Iron Man 2 – the invention of Hotmanium and pretentious symbol-reading by a lit major

SPOILERS

Okay, first I have to say that I might in part have enjoyed this movie because I saw it with my Mom, my best friend, and another good friend, on a really fun night out. Delicious pizza, smuggling ice cream and snacks in huge bags into the movie theater, getting excited over the trailers, and generally having a fun time. Those things all really kind of add onto the movie experience for me.

Onward to this actual pretentious "review" of mine.

I loved Iron Man with the kind of fannish ridiculousness I reserve only for superfly, fun movies with a main character so engaging as to be blazingly hot and push all my fangirl buttons. Iron Man 1 was such damn good fun, hot and snarky, and Tony Stark definitely hit nearly every single fangirl button I own: snarky, tragic, vulnerable, flawed, but essentially brave with a huge character arc. Like some of my most beloved characters, he went from being one thing, to an entirely another while keeping his/her core characterization (see: Cloud Strife, Jack Sparrow, Han Solo, Spike, and countless literary examples – I'd be here all night.)

For me, usually the second installment in a series of three ruins something for me. See, where they messed up with Jack Sparrow in the second POTC was that by the end of the first one, Jack had become A Good Man. He was someone who did the right thing, the brave thing, even at personal cost. And then in two, he was back to being a selfish jerk, almost a villain. I love a good villain, but damn it, don't undo what you already established!

And at first, I felt like that's what they were doing to Tony Stark in this one. There were a great many scenes in the first movie which specified that Stark had found his path: He knew in his heart that he had to help people in need. He found his calling. He could still be a total snark-bitch, and he'd be this hero who hadn't lost his teeth.

My favorite scene in the whole movie was when Obadiah Stane steals the arc reactor straight on up out of him. The lit major in me was hyper-aware of every single scene that featured the arc reactor, because of the oooobbbbvious symbolism. (My second favorite scene was always when Stane asks if he can see the arc reactor and Tony Stark shows it to him:


It's little things that make a story for me.)

Anyway, so in the first one, Stane finally steals it by taking it from him (ripping his heart out) and then tells him, "It's beautiful. It's your legacy."

So that was what the English major in me took away from Iron Man: That the hero had a good heart, one which he made himself IN A CAVE! WITH SCRAPS! during a crisis, under great duress, which duh, is when most hearts are made.

So then we come to Iron Man 2, and immediately Tony Stark is douching it up, acting like a total jerkass and glorying in his "hero" role and being all "OH THE WONDER OF ME!" And for the first few minutes, I felt like, Oh man, they just undid all the symbolism they worked so hard to build in the first! Another Jack Sparrow. Sigh.

BUT. I also love it when a story tempts me to dislike the hero, but something redeems him and I just can't. Tony Stark is easy to redeem because even when he's lost his way, he's not technically a bad person, doing evil things. He's just a little prick (which, I was so satisfied when another character said the exact same thing.) And he's so lost, you kind of have to still love him anyway.

No one could pull this off like RDJ. I felt like so much of of this mirrored his own life, and he's always been so talented, and everyone always wanted him to succeed, so that even at his lowest when people were shaking their heads and going, "Tch! Loser!" you still just felt so bad for him.

Then I started reading even deeper into the story, and here's where the MASSIVE SPOILERS come in, seriously, please don't read it if you haven't seen the movie!

( SPOILERS )

Once I thought of it like that, I got it. Oh wow, his character didn't regress – it makes perfect sense.

What did NOT make perfect sense? Tony Stark building a GODDAMN ( SPOILER )

Yes, that's right! What took ( SPOILER )

over twenty years, Tony Stark did in a few hours IN A CAVE! WITH SCRAPS! in his basement. And even more WTF, what ( SPOILER )

could not accomplish, Tony Stark did, just by the sheer force of his hotness. ( SPOILER )

Screw the periodic table right in the facehole! What law of conservation of mass and energy? HOTMANIUM.

But then, yeah, I know. Superhero movie. It's cool. I can get on with it. But the physics geek in me was like, SERIOUSLY?

What I missed from the first one? The sense of danger. See, in all of these you know that Tony Stark can't die, because he's got to be in all three movies. But in part one, I felt the tension, and I felt like a terrible thing could happen to the hero at any time. For some reason, in this one, I wasn't getting the feeling of danger as much. Even when Tony Stark is going out of control, even when he's obviously ( SPOILER )

only once, briefly, did I get the sense of "OH NO, THE HERO!" And it was when ( SPOILER )

Oh, wait, I tell a lie: Also when Vanko first attacks him; that scene they show in all the trailers with the arc whip thingies. God those were cool. That fight was awesome and, not gonna lie, I flipped my crap when the Iron Man suit transformed out of that little box, OMG. I wasn't the only one in the theater going, "yeah, YEAH, YEAH!" in that scene, either. That whole fight was mad hot. And the whole car scene with Pepper, Jon Favreau etc. in the car just before that got some laughs.

Stuff I loved: Tony Stark's one-liners. RDJ delivers them with such bastard timing, you just have to love him for it.

Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer. What an unrepentant weasel! From smug, to violent, to unctuous, thoroughly unlikable in every way. What a fantastic job he did being hateful and repugnant, and I have to give props.

Mickey Rourke was also pretty fabulous, looking totally vile and acting really creepy.

I also kind of loved Pepper Potts in this one, until the very end, when it seems that she ( SPOILER )

Effing seriously? But I thought Gweneth Paltrow was pretty awesome; her timing was great, and in every bickering scene, they have such great chemistry and it seems very natural, and funny. I enjoyed her.

I guess I also liked Don Cheadle. I liked Terrence Howard better by a mile (he's gorgeous with his soulful eyes,) but I mean, it's Don Cheadle.

I loved the exploding stuff. I liked the fights between the mobile dolls and the gundams Vanko's robot suits and Iron Man + War Machine.

I also loved that the sense of fun was still there.

All in all, it wasn't bad for a part two. I was afraid I was going to be wildly disappointed, but I wasn't. I guess it kind of sucks that for most part-twos, you have to say, "Well I expect this to suck quite badly, and really actually mess up the first one. It didn't, so much, so it was good!" If you lower your expectations and never expect the second movie to be as good as the first, then the second movie can be quite good if you let it. I guess you could say it was satisfying in a way. First installments are always the best. They are fresh, new, and there's something about how they're made IN A CAVE! WITH SCRAPS! with a smaller budget and following, that makes them somehow pure.

Still, I think I might re-watch Iron Man 1 when I have the time. :D

I also might go and see this one again, to catch the things that I missed and to re-live the cool scenes.

I wonder if the third one is going to full-on rock? I hope so.

Iron Man 2 – the invention of Hotmanium and pretentious symbol-reading by a lit major

SPOILERS

Okay, first I have to say that I might in part have enjoyed this movie because I saw it with my Mom, my best friend, and another good friend, on a really fun night out. Delicious pizza, smuggling ice cream and snacks in huge bags into the movie theater, getting excited over the trailers, and generally having a fun time. Those things all really kind of add onto the movie experience for me.

Onward to this actual pretentious "review" of mine.

I loved Iron Man with the kind of fannish ridiculousness I reserve only for superfly, fun movies with a main character so engaging as to be blazingly hot and push all my fangirl buttons. Iron Man 1 was such damn good fun, hot and snarky, and Tony Stark definitely hit nearly every single fangirl button I own: snarky, tragic, vulnerable, flawed, but essentially brave with a huge character arc. Like some of my most beloved characters, he went from being one thing, to an entirely another while keeping his/her core characterization (see: Cloud Strife, Jack Sparrow, Han Solo, Spike, and countless literary examples – I'd be here all night.)

For me, usually the second installment in a series of three ruins something for me. See, where they messed up with Jack Sparrow in the second POTC was that by the end of the first one, Jack had become A Good Man. He was someone who did the right thing, the brave thing, even at personal cost. And then in two, he was back to being a selfish jerk, almost a villain. I love a good villain, but damn it, don't undo what you already established!

And at first, I felt like that's what they were doing to Tony Stark in this one. There were a great many scenes in the first movie which specified that Stark had found his path: He knew in his heart that he had to help people in need. He found his calling. He could still be a total snark-bitch, and he'd be this hero who hadn't lost his teeth.

My favorite scene in the whole movie was when Obadiah Stane steals the arc reactor straight on up out of him. The lit major in me was hyper-aware of every single scene that featured the arc reactor, because of the oooobbbbvious symbolism. (My second favorite scene was always when Stane asks if he can see the arc reactor and Tony Stark shows it to him:


It's little things that make a story for me.)

Anyway, so in the first one, Stane finally steals it by taking it from him (ripping his heart out) and then tells him, "It's beautiful. It's your legacy."

So that was what the English major in me took away from Iron Man: That the hero had a good heart, one which he made himself IN A CAVE! WITH SCRAPS! during a crisis, under great duress, which duh, is when most hearts are made.

So then we come to Iron Man 2, and immediately Tony Stark is douching it up, acting like a total jerkass and glorying in his "hero" role and being all "OH THE WONDER OF ME!" And for the first few minutes, I felt like, Oh man, they just undid all the symbolism they worked so hard to build in the first! Another Jack Sparrow. Sigh.

BUT. I also love it when a story tempts me to dislike the hero, but something redeems him and I just can't. Tony Stark is easy to redeem because even when he's lost his way, he's not technically a bad person, doing evil things. He's just a little prick (which, I was so satisfied when another character said the exact same thing.) And he's so lost, you kind of have to still love him anyway.

No one could pull this off like RDJ. I felt like so much of of this mirrored his own life, and he's always been so talented, and everyone always wanted him to succeed, so that even at his lowest when people were shaking their heads and going, "Tch! Loser!" you still just felt so bad for him.

Then I started reading even deeper into the story, and here's where the MASSIVE SPOILERS come in, seriously, please don't read it if you haven't seen the movie!

( SPOILERS )

Once I thought of it like that, I got it. Oh wow, his character didn't regress – it makes perfect sense.

What did NOT make perfect sense? Tony Stark building a GODDAMN ( SPOILER )

Yes, that's right! What took ( SPOILER )

over twenty years, Tony Stark did in a few hours IN A CAVE! WITH SCRAPS! in his basement. And even more WTF, what ( SPOILER )

could not accomplish, Tony Stark did, just by the sheer force of his hotness. ( SPOILER )

Screw the periodic table right in the facehole! What law of conservation of mass and energy? HOTMANIUM.

But then, yeah, I know. Superhero movie. It's cool. I can get on with it. But the physics geek in me was like, SERIOUSLY?

What I missed from the first one? The sense of danger. See, in all of these you know that Tony Stark can't die, because he's got to be in all three movies. But in part one, I felt the tension, and I felt like a terrible thing could happen to the hero at any time. For some reason, in this one, I wasn't getting the feeling of danger as much. Even when Tony Stark is going out of control, even when he's obviously ( SPOILER )

only once, briefly, did I get the sense of "OH NO, THE HERO!" And it was when ( SPOILER )

Oh, wait, I tell a lie: Also when Vanko first attacks him; that scene they show in all the trailers with the arc whip thingies. God those were cool. That fight was awesome and, not gonna lie, I flipped my crap when the Iron Man suit transformed out of that little box, OMG. I wasn't the only one in the theater going, "yeah, YEAH, YEAH!" in that scene, either. That whole fight was mad hot. And the whole car scene with Pepper, Jon Favreau etc. in the car just before that got some laughs.

Stuff I loved: Tony Stark's one-liners. RDJ delivers them with such bastard timing, you just have to love him for it.

Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer. What an unrepentant weasel! From smug, to violent, to unctuous, thoroughly unlikable in every way. What a fantastic job he did being hateful and repugnant, and I have to give props.

Mickey Rourke was also pretty fabulous, looking totally vile and acting really creepy.

I also kind of loved Pepper Potts in this one, until the very end, when it seems that she ( SPOILER )

Effing seriously? But I thought Gweneth Paltrow was pretty awesome; her timing was great, and in every bickering scene, they have such great chemistry and it seems very natural, and funny. I enjoyed her.

I guess I also liked Don Cheadle. I liked Terrence Howard better by a mile (he's gorgeous with his soulful eyes,) but I mean, it's Don Cheadle.

I loved the exploding stuff. I liked the fights between the mobile dolls and the gundams Vanko's robot suits and Iron Man + War Machine.

I also loved that the sense of fun was still there.

All in all, it wasn't bad for a part two. I was afraid I was going to be wildly disappointed, but I wasn't. I guess it kind of sucks that for most part-twos, you have to say, "Well I expect this to suck quite badly, and really actually mess up the first one. It didn't, so much, so it was good!" If you lower your expectations and never expect the second movie to be as good as the first, then the second movie can be quite good if you let it. I guess you could say it was satisfying in a way. First installments are always the best. They are fresh, new, and there's something about how they're made IN A CAVE! WITH SCRAPS! with a smaller budget and following, that makes them somehow pure.

Still, I think I might re-watch Iron Man 1 when I have the time. :D

I also might go and see this one again, to catch the things that I missed and to re-live the cool scenes.

I wonder if the third one is going to full-on rock? I hope so.