Iron Man 2 : The Rourke effect

One of the long awaited movie for many of us was Iron man 2. I was completely stunned by the perfect and unique balance of action and comedy delivered in the first movie. And the trailer added even more excitement as there was Mickey Rourke in the lead casting. Iron man 2 (2010) is a sequel to Iron Man (2008), both directed by Jon Favreau. Favreau was promising with his earlier movie. But in this edition he has decided to bring in a new treatment, but has not succeeded. I hear most of the people who watched this movie saying that the first movie was better and a lot of talking portion has spoilt the action. Gwyneth Paltrow’s role was far better in the first edition. In this she looks more like a strict mother to Stark. I do accept that it is different, but it was something I didn’t expect. I think the only few things that have continued to excel are Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark/Iron man), Mickey Rourke (Whiplash), Jon Favreau (Happy Hogan) and the special effects. Awesome special effects. The Grand Prix scene and the last half an hour have been breath taking. In fact I was a bit stunned seeing the Rolls Royce being chopped like a fish by Whiplash. The special effects were so special that I am still confused if the car was damaged really. Robert Downey’s moments in the senator meeting and in Pepper Potts office are some of the highlights of the movie. Mickey Rourke was stunning. Man ! What a performance. One of the best performances for a negative role. Awesome. I think it is the right time to call him "The Perfectionist". Villain #2 : Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer was good and refreshing. Scarlett Johansson played one of the worst underplayed role of her career, which is not necessary at this phase of her career. She has literally nothing to do as the Black Widow, apart from a few stunt scenes, which I don’t even know if she did them all. This is ridiculous. She is more famous than Robert. Probably she was offered to play Black Widow in a series of forthcoming films. (Avengers). God knows. Jon Favreau has also focused more on the casting, in terms of Kate Mara, Larry King and a few others who had a few seconds in the movie. Probably he thought a spicy casting would help cover the story’s weakness. But I think the audience are much more clever than what Jon (director) expected. Directors should realize that stories have to be strong and fast paced for action films, especially for a kick ass super hero film like Iron Man. Probably this is lacking in directors at present, which is why we see more of spoof films nowadays. I wish Jon good luck for the third installment of Iron man and request him to delete unwanted soggy talking portions and make the movie more crispy. He can do it, he is an awesome director.

John Debney has done a good job, but some of the tracks like the title one resembles a lot of super hero movies. I think this is what happened if you score music in 4 days. I don’t know what hurry John was in, but this is not something I expected from a person who has scored for Passion of the Christ and The Elf. And nothing much to comment on the cinematography. It was been on par with the Hollywood superhero movie standard. On the whole, Iron man 2 was enjoyable and kudos to the whole team esp., Mickey Rourke.

Review:

3.5/5