Iron Man 2 Review – Disappointing

We’re mighty disappointed.

And to think we deprived ourselves of sleep to watch the midnight show of Iron Man 2.

Boy, whatever possessed us to do that. Must be our inordinate love of Robert Downey Jr after Iron Man and the more recent Sherlock Holmes.

Not Gripping
Although good ol’ Robert Downey Jr is back again donning the familiar maroon heavy iron suit and raising expectations sky-high among fans of the actor and the comic character, Iron Man 2 is not even a third as gripping as its predecessor.

The primary problem with Iron Man 2 is the ho-hum script, absence of crackling dialogs and the failure to meet the heightened expectations raised by the phenomenal success of the earlier film (Iron Man).

Even as industrialist Tom Stark a.k.a. Iron Man is boasting about ‘privatizing world peace’ and testifying before a Senate committee that it’d be a long time before there can be other Iron Man rivals, danger rears its head in the form of the Russian Ivan Lanko (Mickey Rourke), whose scientist father (one-time partner to Tom’s father Howard Stark) dies passing on the knowledge to his son.

More than Robert Downey Jr, we were enamored of Mickey Rourke’s revenge-inspired character Ivan, building a rival design to destroy Iron Man and joining hands with Stark’s business rival Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell).

A giant of a man and a talented actor (remember the guy won the Best Actor Golden Globe for Wrestler and an Academy Award nomination), Rourke cuts a more impressive figure than the punyish Robert Downey Jr, particularly on the race track as arms extended, marching forward he fires a dazzling electrical burst cutting through cars like a hot knife through butter.

The story in the sequel is essentially Ivan Vanko’s attempts to extract revenge, how he nearly succeeds but, of course, ultimately fails (what other ending can there possibly be).

Gwyneth Paltrow and Scarlett Johansson are both on board for the journey but the lackluster script doesn’t leave them much scope to impress the bejesus out of us.

Not even when Scarlett Johansson’s character Natalie tries all the macho stunts did we get the jolt we were desperately craving. Samuel Jackson, his eye patch and all, is wasted.

Except for rare flashes of high action or sparkling wit, there’s little in the movie to hold your interest the way the predecessor did.

The audience at a theater on the East Coast was mostly subdued. Maybe, because many of them had sat through Iron Man as well (the theaters here are offering both movies back-to-back for $15).

Bottom line, Iron Man 2 is not worth your time or money.

11 Responses to "Iron Man 2 Review – Disappointing"

  1. vjcool   May 7, 2010 at 6:10 am

    (confused!!) ?

    (Deleted]

    any idea??

    SearchIndia.com Responds:

    Ende gut, alles gut.

    Will explain some day. Sorry. πŸ™‚

  2. rakeshbaba   May 7, 2010 at 8:50 am

    in recent days the dark knight is the best sequel than its predecessor because of great character joker(heath ledger)

    SearchIndia.com Responds:

    There will never be another ‘Joker’ in our lifetime.
    (Ajith excluded from above) πŸ˜‰

  3. sganeshkumar1989   May 7, 2010 at 1:12 pm

    I’m wondering whether this review was posted by the ‘Night-shift coolie’ (Your aler-ego,I believe rather. πŸ˜‰ ).
    Very unSearchIndian write-up. πŸ˜›

    SearchIndia.com Responds:

    The night-shift coolie is hard to rein in after sun-down. πŸ™

  4. MAK   May 7, 2010 at 6:12 pm

    Damn. Had really, really high expectations. Guess wont be seeing Iron Man 3 anywhere in the near future.

    SearchIndia.com Responds:

    Iron Man had a 93% rating on RT compared to 73% for Iron Man 2.

    Big drop.

    • MAK   May 8, 2010 at 4:29 am

      Saw Iron Man 2 today. Was slow and dragging a bit. It had everything and didn’t have something. Can’t put my finger on it. And did you see the scene, the one after the credits rolled out??

      SearchIndia.com Responds:

      The sequel teaser with the hammer in the ‘Thorny’ desert?

      After this one, we don’t plan to see any more Iron Man flicks. πŸ™

  5. logu   May 7, 2010 at 10:14 pm

    @SI: There will never be another β€˜Joker’ in our lifetime.
    (Ajith excluded from above)

    LMOA……. beri beri true
    As always you reserve ur best when it comes to Thala… vaalu

    SearchIndia.com Responds:

    2011 will be an important year in our life. πŸ˜‰

  6. iamsumu   May 7, 2010 at 10:51 pm

    Dude come on, Downey in peak form, plus Scarlett in action. I’d still watch it. If you compare it to whats coming up this summer this will be at the top (barring any surprise from Pixar).

    SearchIndia.com Responds:

    Don’t get us wrong.

    We too love both Robert Downey jr and Scarlett Johansson. But this one’s no patch on the original Iron Man. We found the script underwhelming.

    Talking of interesting upcoming movies, during the Iron Man 2 screening we saw the previews of a Leonardo DiCaprio film plus one more possibly decent one that we can’t recollect now.

    • mihi_rex   May 9, 2010 at 3:04 am

      How was the preview for Christopher Nolan’s Inception? Seems like a different movie like Shutter Island! It is also confirmed that Nolan is going make Batman 3. http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=27748

      2011 might be an important year for a wrong reason πŸ˜‰ but 2012 seems very fruitful!

      SearchIndia.com Responds:

      Inception preview was alright, but nothing earth shattering.

      But the story seems novel, even by Hollywood standards.

      BTW, we also saw the preview of George Clooney’s next film The American (due in Sept. this year).

      Since we like both Leo and Clooney, we’ll watch the two films.

  7. boopalanj   May 8, 2010 at 4:40 pm

    Liked Robert Downey jr in Sherlock Holmes [Watched just last week..].. Movie was good enough to grab the attention, but I think the character “Sherlock Holmes” deserves even more. [Would want to see more about his deduction methodologies and adventures..!]

    Off the topic, how is the feel about iPad there? what is the talk?

    SearchIndia.com Responds:

    1. You Write Above: Would want to see more about his deduction methodologies and adventures

    The books are the best bet then.

    2. There’s not so much buzz on the iPads now but Apple claims it’s sold 1 million units in a month. Not sure whether end users have purchased all of it or some of the units are still in the channel (like at the retailers like BestBuy).

    A few weeks back we went to BestBuy and looked at it. Although we were tempted, decided against buying it because of the price and non-availability of the 3G version then (available now).

    We still think it’s gonna flop big time if Apple doesn’t do anything on price. Remember, the iPhones are subsidized by the wireless carriers (i.e. cell phone service providers like AT&T). In the U.S. (unlike in India) no one pays full price for cell phones.

    There’s some talk that the iPads are going up against the netbooks (which are cheaper and offer greater storage and functionality).

    BTW, we are mulling purchase of the Amazon Kindle ebook reader.

  8. 1012900   May 26, 2010 at 1:45 am

    You seemed to have forgotten about “The Matrix” SI.

    Have you watched True Lies yet?

    Btw, Avatar s still running two shows here and it’s just as difficult to get the tickets for it as it was when it released back then in Dec. Now that s something unbelievable.

    SearchIndia.com Responds:

    Watched The Matrix a few months back…just never got around to reviewing it. Will rewatch and review it one of these days.

    True Lies, we remember the final scenes very well…so most likely have unless we saw the last few minutes on TV.

  9. rakeshbaba   May 27, 2010 at 5:40 am

    have you watched priyadarshan’s movie hungama?

    SearchIndia.com Responds:

    No.

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