1 Film Excess nomination:
Best Sound (lost to Insidious)
+ Best Superhero Movie of the Year
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| The very professionally crafted poster for Jon Favreau's Iron Man 2 |
Iron Man is under pressure: The Iron Man suit makes him sick, the US military wants his technology and a bitter Russian by the name of Vanko is joining forces with his competitor Justin Hammer to eradicate him...
Unlike many other critics, I feel that the second chapter in the Iron Man trilogy is a vast improvement over the first film. It contains the rather bizarre parring of Robert Downey Jr. (The Shaggy Dog (2006)) and Mickey Rourke (Point Blank (1998)). - Few if any would have believed 15 years ago that these two troublemakers would be heading a major superhero movie, commanding the world box office in 2010.
Rourke plays the villainous Whiplash, who comprises the film's excellent heel duo together with Sam Rockwell (Moon (2009)). Everything sparkles here; the dialog is smart and snappy, and although Stark's narcissism gets the best of him in the second half of the film, he gets much better counter-balance in this sequel than in the first film; from smolderingly sexy Scarlett Johansson (The Jungle Book (2016)), pal Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda (2004)) and Garry Shandling (Trust the Man (2005)), who is very funny as a senator that tries to oppose Tony Stark aka. Iron Man.
None of the action is revolutionary, but it's done with a sense of joy. This is a tall tale of Hollywood nonsense, glittering and ridiculous, but enjoyable nonetheless because it is well-made and thoroughly dedicated in all of its well-sounding formula affection.
Iron Man 2 is solid good fun throughout. It is written by Justin Theroux (Rock of Ages (2012)) and directed by Jon Favreau (Elf (2003)), who left the director's chair on the franchise after doing these two first films.
Related posts:
Jon Favreau: The Jungle Book (2016) - Favreau's great, widest appealing movie to date
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 200 mil. $
Box office: 623.9 mil. $
= Box office success
[Iron Man 2 premiered April 26 (El Capitan Theatre, Hollywood) and runs 125 minutes. One of the things that raises the film is that it replaced Terrence Howard with Don Cheadle, a decision that didn't go over silently, understandably. Filming lasted 71 days from April - July 2009 in Monaco, California and England. The film opened #1 to a 128.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed atop for one more week before getting the boot from Shrek Forever After and grossed 312.4 mil. $ (50.1 % of the total gross). It had the highest-grossing opening weekend in North America of 2010, where it was also the third highest-grossing film of the year after Toy Story 3 and Alice in Wonderland. Internationally, it was the 7th highest grossing film of the year. Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 30.4 mil. $ (4.9 %) and South Korea with 27 mil. $ (4.3 %). The film was Oscar-nominated for Best Effects, losing to Inception. Iron Man 2 is certified fresh at 72 % with a 6.5 critical average.]
What do you think of Iron Man 2?
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