First of all, for those who haven’t watched the movie yet, don’t worry about reading this, at I will not be a spoiler. I am a movie lover, and like all mover lovers, I treasure the feeling of exploring the movie in your own way with no prejudice and no prior warning about the plot. That will significantly reduce the joy of the experience. So, I try to make this review as constructive as possible with as little revelation of the plot as possible. 😀
First of all, Iron Man 2 is a cool movie. It may not be as intense as The Dark Knight, not as fast paced as Mission Impossible, but in terms of coolness, it rivals the great action movies of its time, and Robert Downey Jr., with his charm and natural acting skill, has contributed a large part to that.
With the big shadow of the first movie, I can imagine the stress the production team had to bear. However, they were not drown, but got out alive and kicking hard. The movie was grander in scale and scope (with 2 Iron Men fighting alongside each other), but the fine details were still finely polished with great care. I love the wry humor embedded into the movie here and there, not too many as to sidetrack the plot, but just enough to make it lovely and give audience some well deserved moments to laugh, cheer, and even clap hands if they want to (although that seems scarce in Singapore cinemas. The only time I saw that was probably during the screening of This Is It)
Back to coolness, Robert seems to get cooler and cooler, but I think the coolest part of the movie is the process in which innovation took place under immense stress, and produced wonderful results. True to that spirit, in this movie, we have another chance to visit Tony’s dream lab, with his dream computers and his cool way of doing research and innovation (I bet all the researchers in the world have once dreamed of such a lab indeed :P)
The second cool thing about this movie is that Tony is a man, a real man, with all characteristics of a man. We have been too fed up with superheroes that are so super they got cut off from the real world and become something unreal. Tony is different. He is every bit as human as you and I, with sadness, stress, down moments, craziness and happiness, and that helps to connect us with the movie even more.
The third cool thing here is that this time, Tony does not have to work alone anymore. He has his comrade, his brother in arms, and that helps add depth, facets and complexity to the plot.
Speaking about action movie, we can never forget the villains. After all, a good villain helps bring the movie to new height (Thing of The Joker and his role in The Dark Knight). This time, Tony has a competitive villain to fight against, a match for his skills and talents, who is almost on par with him and knows about him very well.
Last but not least is the appearance of Scarlett as the assistant turned spy called Black Widow. She plays quite a minor role here, but that may be a prelude to a more meaty role in the third movie. Anyway, even with her limited screen time, she managed to capture attention, with her slick action scenes, smooth moves, charming beauty and huge sex appeal, especially in flowing red hair and that tight, figure hugging suit 🙂
After all, we got to see Gwyneth again, and most probably the last time in this franchise. I have read somewhere that she will not be appearing in subsequent Iron Man movies. Well, we will miss her, but not too much, given the fact that Tony has found such a helpful assistant cum bodyguard, and that her role is still quite minor, albeit having been upgraded in terms of level of importance in this part. She is still an assistant nonetheless, and she has done it well, so I have no complaint about her part, although the chemistry between her and her boss could have been emphasized a little bit more.
So, done with the review. What are you waiting for? Go, grab ticket, and watch it for yourself, and you will love it. 😉
My World 