Ouch.
A couple of early reviews are out on IRON MAN 2 and neither is positive. One's slightly more mixed than the other but...both express a similar line of disappointment.
Truthfully I am not shocked. I loved the first IRON MAN but Jon Favreau is clearly not that great of a filmmaker IMO and I think it's telling Marvel went (wisely) with Joss Whedon for THE AVENGERS movie instead.
Hollywood Reporter:
Well, that didn't take long. Everything fun and terrific about "Iron Man," a mere two years ago, has vanished with its sequel.
In its place, "Iron Man 2" has substituted noise, confusion, multiple villains, irrelevant stunts and misguided story lines. A film series that started out with critical and commercial success will have to settle for only the latter with this sequel; Robert Downey Jr.'s return as Tony Stark/Iron Man will assure that.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/fil ... 6551.story
Variety:
"Iron Man 2" isn't as much fun as its predecessor, but by the time the smoke clears, it'll do.
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117942 ... id=31&cs=1
IRON MAN 2 Trashed in First Reviews
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AndyDursin
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AndyDursin
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The problem for Marvel with SPIDER-MAN 2 and X-MEN 2 is they've had a decent track record with sequels. Does not appear to have followed this installment, unfortunately, despite having everyone back.Eric W. wrote:It looks overloaded in the trailers I've seen. Overloaded, messy, lots of chaos. I'm not surprised. I'm sure it's a fun romp but probably some of the usual sequel-itis problems here on this.
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Monterey Jack
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Yeah, usually it's the third movie in a comic book franchise that starts to get overstuffed with supporting characters and overkill action sequences (Spider-Man 3, X-Men 3, ect.). Shame if the Iron Man series starts going south a movie early. 
Then again, this dumb idea to use every Marvel comics movie to build towards the eventual Avengers movie is probably going to hurt a lot of these upcoming films. 
Then again, this dumb idea to use every Marvel comics movie to build towards the eventual Avengers movie is probably going to hurt a lot of these upcoming films. -
AndyDursin
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Yeah, though I think it will be interesting to see what Joe Johnston does with CAPTAIN AMERICA and Kenneth Branagh does with THOR. I like that they hired some established guys there (and it'd be great if Horner did CAPTAIN AMERICA, I'd love to hear him do a super-hero film) -- the problem they will face from the "experts" and the public is that they are going down the ladder of well-known heroes and the box-office grosses will probably respond in kind as a result.
IRON MAN was a big surprise because he's always been a bit on the B-list. That the movie did so well was unexpected. I doubt CAPT and THOR are going to end up the same, no matter how good or bad they turn out to be.
It's one reason I'm not surprised Marvel is looking to produce a group of lower-budgeted films for their even lesser-known/popular heroes. That recent story about the $40 million budgeted films they want to make just makes a lot of sense. There's an appetite, obviously, for these movies, but the less popular the character, the riskier the film becomes. CAPTAIN AMERICA and THOR are both a bit of a gamble IMO because neither is going to have any well known actor in the lead (Chris Evans isn't a household name, nobody has ever heard of the guy playing Thor, etc.) and they're both expensive. Probably will be the last time they end up doing that.
IRON MAN was a big surprise because he's always been a bit on the B-list. That the movie did so well was unexpected. I doubt CAPT and THOR are going to end up the same, no matter how good or bad they turn out to be.
It's one reason I'm not surprised Marvel is looking to produce a group of lower-budgeted films for their even lesser-known/popular heroes. That recent story about the $40 million budgeted films they want to make just makes a lot of sense. There's an appetite, obviously, for these movies, but the less popular the character, the riskier the film becomes. CAPTAIN AMERICA and THOR are both a bit of a gamble IMO because neither is going to have any well known actor in the lead (Chris Evans isn't a household name, nobody has ever heard of the guy playing Thor, etc.) and they're both expensive. Probably will be the last time they end up doing that.
it is oddly out here in Sweden already and it was really a major disappointment. The story was forced and still almost nonexistent. All scenes seemed improvised on the spot, endless bickering that didnt go anywhere.
All actors who were so much fun in the first one and lifted it up to a much higher level than it was, act here now like they were contractually obliged and had no fun at all.
All that could be excused if it was delivering on the action side, but no such luck. There are just 3 action scenes, the first in monaco, runs like 2 mins, then 30min later one fist fight between friends and then at last the last 15min, which are so fast and wildly edited that you dont see anything. The showdown with Rourke is supershort and a joke.
Skip it!
Only good thing is that Debney returns to the Actiongenre with a kickass score (if you can hear it under the ridiculously loud sound effects). Although he didnt come up with a theme for the iron man either (he reused Ramin's "theme", though i never heard any theme for IM... but at least for Rourke's character, which was pretty good).
The score album will run 74min! yeah!
but thats really the only nice thing to say about the whole disaster.
All actors who were so much fun in the first one and lifted it up to a much higher level than it was, act here now like they were contractually obliged and had no fun at all.
All that could be excused if it was delivering on the action side, but no such luck. There are just 3 action scenes, the first in monaco, runs like 2 mins, then 30min later one fist fight between friends and then at last the last 15min, which are so fast and wildly edited that you dont see anything. The showdown with Rourke is supershort and a joke.
Skip it!
Only good thing is that Debney returns to the Actiongenre with a kickass score (if you can hear it under the ridiculously loud sound effects). Although he didnt come up with a theme for the iron man either (he reused Ramin's "theme", though i never heard any theme for IM... but at least for Rourke's character, which was pretty good).
The score album will run 74min! yeah!
but thats really the only nice thing to say about the whole disaster.