Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Titanium Alloy Man! (Number 2)

Hello people of the interwebs!

Today's review is of the movie Iron Man 2!

Image credit to IMDb

WARNING: Spoilers ahead!

This movie once again follows the exploits of a somehow more narcissistic Tony Stark as he faces a new villain: the super genius son of an old colleague of Howard Stark. 

You're probably wondering how Tony's gotten more narcissistic than before. Well, at the end of the last movie, he revealed that he was Iron Man. You can probably guess what that does to a man's ego. Well, you don't have to guess. I've already told you. 

The story is simple enough to follow. It's also probably my favorite of the Iron Man stories. (Just you wait until my Iron Man 3 review!) It introduces the Black Widow and Agent Coulson, and re-introduces Nick Fury. The villain is Ivan Vanko, a genius who builds an Arc-Reactor, like the one in Tony's chest. However, the one in Tony's chest is slowly killing him. Painfully, I believe. (Don't worry, towards the end of this one, he discovers a new element that's compatible with the core. So he's still alive.) Ivan is arrested, then freed by a rival of Stark Industries, Justin Hammer. He's hired to build an army of Iron Man-esque suits to demonstrate at the Stark Expo. Then James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Tony's best friend steals one of his suits, and Hammer adds weapons to it to make him the WAR MACHINE! Then... You know what? This story may not be as simple as I had originally thought, but I still think it's the best of the Iron Man franchise. 

The acting is better than the first movie. (Of course, Robert Downey Jr. is still good, as is Gwyneth Paltrow.) The actors playing Ivan Vanko and Justin Hammer, (Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell respectively), are both amazing villains, both providing similar, but separate challenges for Iron Man. Don Cheedle plays Rhodey, a role played in the first movie by Terence Howard (I don't have a particular favorite; each of them is a fun choice for the role). As I said in my Thor review, Clark Gregg is always a great actor to have in a Marvel movie as Agent Coulson. Scarlett Johansson is a kick-ass Black Widow, and Samuel L. Jackson is a great addition to any movie as Nick Fury.

The action scenes are much better than in the first. (Even though I said I thought that the special effects were great, I think these are better.) The fight between Tony and Rhodey, both in Iron Man suits, is amazing. The final fight scene, with Tony and Rhodey versus the drone suits, and then Ivan himself, is incredible.

All in all, this is probably the best movie in the Iron Man franchise. It's fun, awesome, and gripping. Enjoy watching this super fun, action packed movie, just to hype yourself up for the Avengers!

Teenage Critic, signing off!

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