Iron Man 2 discussion (Spoilers!)

[Ice]

I enjoyed it. I had a great time and totally geeked out and clapped at the end credits scene.

I'm also giving it about a 3.5/5, but I'll round up to 4.

Same here.

 

[Grocer Man]

Re: Iron Man 2 discussion (spoilers)

I really enjoyed this.

I actually thought it was better then the first film. While it was very good, the first film's plot wasn't that great and there was an unsatisfying climax. While it's a bit off at parts, the plot's better put together and interesting, and the climax was really cool. (Well, up until the final showdown with Whiplash, but I'll forgive that.)

The acting continues to be the strongest selling point of the franchise.

I didn't stick arround for the after-credits scene. While I'm sure it would have been cool to look at, I would like to see something, you know, Iron Man-related. Like say, SHIELD goes out to North Korea or China to spy on the building of a robotic Fin Fang Foom by the Ten Rings. Or something. I'm not sure that would make sense with the story, but it'd at least be Iron Man related.

All in all, a very enjoyable film.

 

[E]

Re: Iron Man 2 discussion (spoilers)

Saw it in IMAX last night and loved it. I was glad I got to go - we didn't think we'd be able to see it opening weekend.

I liked the legacy subplot, but it seemed a little farfetched that Howard Stark would leave his son with the tools necessary to find that single undiscovered element that would save Tony from dying. It's like Howard knew that his son was going to get palladium poisoning.

I thought that at first too but...

I didn't have a problem with that because it was actually just intended to solve the energy crisis. Scientists everywhere have been looking for a clean, unlimited power source for eons(not just one specific single element to cure palladium poisoning, but anything super-energetic and clean. Likely something like Unbihexium). It makes sense Howard Stark would be the one to find one. Tony happening to PERSONALLY need one much more directly than Howard had imagined is just the type of happy coincedence movies are often made of. If they'd not made a big deal out of it, I would've been pissed(some movies do this), but since they did I thought that worked great.

^ This. Hiding it in the city layout thing was kind of lame - what is the point? - but I could accept that Howard was onto something without the ability to work everything out.

Also, was the substance intended to be vibranium? That's the impression I got and I didn't notice if it was said explicitly.

 

[Random]

Re: Iron Man 2 discussion (spoilers)

Also, was the substance intended to be vibranium? That's the impression I got and I didn't notice if it was said explicitly.

It wasn't said but I agree, that's what they were going for. In fact I thought it would be cool if there was a scene in Captain America where a very young Howard Stark and some other scientist tried to preform that experiment only with a giant hadron collider to use that process to combine the element with a disk of iron. The experiment explodes creating a huge financial disaster with most of the research destroyed with only Cap's future Shield as the result. Which Howard give to Cap. And this implies that the project is too costly and complex to complete in his life time. That may be a bit too long for a cap movie, but I like this idea.

 

[J. Agamemnon]

Re: Iron Man 2 discussion (spoilers)

It wasn't said but I agree, that's what they were going for. In fact I thought it would be cool if there was a scene in Captain America where a very young Howard Stark and some other scientist tried to preform that experiment only with a giant hadron collider to use that process to combine the element with a disk of iron. The experiment explodes creating a huge financial disaster with most of the research destroyed with only Cap's future Shield as the result. Which Howard give to Cap. And this implies that the project is too costly and complex to complete in his life time. That may be a bit too long for a cap movie, but I like this idea.

what's cool with this idea of howard meeting cap is that in Paradise X, Angel Tony mentions that Captain America saved his father during WWII. what a cool easter egg that would be.

 

[Planet-man]

During the film, I was expecting him to talk about naming it Starkium, Pepperium, Shieldium, etc and completely forgot about Vibranium.

That would be really cool, but thinking closer to the comics it could also be that the Captain America shield is already made(at least in part, like the frame) of Vibranium, and is what lead Howard Stark to come up with this new, still-unnamed element in the first place.

 

[Random]

That would be really cool, but thinking closer to the comics it could also be that the Captain America shield is already made(at least in part, like the frame) of Vibranium, and is what lead Howard Stark to come up with this new, still-unnamed element in the first place.

Well I also considered, since that scene would take up a bit too much time, would be Howard finding Cap giving him the shield with this back story of it's creation.

 

[Captain Canuck]

Hiding it in the city layout thing was kind of lame - what is the point? - but I could accept that Howard was onto something without the ability to work everything out.

yeah, it's not totally unbelievable, but it was still kind of a dumb plot point. However, they pulled off the execution. It was a lame story device to plug the Avengers but the actors made it entertaining...except for Sam Jackson, "I've got my eye on you!" ugh.

During the film, I was expecting him to talk about naming it Starkium, Pepperium, Shieldium, etc and completely forgot about Vibranium.

or Dr Pepperium

or Burger Kingium

 

[ProjectX2]

It should have been Unobtanium.

 

[bluebeast]

So here's my thoughts:

Likes:
Anything involving Robert Downey Jr. The only problem I see them having with the Avengers is that Downey will outshine everyone except for Evans and Norton (if he is indeed in it)

Scarlet Johansson as the Black Widow was amazing and her scenes with Happy were pure gold. When she maces the guy at the end was the biggest laugh I got.

Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer equals great. "I'm gonna make Ulysses look like it was written in crayons." "I call it the ex-wife"

I thought Don Cheadle was a step up from Terrance Howard and felt like all of his actions in the movie were completely in character as the military man he was.

Dislikes: The lack of anything real from Mickey Rourke. His last scene screamed Obadiah Stane 2.0 while his first fight was epic.

Sam Jackson wasn't bad at all I just thought that he was used in the wrong capacity. I did like the I've got my eye on you line though.

Gweneth Paltrow, I just don't care about Pepper or Stark being in any relationship at all.

The Oh ****! Moments: The Hammer.

The chase scene between Stark, Rhody and the drones.

Suitcase armor.

All-in-all I think it was more of a complete movie than the first one and was able to pretty seamlessly blend the new characters with the old. The action scenes were better and it looks like the Avengers will at least have two solid members in Iron Man and Black Widow. 4/5 which is the same as the first one for me but for different reasons.

 

[selfproclaimed]

Saw this on Saturday and something just didn't quite click for me. When I watched Iron Man 1.0 for the first time, it captured perfectly the joy, excitement, wonder, etc that I get from reading comics. Iron Man 2.0 didn't quite do that. I enjoyed it. The action scenes were much better. RDJ still IS Tony Stark. Rockwell as Hammer was great and I'm glad that he didn't die at the end. In my opinion, too many films kill the villains at the end so there is no chance for a comeback. I just felt that Rourke's Whiplash should have and could have been better and more impactful than he was. This movie did make me super excited for the coming Thor/Captain America/Avengers movies though.

 

[Planet-man]

I'd be happy with Hammer continuing to be a presence throughout the rest of the series, including the Avengers films.

 

[Captain Canuck]

Dislikes: The lack of anything real from Mickey Rourke. His last scene screamed Obadiah Stane 2.0 while his first fight was epic.

except the final whiplash scene wasn't even as good as the Iron Monger scene. At least with Iron Monger they blinded the suit to make the fight more interesting than two machines fighting.

Sam Jackson wasn't bad at all I just thought that he was used in the wrong capacity. I did like the I've got my eye on you line though.

you did? :?

 

[Planet-man]

The eye line got the biggest laugh in my theater.

 

[bluebeast]

except the final whiplash scene wasn't even as good as the Iron Monger scene. At least with Iron Monger they blinded the suit to make the fight more interesting than two machines fighting.


you did? :?

It wasn't that bad. I thought it was comic booky and I think it fit the tone.

 

[Captain Canuck]

i honestly thought it was the lamest part of the movie, but okay.

 

[TheManWithoutFear]

Whatever happened to the Mandarin subplot that was supposed to be going on throughout all of this? I thought Favreau wanted to use the emperor formula for a trilogy.

 

[Dr.Strangefate]

I think the truth of the matter is the fact that originally The Mandarin was going to be the villain of the first movie, and that was the case even when they started filming it... Stane was supposed to be a plant to pay off in the sequel. But they shifted gears and left the initial Ten Rings stuff in there for the fans.

Although Favreau has said in recent interviews that The Mandarin will almost certainly be the villain of the third Iron Man film.

 

[ProjectX2]

Whatever happened to the Mandarin subplot that was supposed to be going on throughout all of this? I thought Favreau wanted to use the emperor formula for a trilogy.

The Ten Rings helped Vanko get to Monaco.

This is a good article: Why Iron Man is the first 21st century superhero.

 

[Planet-man]

This is a good article: Why Iron Man is the first 21st century superhero.

That's excellent.

 

[Gothamite]

Don Cheadle was depressing in this movie. He made no effort to make the role his own, he just sort of showed up and tried not to look too silly. He had none of the naive charisma as Terrance Howard did and he certainly had none of the chemistry that Howard had with Downey, either.

The Cap Shield annoyed me as well. In the first film, it was subtly placed and was an added bit of fun for fans to spot later on. In the second film, it's like they're shouting at the audience "HEY! LOOK AT THIS! LOOK AT THIS CLEVER THING WE'VE PUT IN THE MOVIE!". I kind of felt the same way about Favreau's expanded role as a bodyguard (Happy? Happy Hogan? Sorry, I'm not up on my Iron Man comics lore). In the first film, he had a Hitchc0ck-like cameo. In the second film, he was needlessly promoted to one of the supporting characters. It was a bit much.

Again, the film was good entertainment, but it didn't stretch any boundaries and the plot just wasn't engaging at all. I may never watch it again.

EDIT: I should mention though, that in no way did the film seem like a "120-minute trailer for the Avengers" which is what dozens of its critics are calling it. The only entirely unneccessary Avengers plug was Stark's final scene with Fury, as well as the post-credits scene. The rest of the scenes worked just fine to enhance the movie's lacklustre plot.

 

[Captain Canuck]

I kind of felt the same way about Favreau's expanded role as a bodyguard (Happy? Happy Hogan? Sorry, I'm not up on my Iron Man comics lore). In the first film, he had a Hitchc0ck-like cameo. In the second film, he was needlessly promoted to one of the supporting characters. It was a bit much.

Happy Hogan is one of Iron Man's key supporting characters. That's like saying J Jonah Jameson had too much screen time in the Spider-Man movies.

 

[Gothamite]

Happy Hogan is one of Iron Man's key supporting characters. That's like saying J Jonah Jameson had too much screen time in the Spider-Man movies.

I'm not speaking as an educated fan of Iron Man comics, though (I think I've read maybe three Iron Man comics in my life). I'm speaking as a casual filmgoer who saw the director's cameo in the first film unneccessarily advanced into a supporting role in the second, with no real progression and no actual introduction. If he was such an important character, why didn't they let us know that in the first film?

 

[Ultimate Houde]

They kinda did.

 

[Random]

They kinda did.

Yeah, at first he stepped in only because the extra couldn't make it, but they found he and Downing made a funny scene so they expanding the role to at least two more scenes, the racing to the airplane and the car ride to the press conference, in fact I believe his was referred to as Happy in the latter scene. So it feels natural they would bring back the body guard role and give it a little expansion.

 

[Langsta]

Happy was awesome in this movie.

And I didn't like Cheadle at all; I would have preferred Howard.

 

[Captain Canuck]

I'm not speaking as an educated fan of Iron Man comics, though (I think I've read maybe three Iron Man comics in my life). I'm speaking as a casual filmgoer who saw the director's cameo in the first film unneccessarily advanced into a supporting role in the second, with no real progression and no actual introduction. If he was such an important character, why didn't they let us know that in the first film?

fair enough, but I haven't really read any Iron Man either. I only really knew who he was because of the first movie.

 

[Planet-man]

Happy, and Favreau, are great and I was glad to have more of them.

Cheadle was fine and I feel did his best, but I will always be disappointed that Terrence Howard, for whatever reason, wasn't in it. I don't get it, and it would've been better if he was.

 

[ProjectX2]

Yeah, Happy was one of the best parts.

I prefer Cheadle over Howard in general but he really seemed out of place in this movie. He just didn't seem... there.

 

[Langsta]

Yeah, Happy was one of the best parts.

I prefer Cheadle over Howard in general but he really seemed out of place in this movie. He just didn't seem... there.

"You guys look like two seals fighting over a grape...." Worst line ever.

And then right after that, "Get your own roof."

Then, "Hey Tony, my car is ruined, I'm gonna need to borrow this suit." / "That wasn't a question!" (flies off in War Machine suit)

All in the span of 5 minutes.