to FINALLY deliver his revenge.  His weapon of choice for round 2 – LONGER static charged whips.  Lame!

Final Battle

I really was disappointed by the final battle scene.  Ivan Vanko, the genius that he is, lasted all of about 3 minutes when taking on Iron Man and his buddy with those ingenious static whips which he made longer to offer some extra static charged goodness.  Upon his defeat he mumbles to Tony “you lose” after which his power unit begins blinking red.  Apparently he armed his wannabe Iron Man suit along with all the drones with bombs.  Uh oooohhh!  Good thing he was courteous enough to use those red blinking indicator lights as well as a 30 second timer giving Iron Man plenty of time to fly away as well as swoop down to pick up Pepper Potts before all the bombs go off.  Once again Ivan, being the destructive genius he is, opts to use fireworks grade explosives for his bombs instead of something that could really do some damage.  Speaking of fireworks, the fireworks show in the beginning of the movie give Iron Man more trouble than the entire tribe of Iron Man wannabe drones.

Miscellaneous Lameness

Did Ivan’s dad run some cruel, Wolverine-esque experiments on him or something?  How else could he survive getting slammed into a concrete barrier by a 5600 pound Rolls Royce Phantom, multiple times mind you, and not be crippled for life?

Also, I’m no Formula One fan or anything but do they not have headsets?  There was this crazy dude on the track with some static charged whips and the drivers were just continuing on with the race as if everything was dandy only to drive up to a rude awakening hiding around the corner of turn 3.

Overall Thoughts

I liked the movie overall.  I thought it was really entertaining despite the weak stuff here and there.
What did you think of the movie (or my review)?  Let me know in the Comments!