IRON MAN 2

[grubl]

I'll make this quick. It hit all of the marks that the fans would want hit. Some nice performances (mainly Mickey Rourke), but man was I bored. There was nothing new or unexpected. Every joke/gag was telegraphed far in advance.
The fight scenes were like watching someone else play a video game (something that I hardly ever do), maybe that was the point. How many times do we have to see Tony or Whiplash walk away from an explosion that they caused without looking back (facing forward with a stoic look on their face) (or in Widow's case after tasing someone)? How many times do we have to see Iron Man walk away from a "defeated" foe and then have something thrown at the back of his helmet and then stop in his tracks and slowly turn to face the still unbeaten enemy? How many times are we supposed to laugh at Stark or Hammer doing a little disco jig? All stale, lame and uninspired bits. The entire film could have been written (and apparently was) by cobbling together bits of pre-existing action movies. These devices (which saturate the entire film) were old when they were used the first 56 times.
And why the hell doesn't The Black Widow have an accent, even when she isn't undercover!?!
Bored, bored, bored. Then my pal wanted to wait through the credits for the now standard teaser (these things have lost their ability to thrill me, as well).
First one was somewhat enjoyable, this one, not so much. Go ahead, see it, you'll probably like it. Then see it again without your fanboy goggles on (this is not meant to refer to Tom and Derrick, who I respect, but to the Geek culture in general), after you get over all of the references and can judge it as a film. Not me, I'm done with the Iron Man series.

[Sparky]

My sentiments exactly, grubl. Why can't "Marvel" produce vital, involving, fun pictures ? ( ie: not cliches of cliches that were tired twenty years ago!) I love the Marvel Universe, and a handfull of the resulting movies, but, mercy! What a let down!

[grubl]

You're a fine man Sparky!

[Eddie Love]

I feel ya, Grubl. I was underwhelmed here as well. The Paltrow / RDJ banter this time around was hectic and self-conscious. Plus, I was pumped for Samuel Jackson's take on Nick Fury, but then he just seemed to be doing his usual schtick. But mostly, while the feel of the first film was essentially realistic, here we had not only the absurd Senate hearings but the arms bazaar-apalloza where defense contractors are treated like rock stars by the kids and an active duty army officer is deployed as a prop. (Although I did like that Favreau had the confidence to slow things down for long passages with Tony in his workroom, which were the best bits for me.)

[Dino]

Personally, I couldn't disagree more. From start to finish, I loved Iron Man 2. I actually have seen it numerous times, and in the company of people who have zero interest in comics and whose interest/knowledge of Iron Man begins and ends with the movies. Not once has my enjoyment of the film diminished one bit and my friends, who went in without the advantage/handicap of geek goggles, loved it as well.