LogFAQs > #950275827

Paratroopa1
Iron Man 2 is an intensely weird film and I don't even know where to start with it. The scenes and pacing are strange, the villains are strange, the dialog and directing is strange. It makes for a pretty funny and weirdly entertaining movie, and it's probably the first MCU movie that really "feels" like an MCU movie, with more connective tissue to future movies and a tone and a vibe that feels in line with everything that comes after it. Almost nothing that happens in this movie makes sense - why does Tony Stark enter a race and why does the bad guy attack him during it? Why did Howard Stark figure out a brand new element and hide it in the most obtuse way possible? - but after the second watch I learned to just kinda roll with it as the entertaining and weird movie that it is. Downey Jr carries, as usual, but the cast is pretty good overall - Ivan Vanko is surprisingly likeable (he loves his bird!), Justin Hammer is a funny nerd, and we get an introduction to Black Widow and a proper introduction to Nick Fury. Don Cheadle is a huge upgrade as Rhodes, too (I like that his first line is just to tell the audience to get over the cast switch). I think the main way this film falters is that it's really low stakes - Tony Stark just kind of solves his life-threatening illness through science-magic and the ending confrontation never feels like that serious a threat, they feel like they're always in control, so I sort of lose interest at that point.

PrinceKaro
So what is happening now is that Tony is dying because he can't find a material to use in the memory card in his heart that won't poison him and so he decides to not only just up and create a new element, but one that is stable and non-radioactive. It's science, bitch!
The film introduces Nick Fury and Black Widow in bit parts, and it is nice to see the MCU start to take shape. For villainy they yet again they go with the evil foreigner working for the military industrial complex guy and it is not really much better this time around.
Finally we see the MCU formula finally starting to come together into the trademark action comedy that we come to know and love, though we still hadn't fully exorcised the 2000's edgelordiness by this point in time.
It never will stand among the greats, but it is still a decent movie in its own right.

XIII Rocks
The Iron Man movies aren't quite as good as RDJ's Tony Stark himself is, even the supreme first movie. A possible part of the reason for that is that he never had a villain to match his charisma. This is the worst offender of all; Whiplash is so wasted, and while Sam Rockwell does very well, as always, he just feels so inconsequential next to Stark. That's partly by design, because he's so clearly supposed to look shitty and greedy, but that becomes a problem when the other villain spends most of the movie confined to a lab building robots before a 90-second fight scene quickly won by War Machine and Iron Man. That said, RDJ himself drags every movie he's in up several notches. The sequence where he makes the new element makes almost no sense plot-wise, but RDJ's charisma sells it, and that's probably the best example of him elevating otherwise iffy material. Also Don Cheadle is better than Terrence Howard so no loss there.

Lopen
I think this one gets a lot of hate? It's completely fine, just kinda pointless action flick but not an obnoxious way like Avengers 2. I will say as the mark of shame this movie holds the distinction of being the only one I didn't remember at all until rewatching for this list aside from Mikey Rourke with energy whips. I guess a bit of a waste of Mickey Rourke but I don't hate the character he plays.

It's funny that this has a fairly similar plot to Iron Man 1 (smarmy weapons dealer wants to beat Tony Stark) but is a lot worse at it.

StifledSilence
Dude from Oceans Eleven is a much better pal than the first guy. Tony being a cocky asshole that wants to privatize world peace is wonderful. And the villain is one-note perhaps, but hes also a perfect foil to Tony. Hes a veritable brick wall that Tony cant simply wave away. It creates a new urgency for him to fight, which is welcome for character development. The Black Widow spots are also excellent.

Illuminatusbubu
It was such a letdown after the first movie. A superhero movie usually depends on the chemistry between the superhero and villain. While this movie has multiple villains, none of them are really relevant.

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