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Iron Man 2 [split topic]

Started by Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth, March 09, 2010, 04:19:25 PM

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Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

New Iron Man 2 trailer

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/paramount/ironman/

Looks fun, although there appears to be rather a lot of baddies, which is generally bad news in this sort of thing.

MojoJojo

While the first film was good, even while watching it I thought the sequel was bound to disappoint. The first film was good mostly in "the origins" part - the rest of it was a bit hokey.

They can't do the origins bit again, so they're going to have to do a lot better at the other stuff this time round.

SavageHedgehog

Well this looks pretty darn dumb, but it does look quite fun. I thought the first one was no more than a reasonable time-killer (and while I wasn't bothered by it per say, I was a bit nonplussed by how no one seemed to comment on the slighty jingoistic tone which critics would have had a field day with if they'd been in a Sly or Arnie or Michael Bay film) so it's fully possible this will top it for me.

Tiny Poster

Will the second one mainly feature Downey Jr talking to himself in an entertaining fashion for most of the movie, with a couple of redemptive climaxes? That's what made the first one the best comic book film for years.

kittens

The first one was so cool. I'd have loved to have seen it in the cinema. As long as there still a fucking flying robot that can SHOOT ROCKETS OUT OF HIS HANDS this film will be excellent.

MojoJojo

Quote from: Tiny Poster on March 10, 2010, 06:38:31 PM
Will the second one mainly feature Downey Jr talking to himself in an entertaining fashion for most of the movie, with a couple of redemptive climaxes? That's what made the first one the best comic book film for years.

Thank you for summing up what I was trying to say succinctly.

Re: the jingosistic feeling of the first film. I'm not sure it's that simple. Yeah the US militry are portrayed far more sympatheticly than the taliban, but equally a big US company war profiteering is the main baddy. The Afghan war is touched on so lightly as nothing more than a backdrop that it rarely felt offensively jingositic, to me at least.

SavageHedgehog

It's not so much all that but the way he springs into action on his return after being captured saying "I saw Americans die!" I mean, maybe a few other evil-incarnate people might have died from all those years you've been making weapons too Tony, but that's by the by I guess. Of course, this new film looks like it might be responding to that issue, so maybe I'm jumping the gun a bit there. But there's also that messianic shot when he first lands and the angelic music plays as he's about to kick Arab butt; it's precisely the kind of "gee wouldn't it be wonderful is this guy was around to do this in real life" shot the Rambo films became critical whipping boys for. And the "it's not really such and such, because we've got one [character type] whose good/bad" doesn't hold much sway with me I'm afraid. But it's not that I really mind any of this stuff, I was just surprised it was never/rarely commented on.

Bingo Fury

Stark's conversion was a consequence of almost being killed by one of his own weapons (as well as seeing a group of soldiers who were escorting him being wiped out). As someone who'd been set up as a self-centred playboy, it fits that he would only have a Road To Damascus moment if it affected him directly.

Just turned that trailer off. Way too many spoilers.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth


SavageHedgehog

On the other hand, Harry Knowles is wetting himself over it. I don't rate him at all as a reviewer (then again I don't really rate Empire) personally, but I guess it could be said he knows about these comic book properties.


Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Quote from: SavageHedgehog on April 27, 2010, 05:01:54 PM
then again I don't really rate Empire
Nor do I (although I still read their website out of habit) but then that's mostly because of their tendency to go easy on every blockbuster movie, hence my surprise at the relatively low score awarded to this. I'm also surprised because I felt the only thing dragging the first film down was the seemingly mandatory origin story and was expecting the sequel to be a near perfect popcorn flick.


In related news, the first image of Mighty Thor has just been released.

The costume looks rather plastic, but perhaps it'll look better in the finished film.

Feralkid

Quote from: SavageHedgehog on April 27, 2010, 05:01:54 PM
On the other hand, Harry Knowles is wetting himself over it. I don't rate him at all as a reviewer (then again I don't really rate Empire) personally, but I guess it could be said he knows about these comic book properties.

Knowles also just gave the almost universally derided Elm Street remake a glowing review.  But then he is a whore and such antics are expected.   

localhero87

Watched this last night. Nothing special really but I genuinely enjoyed it. Aside from the updated Batman series, I can't stand pretty much every single "superhero" franchise, but both Ironman films have been entertaining so far. It helps of course that Downer Jr is a great actor with charisma (unlike say, Tobey Maguire) and the ensemble cast was very impressive too.

sirhenry

The Iron Man character was first created to see if it was possible to have a superhero whose alter-ego was totally despicable and unsympathetic. That didn't last long in the comic and doesn't come across in the first movie after Iron Man appears. Despite being totally self-centred, he's still portrayed as an aspirational hero. Shame, it could have been an interesting twist on the superhero genre.

And can we expect the now obligatory civillian authority figure to make all the wrong decisions, leaving our hero and the US army to go against their orders and do the right thing, thus saving the world? It's become such a tedious and ubiquitous cliché since the original Battlestar Galactica series, with Transformers 2 being the crassest example I've seen yet.

Ginyard

Quote from: sirhenry on May 02, 2010, 12:15:50 PM
The Iron Man character was first created to see if it was possible to have a superhero whose alter-ego was totally despicable and unsympathetic. That didn't last long in the comic and doesn't come across in the first movie after Iron Man appears. Despite being totally self-centred, he's still portrayed as an aspirational hero. Shame, it could have been an interesting twist on the superhero genre.

That would be such a good idea. A sort of Bad Santa Iron Man who pisses himself and hurls whisky bottles at podgy kids before begrudgingly saving the east coast of america from extermination. Rob DJ would have excelled at that sort of role.

I think its time to get my pen out.

An tSaoi

Quote from: Ginyard on May 02, 2010, 02:33:22 PM
That would be such a good idea. A sort of Bad Santa Iron Man who pisses himself and hurls whisky bottles at podgy kids before begrudgingly saving the east coast of america from extermination.

They tried that with Hancock.  Didn't work.

Ginyard

Really? I haven't seen that, but I can't imagine Will Smith pulling that off anyway. You need someone like Rob DJ who's actually been a roaring drug abusing alchoholic to give the role some punch. Still, that's one more film I'll have to watch now.


An tSaoi

It started off promisingly; he's drunk, looks like a vagrant, doesn't have a costume, and he gets annoyed any time someone approaches him to save the day, which he typically does in a fed-up, cynical, wise-ass way. But that's only the first thirty or so minutes, after which the interesting premise falls to pieces and the rest of the film is bilge. It was a nice idea but they just didn't pull it off, so I can't recommend it.

Hancock was reportedly ruined by studio meddlers; it was originally meant to be the tragic tale of a drunk superhero who killed every girl he ever fucked with his superhuman ejaculations. Pesky meddlers.

klaatu!

Quote from: gigolo aunts aren't gentlemen on May 02, 2010, 05:10:27 PM
Hancock was reportedly ruined by studio meddlers; it was originally meant to be the tragic tale of a drunk superhero who killed every girl he ever fucked with his superhuman ejaculations. Pesky meddlers.


Hancock could have worked if they hadn't thrown the original script out of the window. As Peter Berg said, 'We thought the idea was cool, but we did want to lighten it up.' That's Peter 'Very Bad Things' Berg talking there.

As for Iron Man 2, I quite enjoyed bits of it, but Christ some of the scenes drag on forever. Large chunks of it seem to serve the upcoming Avengers movie more than anything else, while other scenes were unnecessary and made no sense. What was so special about Mickey Rourke's bird? We never found out why he wanted it so badly. A pretty disappointing sequel.

lipsink

Quote from: klaatu! on May 02, 2010, 06:57:56 PM
What was so special about Mickey Rourke's bird? We never found out why he wanted it so badly.

That's a good point! I forgot about that. It felt like Rourke should've had much more to his character. It was bloody brilliant fun and didn't really have a bad scene/performance in it. It's just that it was overcrowded with characters. I wish they'd stop doing this with superhero sequels. The Dark Knight suffered from it too (its main flaw was trying to wrap up Two-Face at the end).

HappyTree

Hancock began interestingly, then half-way into the film something way too spoilery even to put in spoilers happened and ruined it.

I liked the first Iron man film so I'll watch the second. But usually the first films are the best ones because the origin story is the best part.

SavageHedgehog

Quote from: Feralkid on April 30, 2010, 07:03:19 PM
Knowles also just gave the almost universally derided Elm Street remake a glowing review.  But then he is a whore and such antics are expected.

Well having now seen IM2, it does strike me that he was probably either shilling or geeking out because it successfully combines Pag 10 of #15 with Page 46 of #56 or whatever. If that's the case, fine, we've (probably) all done something like that at some point, but as someone whose never read an IM comic I really can't see any other reason it would merit such enthusiasm. I mean it wasn't a disaster by any means, but it's pretty underwhelming. It has 10 different sub-plots which all seem to be leading up to some big conclusion, but all it leads up to is the same barely-coherent series of CGI explosions which end every blockbuster these days. And the party scene is just stupid

But I don't think we needed to find out any more about the bird; it's his pet and he loves it, that's all there is too it surely? I wonder if that was actually Rourke's input, as he's often talked about how he cried when his pet bird died...


... the big jessie

Spoiler alert
Not really I think that's sweet
[close]

lipsink

Quote from: SavageHedgehog on May 03, 2010, 09:39:04 AM
But I don't think we needed to find out any more about the bird; it's his pet and he loves it, that's all there is too it surely? I wonder if that was actually Rourke's input, as he's often talked about how he cried when his pet bird died...

Wasn't it his dog? The one that he insisted be filmed in his scenes for Once Upon A Time In Mexico. I heard that he did a DVD commentary with it on his lap and you can hear it breathing. Was Downey Jr's corpsing just before the
Spoiler alert
party fight scene
[close]
for real? I found it quite amusing when he cracked up while saying something to the effect of:
Spoiler alert
"Can you lay down a fat beat while I fight my best friend?"
[close]

Haven't Favreau and Shandling put on a bit of weight?

SavageHedgehog

The dog was more recent, the bird was ages ago, he seems to have had a lot of pets and enjoys talking about them. For all I know the bird thing could have come from the comics however.