Finally Back (in Black)...

I'm going to apologies firstly for not having posted in a long time. I had a lot of personal things to sort out. Not to worry as now everything is sorted and I'm ready to get back to my Rants and Reviews and what better way to welcome myself back to my own blog then with a double review... kind of.

The reason I am looking at both of these movies together, aside from the obvious reason, is that I only just saw them both recently. I was invited to see Iron Man 2 with some friends only to be told that I must see the first one, unlike when we saw Transformers. So the night before we went out to see the sequel I sat down and watched the first one. So here we have my opinions and views on the first Iron Man movie. I won't be talking about it too much because what I really want to get on to is the sequel, Iron Man 2.

Iron Man has never been a comic book hero I've been interested in. In fact the most attention I ever gave the character was when playing Marvel Verses Capcom 2 so not complain at me if I saw something that goes against any of the many different comic book canons.

Well here it is...

Iron Man

Firstly we have to look at the character Tony Stark, played by Robert Downy Jr. Let me just say, he blew me out of the water. His performance was so powerful, from the cocky young millionaire who has no care in the world to the broken man returning after being a prisoner of war, with a new revelation on his weapons company. I can't help but feel like Tony Stark is what Bruce Wayne is trying to act like when he's not being batman. Robert Downy Jr manages to pull this character off so well it's so unbelievable that he is also a genius and willing to endanger himself as Iron Man. I also very much enjoyed the flirtatious banter between himself and his personal assistant, Pepper Potts, played by Gwyneth Paltrow. The two of them have such a wonderful chemistry that is clear what they feel about each other but at the same time it's different enough for the tired cliche that their romance never seems to truly kick off during the entire movie. In an odd way I prefer this way of writing and acting, maybe just because it felt so different.

Now... Iron Man himself. Sadly I felt he should have had more screen time but this movie was mainly about his origin so we had lots of comical experimentations as Tony Stark attempted to get the technology right. The Iron Man Mark One Suit, during the escape scene was built up so well that I was genuinely more excited to see Tony Stark jump around in that suit then i was about the final Iron Man suit, in fact I spent that entire section of the movie with a huge grin on my face wishing I had seen it in the cinema instead of on my home television.

The villain, Obadiah Stane, was the standard style villain for a comic book movie I felt. But being played by Jeff Bridges means that every line was delivered with such awesome power that you can't help but secretly hope he wins in the final fight. His huge, Hulk like, suit seemed so intimidating in front of Iron Man's own you actually sense the threat even though we know how powerful and awesome he is. Especially when Obadiah Stane launches Iron Man through a bus in one blow.

Overall the action was entertaining and the characters were well cast and directed. I never showed an interest in Iron Man before but now I think I might. To be honest this has been one of the best comic movies I have seen in recent years and I highly recommend it to any fan of Iron Man, comic books films or just good old fashion action movies. Definitely one to watch if you haven't yet.

Iron Man 2

Let's start with the obvious, Iron Man is still awesome, Tony Stark is some how more awesome and having War Machine in it teamed up with Iron Man is so awesome that I wanted the final action scene to last longer, much much longer. In fact, and I am being serious now, the final fight scene between Iron Man, War Machine and the Hammer Drones did not go on for long enough. Sure it made Iron Man look epic compared to anyone else who even attempted to make their own suit look like a foolish idiot. Which he does, on several occasions. Even when he's pissed out of his skull at his own Birthday party he manages to kick War Machine in to yesterday.... that is until the Dragonball Z style energy attack explosion. This does bring up another interesting point that Rhodey does pretty well considering it's his first time to use a suit. I can only assume he either has great natural talent for it or there is a lot of AI assistance.

Plot wise it's a great advancement on the establishment from the first Iron Man movie and carries on practically exactly where it left off. Tony Stark is being demanded by the government to had over his Iron Man suits to the military, to which he really doesn't want to as they will just be used in wars taking thousands of lives. Also giving a comedic moment when Tony Stark manages to highjack a television screen and show evidence of how other arms developers are still years behind developing their own suits meaning there is no possible threat. He does this using his mobile phone... yeah, that's right, just his mobile phone! What more can I say?

I really don't want to give too much away in terms of spoilers but Tony Stark is being poisoned because the element used to power his heart magnet, i don't know what it's actually called, is leaking in to his blood stream. Ouch. Either way he is trying to find a cure as well as deal with Ivan Vanko, aka Whiplash, as well as Justin Hammer, another weapons manufacturer who is trying to create a new weapon to completely surpass the Iron Man suit. He's got a lot of stuff to deal with here. It doesn't help that Nick Fury, Samuel L Jackson for anyone counting the amount of films he's been in, keeps popping up trying to recruit him in to the Avengers. This may seem like a lot is going on but the film constructs itself very well around the various plot points. As I said before, the only thing that felt rushed was the final fight sequence.

Once again, Iron Man has shown me the potential of how good comic movies can be. Unlike the two recent Batman movies, which both are fantastic I'm not denying that, they don't feel like comic book films. Both Iron Man and Iron Man 2 both do. I'm not sure what it is about them but they both are incredibly entertaining and with rumors of a third one being made I can honestly say it will be considered as one of the best comic book trilogies made.

Thanks for Reading,

EpicFlyFire