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No build up, no dance… Iron Man 2 is terrific

The first blockbuster of the season might also be the very best one. Iron Man 2 is terrific.
There you go. No build up, no dance. I just really liked it. Robert Downey Jr. alone is worth the price of admission but there’s a whole lot more going on than his larger-than-life attitude.
The film opens with a bit of a mini-highlight reel from IM1 It works. It reminds us how cool that one was and sets the table for this year’s model.
The film opens at some kind of Senate inquiry into the whole Iron Man threat from around the world. The idea is that since it’s technology that as created by man others can perfect it and use it against them. The fact that the hearings are conducted by an oddly bloated-face lifted Garry Shandling is a minor distraction at best.
Downey dissolves the threat with his usual arrogance and it’s all great fun.
Except he’s dying. That fancy diode in his chest is poisoning him and underneath the cool exteior he wants some peace. None of us really need an introspective superhero, we had enough of that with Angst Lee’s Hulk. However an unexamined life is tedious and Tony Stark is on a bit of a journey.
Some of that is gratuitous, or would be if it weren’t for the fact that this is a comic book.
It’s supposed to be soap opera for the testosterone set.
If it weren’t, there wouldn’t be a Pepper Pots running Stark Enterprises and the director Jon Favreau wouldn’t be playing the chauffeur. It’s an odd footnote but he likes to be in his movies so why not.
Enter Sandman, or in this case, Ivan Vanko, Ironman’s principal enemy this round.
Mickey Roarke creates an evil genius with a bad haircut and an even worse accent but he does provide a bit of a challenge for the suited wonder. He’s got a pretty cool suit himself and there is a fire in him because he believes Stark Sr. stole the secrets to the suit from Venko’s father.
He teams up with Hammer, Starks chief competitor in the madcap zany world of munitions.
It sounds complicated and a little busy but it really just ends up being fun.
The draw of Iron Man is that anyone could be him. Well any billionaire desing genius with the money looks and knowledge who was lucky enough to be in a serious accident in the middle east.
Roarke makes a good adversary by the way although when he initially appears there is a promise of a much more demented villain. In the end he seems a little too soft and ho hum. He’s the diet coke of evil, to paraphrase Dr. Evil, who would know.
Don Cheadle replaces Terrence Howard as Rhodey, and it works. Who knows why the change was made but it isn’t a central character so it doesn’t matter. LIke the rest of the world Rhodey wants to get into starks rather formidable pants, and he pulls it off. Two IronMn Can you hardly stand it.
There’s the obligatory appearance by Samuel Jackson as NIck Fury who keeps talking about putting a team together and Scarlet Johannson is unrecogniazable os Natalie Rushman who kicks everyone’s butt but…She’s got more issues than a FLorida stripper.
It’ all great fun.
I’ve seen it 3 times and it never got tedious.
The CGI effects are strong but the story’s the thing. It really works all over the place.
I found it more entertaining than the first one and of course the next should be just as fun. You want heavy go see a Danish dinner flick. This one’s all about the fun.
As always, other opinions are welcome, but wrong. That’s it for this week. The cheque’s in the mail and I’m outta here. Paul

Filed Under: Paul Peterson

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  1. Julia Leahy says:

    I have come accross many unique articles/Posts saying good and negative things about this actor…but if we put all the private life style choices behind…you can not deny the quality and skill of the acting..its just amazing

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