Spoiler-Free Iron Man 2 Review 118
Although it's not out until May 7, brumgrunt sent us a spoiler-free review of Iron Man 2. The short verdict is that it's not as good as the last one, but considering how much acclaim was piled on that, I don't really think anyone was expecting that.
read it, not really spoiler free (Score:3, Interesting)
i mean, you can't review a movie at all without giving SOMETHING away, but if you want your iron man 2 experience to be spotless, you already know not to read any reviews at all
me personally, i read lots of reviews and don't mind anything being "spoiled." in fact, many times i purposefully read the wikipedia entry for a movie to get the entire plot in my head before i see the movie. because unless you are talking about "the crying game", plot points aren't really the issue in terms of your experience being ruined. the single biggest destroyer of movie enjoyment is: expectations. movies you expect a lot from disappoint more easily. simple as that
so here goes:
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SPOILER WARNING FOR ANY SEQUEL YOU WILL EVER SEE
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1. you enjoyed the first iron man a lot,
2. so you look forward to the second iron man a lot,
3. therefore you will not be as impressed by the second iron man
with that in mind, try to enjoy iron man 2, realizing that the psychology of pleasure (anticipation more influential than delivery) means you are your own worse enemy in the entirety of your lifetime of moviegoing experiences. this lesson applies to all other experiences in your life you do for pleasure to: from going to a restaurant, to buying a car, food, to sex. there's a good reason why women tease, whether they realize it or not: the buildup of anticipation drives your pleasure more than the actual mechanical act of sex
understand psychology, master the pleasure you derive from life
Re:First one (Score:5, Interesting)
RDJ is charismatic. The first film was fun. It may be the best looking BluRay I own. But most of us went in with relatively low expectations and were impressed. That doesn't mean the first film deserved all the praise it got. It doesn't hold up really well to repeat viewings. There isn't a whole lot of great action or tension.
Watch Iron Man again. Then watch Dark Knight again. Tell me Iron Man is in the same class.
Iron Man is a perfect popcorn movie. You're absolutely correct, RDJ has tremendous charisma. He's one of those genuinely fun characters to watch. Plays Stark perfectly. There were also plenty of laughs built into the story. The only real weakness with the movie is that the villain was underdeveloped. But seeing as this was also an origin movie, there's only so much that can be shoehorned in. Good action, good laughs, a complete surprise. The whole premise of a super suit is absurd, naturally. And building one in a cave with scrap metal? Don't let Osama get a hold of this guy. But like any good movie of this nature, it embraced the absurdity and then followed through with it. So many moments of "Oh, wow. Now that's cool." Loved seeing him develop the idea and go through the mental process of accepting his new role.
I saw it on a free preview and went in expecting to still feel ripped off. Was completely surprised. A light, fun, enjoyable movie that leaves you grinning like a 12-yr old when it's done. This really shouldn't be all that difficult to do but so many movies screw it up. As I understand it, the movie was sort of a happy accident. The producers said they spent so much time on developing the effects for the suit, they'd forgotten to write a story for the rest of the movie. All of RDJ's best lines were adlibbed, were not in the script. It really should have been a mess but somehow wasn't. My only fear is that they try to replicate this for the next movies and we end up with tedious, over-processed crap like the usual mindless comic book movies.