It's never too early to anticipate IRON MAN 2

New, improved and lacking Terrence Howard:

Jon Favreau is returning as director, and Downey is expected back as billionaire industrialist Stark/Iron Man. Gwyneth Paltrow also is expected to be back as Stark's assistant, Pepper Potts. "Iron Man 2" is scheduled for release on May 7, 2010[/q]

The Rhodes character is expected to play a larger part in the sequel

YES WAR MACHINE IN THIS ONE PLZ

good change, Terrence Howard always seemed like a bad fit for these kinds of movies.

these kinds of movies

popular?

lol (but yes)

My hopes for IMII:

1) lots of SHIELD nonsense
1a) more Clark Gregg than I can stand
1b) lots of HYDRA nonsense
2) Rhodey taking charge due to out-of-commission Stark
3) The Ghost!!
3a) maybe Living Laser too? :D

The fact that Favreau & Theroux & the producers had a sit-down w/ Matt Fraction (who's writing the hands-down best Iron Man book since forever and/or the Micheline / Bright / Layton Armor Wars days) is definitely a good sign.

the word I would've gone for would've been "fun," but "popular" works too.

i can't tell if you're pro- or anti-Clark Gregg there but for some reason i like him.

Totally pro!

If they could find roles for Patricia Clarkson, Sam Rockwell, Sarah Polley, and Stanley Tucci in addition to Gregg, I would start building an IM replica suit to wear to the premiere in Hollywood.

Damn they should've gotten Idris Elba instead of Cheadle :(

good change, Terrence Howard always seemed like a bad fit for these kinds of movies.

― some dude, Tuesday, October 14, 2008 1:11 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

no way, he was awesome in iron man! one of my favourite things about the movie

^

Seriously. He was a good straight man to RDJ's Stark.

here, then, a baby wipe for your tears.

i shed no tears

then make terrence happy and use it on your ass.

i dont need a baby wipe for my tears, a tissue will do. baby wipe will just make my face all wet.

oh shit, xp--will use on ass

i lost my ass in WWII;_;

oops...I've said too much already

Justin Theroux is writing the screenplay.

???

also haha @ matt fraction sitdown

he co-wrote tropic thunder but i didnt realize he was turning into mr real screenplay guy

The Next Ben Affleck!

a baby wipe would sting your eyes, dudes!

well ya but would be wiping the tears from my cheeks, not from my actual eyeball

justin theroux does a good jesus:

hmmm..

http://chud.com/articles/articles/16704/1/IRON-MAN-2-RECASTING-IS-A-MYSTERY-TO-TERRENCE-HOWARD/Page1.html

in slightly related news:

the hulk dvd has the deleted captain america cameo (on the heels of cap's shield's cameo in iron man).
http://www.firstshowing.net/2008/10/11/captain-america-officially-found-in-the-incredible-hulk/

in 2011 he will make the world safe for tumbling! srlsy stoked

just bear with me

they actually showed these on local TV in the early 90's? barely moving comic panel stills. way more diverting than say, shitty 90's x-men spiderman cartoons to be sure

probably posted on the last thread

Finke sez:

Mickey Rourke as the Russian villain

Scarlett Johannson as Black Widow.

Scarlet Johannson as a black widow.

nippin' at jolie's heels

A little bit of something:

Robert Downey Jr. is so darn excited about "Iron Man 2" that he almost jumped out of his seat while telling The Dish Rag about the new film at the tail end of his "Soloist" junket at the Four Seasons.

"We're working our [you-know-whats] off and we're two weeks in and we're very very happy," Downey says. "I live and breathe this, so I take it almost more seriously than a drama, because it was so successful and the people really responded to it, so I feel a huge onus (that means responsibility) to make it good."

He was on the set with director Jon Favreau this week. "We were doing a boxing scene and I just stopped at one point and it was just, everybody, this is the coolest cast on Earth, and they gave us a bunch of money and I get to suit up and look all macho," he marveled. "It's gonna be good."

can't wait.
iron man was a much better movie than anything marvel since, what, x-men 2?

not really setting the bar too high there

comic book movies are the only american films that get me even remotely excited.

also x-men 2 ruled, it was 3 that sucked.

parentheses Downey's own?

first one was okay, due almost entirely to the acting/cast (couldn't really care less about the actual action sequences).

I hope Modok is in this one lolz

The original was the most competent and most entertaining comic film of 2008 (no, not the overweight, unenlightening and unamusing PHIL 101 professor The Dark Knight), so definitely looking forward to this.

Plus, Mickey Rourke.

Heads up:

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2009/06/12/gal_whiplash.jpg

HOW has the Black Widow costume not leaked yet HOW

Apparently there's a huge party scene where DJ AM has a cameo as a DJ. It's at a nightclub, where Tony Stark is celebrating his birthday. And then Tony shows up in his Iron Man costume, and "all hell breaks loose." The music stops as everyone stares. And then Iron Man "busts a move to some acidic trance mega-mix."

I fear 'Spider-Man 3 dance scene' redux here.

I wonder if he will do the robot.

feeling the fear

Not sure if this photo is for real, but w0w:

http://www.latexallaccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/scarlett-johansson-black-widow.jpg

Not too sure about her being good for the role, but she's good for the costume.

shop/pixels

shop/MASSIVE HEID

Comic-Con:

Now let’s talk footage.

We begin with Tony Stark, in the IRON MAN suit but unmasked, chilling out in the center of a giant donut sign on top of a donut store.

Samuel L. Jackson, NICK FURY himself, walks up. “Sir, I’m gonna have to ask you to exit the donut.”

More footage and panel stuff from there.

Favreau remembers telling Rourke the character was a Russian ex-con. “Next thing I knew, he was in a Russian prison. And I had to learn from TMZ.” Says that 9-1/2 Weeks was the first Western film post-Perestroika to open wide in Russia, so Rourke is a “sex god” there, and loves to visit.

Downey: “And where do you go if you’re a sex god in Russia, but to prison?”

And an actual Black Widow shot via EW:

http://www.shockya.com/news/wp-content/uploads/iron_man_2_scarlet_black_widow1.jpg

Oh hey, David R., some months back you said:

If they could find roles for Patricia Clarkson, Sam Rockwell, Sarah Polley, and Stanley Tucci in addition to Gregg, I would start building an IM replica suit to wear to the premiere in Hollywood.

Well since Rockwell is in it, you at least going to start building a mask?

Teaser poster is out:

http://www.deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/ironman2poster.jpg

I like the treatment of Cheadle in the trailer that was run last week, Rhodey is testifying before some committee and the camera pans to him and Cheadle says "it's me, I'm here, get over it". Decent nod to the transition I thought.

Anyway, this movie is looking like its going to suffer from the Spider-Man 3 problem of too many villains for one flick.

massive lols at the comments on the Comicon write-up; is someone REALLY complaining that the most anticipated panel at a comic book convention was for a movie sequel based on a long-running comic book?????

Meanwhile, Jeff Bridges again proves why he has the right attitude about things:

"They had no script, man," Bridges revealed. "They had an outline. We would show up for big scenes every day and we wouldn't know what we were going to say. We would have to go into our trailer and work on this scene and call up writers on the phone, 'You got any ideas?' Meanwhile the crew is tapping their foot on the stage waiting for us to come on."

According to Bridges, Marvel Studios had "a release date before the script" and — in his own words — didn't "have their s--- together" on the first "Iron Man" movie. But as we all know, most moviegoers adored the film and spent plenty of hard-earned cash on ticket sales, so something had to have gone right. In Bridges' mind, his own success came from improvisation.

"It happens in movies a lot where something's rubbing against your fur and it's not feeling right, but it's just the way it is," he said. "You can spend a lot of energy bitching about that or you can figure out how you're going to do it, how you're going to play this hand you've been dealt. What you can control is how you perceive things and your thinking about it."

"So I said, 'Oh, what we're doing here, we're making a $200 million student film. We're all just f---in' around! We're playin'. Oh, great!' That took all the pressure off. 'Oh, just jam, man, just play.' And it turned out great!"

Someone give this man a cookie.

Beating Ned to the trailer link:

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

Apparently there's a huge party scene where DJ AM has a cameo as a DJ. It's at a nightclub, where Tony Stark is celebrating his birthday. And then Tony shows up in his Iron Man costume, and "all hell breaks loose." The music stops as everyone stares. And then Iron Man "busts a move to some acidic trance mega-mix."

― Detroit Metal City (Nicole), Thursday, July 2, 2009 2:34 PM (5 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

wonder if this is gonna stay

Joe Quesada killed DJ AM.

scarlett's costume looks very very generic

Looks pretty much like the comic character.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/44/SECWAR004.jpg/400px-SECWAR004.jpg

New trailer shown tonight:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2010/03/new-iron-man-2-trailer-on-jimmy-kimmel-live-after-the-academy-awards.html

And it doesn't seem embeddable but here 'tis:

http://www.youtube.com/user/MARVEL

omg that portable suit

I want one

me 2

I do question why the climactic battle in the trailer is taking place on a miniature golf course but anyway.

I'm pretty sure I saw a model windmill so it's a crazy battle on a crazy golf course.
Anyway, WOOOOOOAAAAAHHH FUCK YEAH!!!

a miniature golf course on pandora xp

yay Sam Rockwell

so did they write terence howard out of this? if so, good.

First post in the thread, my friend.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2761/4423969389_3235e95465_o.gif

so did they write terence howard out of this? if so, good.

no they replaced him with Don Cheadle. Cuz, y'know, all black guys look alike.

friend o' mine currently doing the editing for this, sounds promising.

but am bummed there is no Modok. :(

y'know, all black guys look alike.

― Utopian Paisley Shirt Production Co. (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, March 11, 2010 5:44 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

pretty sure they did it because terrence howard didn't want to be in the sequel and because you can't just get rid of james rhodes. then again i thought the same thing when they replaced katie holmes with maggie gyllenhaal and i ended up on the wrong side of history there---turns out, all white women actually DO look alike!!

key diff there is that Howard and Cheadle (and Maggie G) are all pretty good actors, whereas Katie Holmes is a windup toy

a windup toy with nipple pokies

The whole Howard/Cheadle thing is talked about at the start of the thread...

like, the first sentence

i'll argue the TH being a good actor thing but regardless he's definitely just not a good fit for a goofy fun action movie (thought Paltrow would be a wet blanket to but to her credit she proved me wrong)

am bummed there is no Modok. :(

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.comicsalliance.com/media/2009/06/modoksquirrel3.jpg

looks like they are improving the battle scenes count by 1000% which imo was the major disappointment of the first one

please to god no iron man break dancing scene or w/e

^^ urgent and key

why in the name of Dormammu do they pull that shit?

wonder if anyone is thinking Samuel L.-as-Nick Fury spin-off movie if this ends up being X2 huge.

of course they are! you know it's at least in v preliminary stages (like, "we should consider samuel l-as-nick fury spin-off if this does well" "hmmmm")

The whole plan is a big fuck-off Avengers movie drawing together all the recent movies, they've been working on that for a bit.

but am bummed there is no Modok. :(

This got me thinking: why does the current wave of superhero movies tend to avoid mystical/cosmic/supernatural characters? It looks like most of the heroes in them, and pretty much all the villains, are just "science-enhanced" humans, even if science is totally bogus. Is that Fantastic Four movie with Galactus the only one to have truly cosmic, non-science based villain? Since superheroes are by definition a non-realistic genre, why this trend of quasi-realism?

I mean, what makes R'as Al-Ghul cool in the comics is that he's this immortal mystical dude, but for some reason Batman Begins only hinted at that direction, and instead made him a regular dude with delusions of grandeur.

because film is a pretty realistic medium?

because the appeal of a lot of these superhero comics is that they take place in a semi-realistic world as opposed to something like LOTR?

i dunno though; batman & spider-man are just as grounded in realistic personal narrative as tony stark is but somehow i do feel like iron man can easily be a vehicle for that stuff and the more ludicrous magical shit in a way the others can't. but then again they'd have to tone down the equally "playful" breakdancing buddy comedy aspect of what they've done for it to have any balance.

But superhero comic books have never had that much problem balancing the semi-realistic world with cosmic and supernatural characters and plots. And it's not like film is naturally averse to that sort of stuff.

(x-post)

i dunno though; batman & spider-man are just as grounded in realistic personal narrative

But in the comic books Batman especially has always had villains such as vampires, werebats, immortal overlords, etc. It feels like limiting the possibilities what you can do with Batman if you rule out those kind of characters and only feature psychopats with makeup.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f14/snouts/OldMan.gif *RANT ALERT*
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f14/snouts/OldMan.gif

if there is one thing - ONE THING - i can't stand in modern life btw it's every big movie having to have seven 3-minute long trailers that grindingly hoover up all the best bits rather than someone having the brains & integrity to edit together something with *just enough* to lure and hype. i feel like i've already seen this fucking thing now! - why would i pay to go to the cinema and not pirate it when it comes out if i'm only there to fill in the blanks? just for the sentimental rush of sitting in the theatre enjoying the company of the scum of the earth?

yeah no the art of the trailer has been totally lost, imo you shouldn't see anything past the first act but nowadays you tend to get the whole damn arc of the movie and maybe the very last shoe dropping in the last 5 minutes is the only thing that's off limits. i don't avoid trailers altogether but i definitely feel happier going to a movie if i haven't attentively watched any trailer more than 30 seconds long.

yeah obv the biggest part of that rant is me hating myself 4 being stupid enough to watch these trailers every single time

it's like even in the differences between the first & second trailers - how much radder was the 3 seconds of ironman & warmachine pausing and opening fire back2back in the first and then cut to title card rather than the second's extra 5 seconds of seeing what they shoot and how etc? straight incompetence.

it's weird how no director/producer ever tries to insist on creative control in these matters to some extent, that i've heard of anyway. i'd be pretty furious?

id imagine that they research what works, viz pulling in the punters

i'm not really arguing that modern trailers have an adverse economic effect or anything - for a sceptical spectacle like avatar something more demure def wouldve led to ruin for instance - just moaning about the rank contempt for the audience i guess

i love seeing old TV spots for something like E.T. where those 30 or 60 seconds got a ridiculous number of people amped to see it -- i think part of the problem is now there's such a long rollout they have to have several different kinds of trailers of different lengths to last the whole promotion cycle

i also hate how even some movies that don't give too much away or leave out the big twist in the theatrical campaign -- Hancock for instance -- will just go ahead and let it all hang out when they're promoting the DVD a few months later

This is the first trailer I have ever seen where I feel like the CGI actually looks cool as shit. That GIF of the portable suit!

i think "iron man" is the best modern superhero movie because the CGI was so great -- one thing i loved about it was how they spent so much time showing RDJ building the suit by hand & testing it out etc -- it made the suit seem totally real and not something that existed just because -- those scenes of him tinkering with it really clinched the movie for me -- i'm concerned that this one will feature less of that aspect (which i guess it kind of has to) and more androidness

spidey 2's probably still my fave; i wanted to love iron man but the jeff bridges dude antagonism was too anticlimactic to gloss over.

but am bummed there is no Modok. :(

This got me thinking: why does the current wave of superhero movies tend to avoid mystical/cosmic/supernatural characters?

? There is nothing remotely mystical/cosmic/supernatural about Modok iirc.

really wish someone would make a Clooney/Dr. Strange movie w/Dormammu and Infinity and Baron Mordo tho

Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing is such an awesomely stupid acronym

i think "iron man" is the best modern superhero movie because the CGI was so great -- one thing i loved about it was how they spent so much time showing RDJ building the suit by hand & testing it out etc -- it made the suit seem totally real and not something that existed

If you watch the making-of on the blu-ray (which is mostly a blast), you'll see Stan Winston studios fabricating the suit that Downey's wearing most of the time--it's amazingly consistent with the CG. When watching the movie again I found it impossible to tell when they were showing the prop and when they weren't (of course things like flying sequences were 100% CG--they were just executed very very well.)

really wish someone would make a Clooney/Dr. Strange movie w/Dormammu and Infinity and Baron Mordo tho

Dr. Strange has been in the works on and off since the mid-90s iirc. Dunno why they're having trouble getting off the ground with a scenario built around an exquisitely-groomed, supplewristed hero who lives in the Village with a hairless Oriental manservant and a mansion full of exotic objets.

I guess Kenneth Branagh's upcoming Thor movie could fit into the mystic/cosmic/supernatural category?

definitely going to fit into the piece of shit category

I keep forgetting this thing is finally about out.

Anyway, the DJ AM cameo is staying in the film:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2010/04/iron-man-2-features-a-cameo-by-dj-am-and-a-dedication-to-the-late-star.html

Meantime, now we know how the remake of Pulp Fiction will start:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6a00d8341c630a53ef0133ecdb1563970b-600wi

Seeing it on IMAX this time next week...excited :).

bandmate who worked on this was not super-enthusiastic about it, so I expect this to be fair-to-middling

sounds right. "fair-to-middling with a couple of cool shots and a couple of Downey Moments" is about where IRON MAN set the bar

Saw this tonight. Not quite as good as the first film, but similarly structured. First half comprises of RDJ being deadpan, second half is robotmen fighting. Heigh-ho. So many cameos in this, but seeing Roger Sterling pop up as Tony Stark's father was the biggest grin.

** SPOILER FOR AFTER-CREDITS SEQUENCE **

I guess Kenneth Branagh's upcoming Thor movie could fit into the mystic/cosmic/supernatural category?
― Number None, Saturday, March 13, 2010 12:52 AM (1 month ago) Bookmark

After the Iron Man 2 credits, there's a little mini-scene where the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent played by Clark Gregg is seen driving through New Mexico (earlier in the movie, he says he's being sent there on a special mission). He stops at a huge crater in the ground and says, into a cell phone, "sir - we've found it." or something similar. Cut to a shot of Thor's hammer sticking out of the crater.

Oh - and "Iron Man 2" really sagged in the middle. There's really only two action set pieces in the whole movie, which is insane, and the Rhodes/Stark stuff is really belabored and wooden. I thought Mickey Rourke was awesome, though, and Sam Rockwell's clearly having fun.

Saw it today, didn't stick around for the after-credits sequence although i suspected there'd be one. Feel like this will be a pretty boring watch for a lot of kids but Rourke and Rockwell were indeed great. Scarlett had some nifty moves but still can't act.

I had fun watching this movie, wished there could be more of Downey at Congressional hearings. Agree that Rourke and Rockwell are great. Also, I missed the first few minutes, I arrived at the theatre just when Rourke starts building his shit. I was wondering what they show in those few minutes? I think I saw Rourke over a dead body but I dunno whose it was (Id guess his father's?).

is this out?

Oh this is really weird. It's been out for a bit more than a week in France but apparently its released on may 7 in the US. This sounds really strange to me, usually we get the blockbusters after they're released in the US or at the same time, but not two weeks before.

A couple of stories I've read indicate it was rolled out overseas first to get a jump on the World Cup sucking up most of the media oxygen out there.

Jibe, the first few minutes just show Rourke's father dying and giving him the blueprint for the arc reactor. You didn't miss much.

Lane: loves the cast, hates the plot.

Why have Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), a growler with an eye patch, show up halfway through, like a refugee from another comic?

lane is so fuckin clueless abt this stuff

http://filmdrunk.uproxx.com/2010/05/jj-abrams-secret-movie-trailer-playing-before-iron-man

did this play in the uk?

no, in glasgow we got hot tub time machine :-((

I liked this well enough. Fun movie, nothing really eye-opening. We got that Super 8 trailer, which really laid on the Close Encounters vibe with the yellow pick-up truck and the railroad crossing, but I think it flew over most of the crowds' heads.

[[VERY VERY MINOR SPOILER ALERT]]

Anyway, loved the bit with Cap's shield, thought that was kind of funny.

this movie sucks..

Fuck that, dude. It was mostly rad.

eh moderately entertaining while it lasted, if mostly because its fun watching so much money turned into slick effects and design. The Monte Carlo stuff and Rourke/Rockwell was about all i'll remember by next week tho.

this movie is ass

make me wait like 20 minutes before any kind of action scene, then like another hour, and they both pretty much sucked

when the opening of your movie is a dude welding while the camera lingers on important expository newspaper clips, then a scene of a corporate presentation, then an (admittedly pretty fun) "testifying before congress" scene... no. bad. so unexciting. and the bad guy was boring as hell.

ILXers finding fault with really fun unserious flick shocker.

I think s1ocki is clearly complaining it wasn't fun and unserious enough!

don't you write critical essays about miley cyrus songs or something... what's wrong with taking movie pop culture semi-seriously, or at least not suspending all thought because it's "unserious"

xp

I thought the whole point of the movie is to watch RDJ interact with Paltrow, Rourke, et al.

i wouldn't have minded if it had any real fizz or zing

the first one balanced superhero spectacle with character comedy pretty well i thought, but 2 feels half-assed on both fronts

i'm sorry, s1ocki, i must've missed the part where you make a critical point about the flick

did you actually have anything to say about it, or were u just mad that i didn't like it or something?

personally didn't find it boring, nor did anyone i saw it with. but hey, each to their own i guess.

coulda just said that instead of giving me "the shockah"

guess i felt like dropping into a thread to say a movie is 'ass' because it didn't get to action scenes quick enough was lame

koritfw mordy

i thought the movie sucked, you didn't... no reason to get all butthurt about it.

truly fucked: just now accustomed to 'ok this is what mickey rourke looks like now, ok' and we get 'guess what - THIS IS WHAT GARRY SHANDLING LOOKS LIKE NOW' holy fuck

haha ya.

I pretty much got what I paid for. I can't figure out what parts are supposed to be boring, Roarke did a great job. I'm a very casual comic fan, but I felt that a lot of moments captured the spirit of mid '80s Marvel really well.

ya, but you're just a pair of old blue jeans. you could probably barely even see the movie unless your owner was sitting in the front row.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/0f/Periscope.png/408px-Periscope.png

"Erecting Prism" is a good name

are you implying that there's some kind of massive erecting telescope concealed inside that pair of old blue jeans?

this was pretty weak

Since there's an inverse correlation between the number of villains in a comic book movie and the awesomeness contained inside the movie, I can only assume this movie is bad. Isn't there two or three villains in this?

i'm not sure that correlation is true, but there's really only one villain and one comic villain.

I enjoyed parts of this, but so much of it just dragged, especially the middle.

Rourke's character felt like he came from another movie, which actually was kind of cool...I just wish they had given him more to do.

Rourke's character felt like he came from another movie, which actually was kind of cool...I just wish they had given him more to do.

― I have a big tv with blue ray's (latebloomer), Monday, 10 May 2010 07:18 (1 hour ago)

Rourke is quite good at being better than the movie around him, IMO-- body heat, the pledge, even buffalo '66.

Spun

saw this last night with my gf; we both enjoyed the hell out of it, basically exactly what we expected/wanted given the awesomeness of the first one. plus, it was a field day for the armchair psychoanalyst in me!

Rourke's character felt like he came from another movie, which actually was kind of cool...I just wish they had given him more to do.

― I have a big tv with blue ray's (latebloomer), Monday, May 10, 2010 3:18 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

ya i agree, he almost seemed kinda more sympathetic than tony stark (esp the way TS is presented as this like objectivist superman) tho the movie never really "went there." mostly he just tinkered on things.

tho the movie never really "went there." mostly he just tinkered on things.

Ugh, is this the Dark Knight effect? Where we expect so much psychodrama in our superhero movies that we forget to enjoy the simple fun?

Not that I can't see the complaints that this sagged in points, I just feel like some people I've talked to disliked this because it wasn't "deep" enough.

i didn't WANT it to go there, i just thought it was interesting the way it was suggested. personally i wanted more bad-assery and less of him hanging out in various workshops

this movie was SO LONG
or at least it seemed really really really long. also why did scarlett's hairdo change instantly every time she put the pantsuit on?!

i loved sam rockwell, esp his james brown dance
in fact, i saw some rocky IV parallels only imo it was not even 1/3 as fun as rocky IV

I agree with s1ocki. Didn't dislike it cos it wasn't deep enough, disliked it cos it wasn't dumb enough.

(Also, ok, I'm not somebody who knows lots of Marvel backstory or whatever, but I shouldn't have to come home and google just to figure out who Samuel L and Scarlett even were, or what they were doing there. I mean, that's all totally unexplained).

I liked the bit in the trailer where Gwyneth kissed him helmet(!) then threw it off a rooftop, and he dived after it. That bit wasn't in the film though. :(

I see what you mean, but I think a whole lot of exposition about S.H.I.E.L.D. would have slowed it down even more.

If trailers can effectively compress an entire movie into 30 seconds, they can certainly bring everyone up to speed in maybe a minute's worth of
"Last time, on Iron Man..." which they can do by dropping the minority-report UI deadweight sequences.

I just thought it was funny to see people complaining how slow the movie got and then asking for more back story. And, no, "Last time, on Iron Man..." would have been totally out of place.

More out of place than Larry Ellison and DJ AM?

Okay, yeah, the whole DJ AM scene was weird. I could have lived with him and Stark stumbling around in the suit drunk being cut.

I'm not askIng for more back story in the film, I'm asking that random unnamed characters don't suddenly show up and start driving the plot. They didn't need to be in there at all.

xpost: no way, DJ AM was crucial, if only for Stark's drunken "gimme a phat beat to kick my buddy's ass to!", which got a huge lol from me (followed by the embarrassed realization that apparently no one else in the theater had found it funny)

((the biggest audience lol, in case anyone was wondering, came when Tony was talking to Pepper in her office and commented on the weird distracting spinny desk-toy thingy))

also the SHIELD subplot and Sam Jackson were totally crucial to the eventual resolution of Tony's oedipal complex

I totally missed the Ellison cameo. I was looking over at my kid to see how he was enjoying the movie and heard his name. Couldn't miss the huge Oracle product placement though.

I couldn't believe I didn't catch the Stan Lee cameo, as obvious as it was!

Also, yeah, my crowd loled hard at the spinny thing on the desk.

the whole SHIELD subplot + Nick Fury stuff was crucial to preparing the audience for an Avengers film in 2012.

I mean, I didn't "miss" his cameo, just didn't realize it was actually him!

Mordy OTM. So excited for that film.

I did kind of wonder what the average non-comic reading viewer would make of all the Avengers foreshadowing stuff.

Joss Whedon is directing it apparently.

I heard a couple girls in the lobby afterwards asking random strangers/ticket-takers/concession stand employees if they knew wtf the post-credits clip was supposed to mean

the whole SHIELD subplot + Nick Fury stuff was crucial to preparing the audience for an Avengers film in 2012.

― Mordy, Monday, May 10, 2010 1:52 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark

so we're supposed to like, see sitting through that stuff as some sort of investment in a future film?

Sort of. I mean, I love this stuff. All the crossover characters and hints put me totally in the mindset of 1980s Marvel comics, which couldn't be more exciting.

Yeah, what jon said. it's fan service. The theater (I saw a midnight opening night showing in NY) cheered at every reference; Black Widow, Cpt America's Shield, Thor's Hammer, Nick Fury's first appearance...

ya i guess i'm just tired of fanservice at this point xp

it's all the industry has left lol

there were groans in my theater at the post credits clip.

...of ecstasy?

My theater went crazy for the Thor clip. I loved it! I love comics, and I love fan service, cause I'm a fan.

horses for courses. i'd rather have watched a less lazy-ass movie with fewer trailers for upcoming franchises.

also can i just say that if you had an iphone-esque pocket device that allowed u to do all sorts of sneaky things like hijack congressional sessions would you really make it TRANSPARENT so anyone could see what was on your screen?

If you had contempt for your audience, sure!

this was decent. i got my money's worth, i guess, seeing a matinee. worthy of the general "middling thumbs up" reaction it seems to be getting

i do somewhat agree the best parts were the fan service comic refs, because the rest of the movie felt so mediocre? all the sam rockwell/scarlet johannson stuff felt so unnecessary, and the last fight scene was even more anticlimactic than the first film's. and what a waste of gold potential that they didn't really use "demon in a bottle" better, instead we get RDJ ass-shaking next to DJ AM while the studio pays for WAY too many soundtrack songs, it was like watching The Hangover again

also can i just say that if you had an iphone-esque pocket device that allowed u to do all sorts of sneaky things like hijack congressional sessions would you really make it TRANSPARENT so anyone could see what was on your screen?

― sir gaga (s1ocki), Monday, May 10, 2010 10:30 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark

lol that irked the shit out of me too

in fact, i saw some rocky IV parallels only imo it was not even 1/3 as fun as rocky IV

YES I was also reminded of rocky IV (esp. the prodigious amounts of gold lamé at the expo)

i started reading this review thinking it was a joke then realized he actually was serious

http://www.pajiba.com/film_reviews/iron-man-2-review-a-thighquaking-toe-curler-in-an-uncomfortable-place.php

not even that outrageous an opinion but the panty-moistening stuff was a little over the top

that guy really likes panties.

smh

Ultimately, this was kinda boring.

Man what the hell did Garry Shandling do to his face?

this was fun, thankfully didn't take itself too seriously. dumb as all get-out, obv.

paltrow should have taken a $2m paycut in exchange for not being placed next to scarlett in any shot imo.

need more discussion of how good rockwell and rourke were in this- particularly in their first scene together.

rockwell having a huge amount of fake tan on his hands during this scene was just cracking me up.

Rockwell is always good but Hammer was pretty much the opposite of an interesting villain.

rockwell having a huge amount of fake tan on his hands
loved that! i will repeat that i also liked his obnoxious james brown shuffle during the expo.
rockwell's villain was more of a small penis villain than an evil russian genius villain.

Hammer was the opposite of an interesting villain! that struck me as totally the point- he was rubbish, very much the anti-stark. rockwell played it p deftly imo.

if anything, rockwell's dance moves were far too cool for the part.

i thought the point was that he was a phony, hence the spray tan

stark wannabe, imo- RDJ is verybrown.

just came back from this - thought it was awesome, better than the first one

kinda imagined gob when rockwell was doing the presentation on stage

man just realized jon favreau is GUTTER from PCU! can't believe GUTTER is the one behind these movies.

also the low-end on scarjo is... .-.

Man what the hell did Garry Shandling do to his face?

I was impressed at the make-up job tbh, he looks WAY worse and plasticy in informal photos these days!

paltrow should have taken a $2m paycut in exchange for not being placed next to scarlett in any shot imo.

― May be half naked, but knows a good headline when he sees it (darraghmac), Friday, May 14, 2010 4:06 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark

i actually thought she was cuet and i don't usually LIKE like her that way

i enjoyed watching scarlett savagely beating those anonymous security dudes tho

rockwell stole the show 4 me in this even if he was playing the same character as avatar

If Paltrow confined herself to supporting parts like this and Two Lovers I'd be totally happy.

Rockwell was pretty hilar, admittedly

rockwell stole the show 4 me in this even if he was playing the same character as avatar

You mean he was similar to Giovanni Ribisi's character in Avatar?

hahaha how bad is it that i got them mixed up, but yeah, similar character as THAT GUY

Yeah agree that Rockwell was great. I kind of love him.

every gf i've ever had adores him. he very often strikes me as a spoof of tom cruise, only better.

loved him since he did a guest spot on the short-lived com central show stella as a fake mustache dealer

His dance in the Charlie's Angels movie firmly secured his crushworthiness. He's been building on that ever since.

WS, especially when he dances.

rockwell was def hilaire in this, great move to give Tony Stark a foil as comedy industrialist - more time for lols, less time for CGI robots punching each other

shouldnt rockwell be at that point where he should have an assistant or two apply all that fake tan to his person?

doesn't want anyone else to realise he's using fake tan

ok now we're overthinking it

it's too late to pop in and say "this was a fun movie!" right

yep. futile sb 4u.

every time I think of this movie I just think of scar-jo and pacino going "she's got a GREAT ASS!..."

she really does, which is something this movie made me aware of.

I love how seriously mickey rourke took playing his character

To prepare for his role as Ivan Vanko/Whiplash, Mickey Rourke paid a visit to Butyrka Prison, Moscow: "I tried to incorporate the whole Russian philosophy. It's a culture of its own and I really enjoyed doing the research and meeting the people and they were very gracious there at the prison." Rourke also recommended that half of Vanko's dialogue be in Russian, that he have a Slav accent, and that he keep a pet.

...

According to Mickey Rourke, he carried out a lot of research in Russia choosing what tattoos Anton Vanko should carry on his body. He wanted authentic Russian tattoos, which would represent Vanko's Russian heritage, prison societies, and special clubs he might be in.

rourke was decent in this, just by the time he comes back for the final fight it's just... oh, right, he has to show up. oh, it's over already! ok.

you know i marked out for Rockwell in Moon as much as anybody but he was wasted on a really bad character here. also true for scarlett johannson's ass

rourke lasted like FIVE SECONDS in the final fight, it was pathetic

they ran out of cgi money

rourke lasted like FIVE SECONDS in the final fight, it was pathetic

this was great, I was so bored of punching CGI robots already!

http://www.11points.com/Movies/11_Points_Review_of_Iron_Man_2

At some point, Robert Downey Jr. and Mickey Rourke have to laugh about how well things have worked out for them. Fifteen years ago, would anyone have believed that Robert Downey Jr. and Mickey Rourke would be headlining one of the biggest movies of the year? If you'd said you were seeing something starring those two, people would've assumed you were going to the Betty Ford Clinic's performance of "The Producers".

well they had to drop to comic books to do it, tbf

"if you had told oscar winner kevin spacey that he would one day have the chance to play lex luthor, he'd have pinched himself"

Liked this much more than the original.

The cast of smart alecks was a blessing.

Finally saw this. Original was wayyyy better but this at least avoided the huge dropoff where in the first one it was spectacular up until the final fight when it just became really dumb. Here the dumbness was a little more evenly spread out and the final fight, while pointless (those drones sure seem to go down easy, why doesn't he just shoot them all in the first place?) at least looked better and kept moving. Definitely wanted Rourke to get to do more, or alternately for his original plan (show Stark's vulnerability so other people finish his revenge for him) to actually go somewhere. Rockwell did a great job with his character but I wish that character had been on-screen less; he was SO annoying that the joy of watching the annoying guy get his take-down was sort of reduced. And he just gets led away by the cops? That's it?

Don't know what they're doing for the third one but I sort of hope this isn't the end of the alcohol storyline, which didn't really feel like a story in this one. It's less about Iron Man getting drunk and being a jackass once when he thinks he's gonna die, more about him being, you know, an alcoholic.

Overall, okay.

for some reason I really like impersonating Rourke's "I want my bird" line with that ridiculous accent

"my bird! I want my bird."

ROBOT ROCK

oh god, I think I blocked out that scene

I can't wait until Iron Man 2 comes out!

my bird