As I said about the comic-book character, Iron Man, I was never entirely a huge fan of the character as I was more into Batman, Spider-man, Superman, etc. Iron Man seems like Marvel's version of Batman (which he kinda is) and the fact that alter ego, Tony Stark fully relies on the "robo" suit to fight, was some way off-putting for me. Which is why I didn't go into the first Iron Man movie with great interest. However it ended up being one of the great and fresh movies of that year, only to be shadowed by a little movie called "The Dark Knight". This year, no giant competitions stand in its way (except for maybe Kick-Ass) and it has that chance to be the legendary monster hit The Dark Knight was. And this time, I went into the theater with excitement. How it turned out....
.... It turned
out ok...
Wasn't great, wasn't horrible... it was good. I
wouldn't say (in my opinion) not quite better than the first one.
I black out after a few Tequilas and somehow I got into this...
Let's get into what this is about. After Tony reveals to the world
he's Iron Man, everybody loves him as he does service to provide peace. All except for the government who wants his Iron Man suit for military purposes, rival weapons manufacturer Justin Hammer who wants to beat him, a Russian named Ivan Vanko who wants him dead and himself who wants to live life with dares and parties because he finds out he's dying from overuse of his power arc. Meanwhile (in what actually took major grounds of this film), Tony and Nick Fury sets up this kind of Avenger-like team. Oh and James Rhodes becomes War Machine, played by Don Cheadle, who STILL does not look like James Rhodes. God you had the perfect guy for that and his name was Terrance Howard. Its simple and popcorn-ish, yet doesn't really add much.
Did I expect too much?
Did I hype it alot before I went in? I don't know, but I expect much from Kick-Ass and I ended up loving it. I still like it and pretty much enjoyed it. It probably that the second film ran into the same problems that first one had and it had every chance to improve on it. What I love about the first one is its fresh and interesting character arc of Tony Stark, played brilliantly by Robert Downey Jr. and his journey of one traumatic experience that gives him that realization in improving his legacy while still being able to screw and party. In this film, this goes through that same arc again except replacing the problem with another that is not far from the first. What I'm trying to say is that I felt it was missing the freshness the first movie possessed and that nothing entirely new rises from Iron Man's previous journey. Robert is still as charming and dare-say damn cool as ever as Tony Stark, but (for me) it wasn't enough.
You better be worth replacing Terrance Howard, you know...
Another problem that still exist are the villains. When it comes to
Iron Man, he doesn't have a good roster of recognizable and interesting villains to the casual audience and I know its hard to find one (Try bringing The Mandarin to the big screen!). This comes to the inclusion of Whiplash (a combination of Blacklash and Crimson Dynamo) played by Mickey Rourke and Justin Hammer played by Sam Rockwell. Whiplash was (sorry to say this) pretty much underused in this movie and is placed way in the background to the whole Tony Stark's problem and Nick Fury's antics that is kinda pointless to have him in. Mickey Rourke actually performed well, but he was so underused. Justin Hammer was Spider-Man 3's Eddie Brock of this film. He's an annoying unpopular copy of the main character who is threatened by his competition and would become even more lame by stooping low in order to get rid of him or kill him. He, including Eddie, are not villains, but lame annoying rivals and doesn't make any of them interesting.
The supporting actors such
as Gwyneth Paltrow, Scarlett Johansson and even director Jon Favreau did a well done performance, though none of them stood out. There are alot of expectation hinted on Don Cheadle as he replaced Terrance Howard to take up the mantle of War Machine, yet he still doesn't look like the part and was kind of mis-casted. He looks not built enough to wear the iron suit, nor he looks tough enough. The writing is typical-Favreau as the characters are competing of who can over each other the most with snappy remarks, which even though works in the first film, doesn't mean it can entirely work again in this. As the action pieces are kind of amped up in this, the amount is still not enough and it only has the big final battle as the movie's payoff, which is very cool to look at. Though the references of the upcoming Avengers movie can bring up the anticipation and excitement (the appearance of a certain iconic item and how it was used in this film was hilarious), it does keep banging your head and you have to remind yourself that you're watching an Iron Man movie, not an Avengers movie.
I'm sorry, am I too slimy enough for you...
We all hyped up for it to be one of the greatest comic book films
of all time, next to The Dark Knight and I wanted it to be after watching the first Iron Man movie. Unfortunately, unlike The Dark Knight where it stood as a major progression of the series journey and built the anticipation for the next chapter, this seems like fluff as a standard, even forgettable comic book sequel and built the anticipation for another franchise, not Iron Man itself. Which is not a bad thing anyway. This is still an enjoyable and fun movie and you will end up liking it. Its just that it wasn't bigger. Fun, but not bigger.
3 and a half out of 5 stars
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