Of course, those laws are pretty loose, and it's difficult to introduce some of them in the context of a film that has to be internally self-consistent.
That is generally where DC has managed to fail over and over and over again. I can't say Marvel has been perfect with everything, but at least with the film department, having the company in control of their IPs now, we're likely to see fewer mistakes by comparison to some of the other competitors out there. Which does make me hope, eventually, that Marvel will be able to get Spider-Man and X-Men back.
Hey, Indiana Jones always gets out in the nick of time, no matter how slim the chances. That's Terry Pratchett's Law. If the odds are exactly one million-to-one, then it's a sure bet it will happen.
Too true. Without having control of their IPs, Marvel put their balls on the table, and in those cases Fox was happy to lop them off. Them being in control, it puts a lot more faith into the Thor and Captain America projects... Furthermore, keeps me waiting for a SHIELD (not the Avengers!) movie sometime as well.
This movie is so good that we decided to go watch it for a 2nd time in the theater. I can honesly say we have never in our entire lives went back to watch any movie for a 2nd time besides Iron Man. We will probably actually end up watching it a 3rd time this coming friday. 👍
Also when this comes out on blu-ray is when we are buying a PS3.
I absolutely love Iron Man. We saw it a few times in the theater and thats something I never do for movies. Its just that good. Then we bought the regular version yesterday and plan on renting the blu-ray version as soon as its available. I also found a hidden easter egg by accident. First time I ever found an easter egg in a movie. Iron Man is easily my favorite Marvel movie. 👍
There is another one on the main page. Or wait maybe we are thinking of the same thing. I never found an easter egg before so it was kinda exciting. lol
Mine was $23 for the "regular" DVD, I don't think it was much more for the Blu-Ray version. I know you can get it only at Target, and I know when I was at other stores, the same version of the two-disc DVD were retailing at $34.99 (minus the fancy packaging).
Mine was $23 for the "regular" DVD, I don't think it was much more for the Blu-Ray version. I know you can get it only at Target, and I know when I was at other stores, the same version of the two-disc DVD were retailing at $34.99 (minus the fancy packaging).
Iron Man Part Deux - A Tangled Setup for Awesome Things to Come
Way back in 2008, in a year where we had both Iron Man and The Dark Knight, we knew that the comic book film franchise was going to be getting bigger and better, with higher quality films, coming at a much faster rate. All things said and done, while The Dark Knight was a much better film (generally speaking), Iron Man arguably became one of the best comic book films. As the direct sequel to the first, one would expect things to only get better. In this case, well, it depends on what you want to look at.
The film picks up right where the first ends, at the press conference where Stark announces that he is in fact the Iron Man. The world is abuzz with the news, and immediately thereafter, Tony goes to work cleaning up "problem areas" around the world. His successes do not go unnoticed. The American government wants his suit for military use, Ivan Vanko wants retribution for what happened to his family because of Tony's father, Justin Hammer wants any kind of leg-up he can have on Stark, the list goes on and on. Toss in complications with Tony's love of the drink and his relationships with the people around him, and you've got one giant mess of a plot.
Generally speaking, plot issues abound, things can be overlooked by the performances given by the entire cast. Robert Downey Jr. is Stark, Sam Rockwell is quirky and hilarious as Hammer, but the real star is Mickey Rourke as Vanko. Despite being on screen for very little time, every scene with the man is a shining example of his ability to perform. Even Scarlett Johanson is given enough room to breathe in her few short moments as well. If this was a setup for a Black Widow film, count me in. Speaking of setups...
Holy cow. In much the same way that Marvel has been stacking major events in the past few years with their comics, Iron Man 2 serves as a springboard for a multitude of franchises, leading directly to the three films that will likely dominate theaters in the coming years: Thor (Spring 2011), Captain America (Fall 2011) and The Mighty Avengers (Spring 2012). I imagine that the writers for Iron Man 2 had to carefully plan their path based on what they wanted to do with Stark and the Suit, but just as much for what has to be readied for the others. Hell, we even have to be mindful of what happened in The Incredible Hulk. On those counts, sure, I can excuse the messy plot too.
Generally speaking, Iron Man 2 isn't quite as good as the first Iron Man. But in terms of stand out moments of awesomeness, there are plenty to go around, and knowing what it sets the stage for, it really ends up being a very important movie overall. I personally really enjoyed myself watching this film, and I plan on going to see it at least one more time. Nitpicks aside, its a fun romp across the Marvel Universe once more.
Now some spoilers:
Whoa are there some awesome winks/nods and other nonsense in this movie. While I'm sure that I didn't pick up on every little detail, there were some pretty big "OH MY MOTHEREFFIN GOD" moments for me:
1) S.H.I.E.L.D plays a bit larger of a role this time around, and in the end, you see some more stuff the way its supposed to be done. Black Widow is assigned to protect Stark, Nick Fury wants Stark back in action, and all of that jazz is getting in line so that S.H.I.E.L.D has their Avengers Initiative up and running.
2) In one little itty-bitty scene, Cap's shield shows up and I nearly pooped my pants. It really wasn't anything super special by the end, but as soon as the Agent picked it up and said "Do you know what this is?" I did an immediate "RYBOFLAVOHOYVAN!!!" Clearly S.H.I.E.L.D knows whats up with the Captain, and they've got plans. Tied in with what we know from The Incredible Hulk (which is happening during the end of Iron Man 2), things are moving along for the resurection of Cap likely near the end of the Thor movie. Of course, in that same scene, the Agent speaks of being re-assigned to "an event happening in the Mystical Fields of New Mexico."
3) What's going on in those fields? Well, something crash-landed out there in the sand. Cameras pan downward, and there we see Mjolnir jammed in the ground. Apparently, my brother and I were the only people who knew what the hell was going on. Matched with the photos released last week, this has me really, really excited for Thor next year (furthermore, going to the Thor panel at Comic Con 2010!). I'm assuming that Thor will take place during the tail-end, or right after, the events of The Incredible Hulk, which will lead nicely into Captain America (maybe another Iron Man if rumors are true), and then The Mighty Avengers.
4) Keep an eye on the final scene with Stark and Fury as well. In the background you see footage of some kind of incident playing as some kind of newscast, something I immediately recognized as the scene from The Incredible Hulk when they were on the college campus and Hulk fights the SAS guy who has taken the Super-Soldier serum. Its mostly from the aftermath stuff with the reporter and so on, but it does place the films nicely together in continuity for those who give a damn about things like that. Odd of course that they didn't perhaps allude to some of what was happening in Iron Man 2 in The Incredible Hulk, but I would think that two-ish years ago, Marvel probably didn't have all of their IPs in a row yet.
So, for those who are keeping score:
Iron Man --> Iron Man 2 --> Incredible Hulk --> Thor --> Captain America --> (Iron Man 3?) --> The Mighty Avengers
There is still a lot that we don't know about the rest of the Avengers. Will they go the classic Mighty Avengers route? Something similar to The Ultimates? Time will tell. At least we know the core people are there. Well, with the exception of Pym anyway.
Generally speaking, Iron Man 2 isn't quite as good as the first Iron Man. But in terms of stand out moments of awesomeness, there are plenty to go around, and knowing what it sets the stage for, it really ends up being a very important movie overall. I personally really enjoyed myself watching this film, and I plan on going to see it at least one more time. Nitpicks aside, its a fun romp across the Marvel Universe once more.
A well-balanced movie... toeing the line between just enough action to satisfy the general audience and just enough story to keep them from getting bored (and to keep us comic geeks happy).
It's still a very successful formula... but the overaching need to tie it all in to the other film franchises stretches it thin in parts.
Scarlett Johanson is one sticking point. She's a very competent actress, and plays her role well, but if you don't know anything about the Avengers, you'll be thinking... what's the point? She's an extra that dilutes the chemistry between the main characters that we've become familiar with and plays an important role only once or twice in the movie.
Other less intrusive cameos and winks and nods towards upcoming tied-in movies are fun, though. I particularly enjoyed this scene, from near the end:
The scene where Fury is talking to Stark, and asks him to come on as a consultant... Stark replies: "You can't afford me."... breaking the fourth wall, much? Does this mean Robert Downey Junior won't be in the Avengers movie? It's a wait-and-see...
As always, where he's involved, Mickey Rourke steals the show... Don Cheadle does a great job as Jim Rhodes, but I still think Terrence Howard was a better match to the character.
Sam Rockwell... well... here's one guy that you know has just got to be a villain, even if you don't know anything much about Hammer... and he even does hs little dance (shades of Charlie's Angels... is the dance written into his every movie contract?).
Enjoyed it. Like the first one, gives you enough filling, but leaves you asking for more.
YSSMAN: Regarding your question about which direction the Avengers are going, look at Nick Fury. That should tell you everything you need to know, at least on the style front. Unless Samuel L. Jackson was replaced with a middle-aged white man. I haven't seen it, but I was pretty sure it was still Samuel L. Jackson.
As for other thoughts: I doubt there is a stand alone Black Widow film in the current plans as she did not sign the same kind of multi-movie contract the other main actors did. Most of the main stars all signed a six-movie deal, which was why they had casting problems for Captain America and Thor. They had to find an actor that fit the character and was willing to sign a contract for up to six movies, knowing they would only star in two at most. Robert Downey Jr. has already done three and Samuel L Jackson has done two.
As for the semi-convoluted plot: John Favreau mentioned in an interview a few months back that they had eight story lines planned so they could adapt to Marvel's long term plans when they knew them. I imagine this played a part, as the final story was fleshed out in the last few minutes. Possibly representing a case of Marvel being a victim of their own genius.
But the writer for The Avengers did eventually sit down with all the writers of the four other films to make sure that the overall continuity was on the same page. I can only assume that Joss Whedon can pull it all together, if he is actually directing Avengers. He has both comics and franchise crossover continuity experience. Since Iron Man 2 was the last film to be in production before all the teams came together I am hopeful that things will feel more cohesive going forward. Marvel should have had all the stories flushed out from the beginning but I guess they had to be sure it would work with Iron Man and Incredible Hulk before they continued, and Iron Man 2 had to be going forward to meet their timeline.
Going forward the bigger question is: Can it work? Iron Man and Incredible Hulk are semi-believable as a high tech hero and mutant "hero." Even Captain America, glory of medical science is believable. Thor, as a standalone mystical God will seem just fine, but place the mystical next to the three versions of science-made heroes and they have to be careful. Similarly, how do they pull off Red Skull without seeming cheesy. I mean, the guy wearing a mask given to him by Hitler doesn't sound so scary today. In fact, it may even seem like a Darth Vader ripoff to some. But trying to claim he had some incident make him look like that might seem tough to accept too.
And I am curious what large threat will bring them all together. Is Loki up to no good? Or will we deal with aliens? Perhaps The Hulk just gets crazy? The next few years will be incredibly awesome for comic geeks like myself.
We watched this on saturday and I was overall quite disappointed. The first Iron Man was WAY better in so many ways. So many parts of this movie were borderline stupid.
Here is Iron Man a person that can blow up tanks and destroy pretty much anything, yet he gets into a fist fight with this new electric whip character (Ivan Yanko) and gets owned. 👎 Then Ivan is getting rammed over and over again by a car and waks right away from it without any special suit or anything. Why "fist fight" a guy that can only swing his whip a few feet??? Just plain stupid.
The other part that kills me is how Don Cheadle just hops right into the Iron man suit and controls it like he has been in the suit forever. The part about Iron Man 1 that made it so great is how he had to experiment and adapt to the suit and "learn" how to fly it. Don hopped right in like nothing. So disappointing.
Iron Man was MUCH better than the 2nd one by a longshot.
It's wonderful how Tony Stark leaves suits lying around in his basement with spare Arc Reactors already installed and juiced up. Remind me to visit his parties.
Here is Iron Man a person that can blow up tanks and destroy pretty much anything, yet he gets into a fist fight with this new electric whip character (Ivan Yanko) and gets owned. 👎 Then Ivan is getting rammed over and over again by a car and waks right away from it without any special suit or anything. Why "fist fight" a guy that can only swing his whip a few feet??? Just plain stupid.
I think you missed the point of the entire conflict. He was there to challenge Stark, not to harm him in any way. To paraphrase the film, "to prove that God can bleed. And when there is blood in the water, the sharks will come." So, you get Vanko, Hammer, among others who are looking to get a piece of Stark.
What I liked most about Iron Man 2 was that, despite there being multiple bad guys, they were arguably no worse than Stark himself.
Kari and I went to see it last night. It was entertaining to a degree but I liked the first one a lot better. The thing that bothered me the most about the movie though was Terrence Howard was replaced with Don Cheadle...two people that look nothing alike.
Scarlett Johansson in a cat suit with red hair though? Uhhhhh yes please!!! It could have been two hours of that and I wouldn't have complained.
I agree Don Cheadle did not fit the part well at all and I just did not like the fact that he jumped right into the suit and had no problems at all with it. That really bothered me big time about this movie.
I agree Don Cheadle did not fit the part well at all and I just did not like the fact that he jumped right into the suit and had no problems at all with it. That really bothered me big time about this movie.
I think you're forgetting who Rhodes is, and who he hangs around (constantly). Not to mention that JARVIS is uploaded to every mainframe of every suit Tony will ever build (in the movie). If you remember he would have done the exact same thing in the first one had Favreau wanted to introduce War Machine that early on.
I didn't have any problems with the movie whatsoever, then again, I'm a nerd/comic book geek so I was salivating at most of the technology like a moron.
About Don, I find him more fitting then Terrence; there's something about him (Howard) that I just don't care for. He was good in the first one I can't take that away from him...but like I said, there's something about him that I don't like.
I watched it the other night and really enjoyed it, actually. Probably not as cohesive a story as the first film, but a damn good piece of action movie all the same.
A few weaknesses in the special effects though I reckon, especially with the Monaco scenes. I know it wasn't actually real but it was hard to suspend disbelief for some parts of it. Good FX should make you forget it's not real. I mean, even the easy bits. The cars going around the circuit looked ridiculously computer generated. And that was before they started getting smashed up.
