ARCHIVE: REVIEW: Iron Man 2

hey guys, I've always reviewed movies and here's an article I wrote a long time ago - and it was when Iron Man 2 came out. I really liked this movie, but here it is from the archives for your reading pleasure...

FILM: IRON MAN 2

Starting pretty much straight after the last one, after Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) announces that he is IRON MAN it seems that he is on cloud nine and is doing really well for himself. Starting a rather nifty Stark Expo that runs for a year and, according to Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow), it will also drain the finances of Stark Industries.  It's a needless folly but the public like it. Meanest of whiles, an evil is brewing from all sides.  The army want the Iron Man suit to use as a weapon.  Stark's competition, Hammer Industries, want to develop similar suits but fail miserably.  And, a disgruntled son of Starks father's work colleague (Mickey Rourke) decides to have a crack at taking Iron Man down. For the lads, theres a rather nubile Natalie (Scarlett Johansson) working with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) to try and convince Stark that there's a bigger game to play than the one he thinks he is involved in.

Tony Stark is finding that the power he gets from that thing in his chest (you can tell I'm very accurate here can't you?) is killing him, so a side part of the film is his quest to try to save his own life as well as that of others.  He also has some great lines - and on his birthday he dresses up in his Iron Man suit and answers the most question he gets asked from people - how do you go to the toilet in the suit?

Add a sprinkling of War Machine (Ironman's colleague) and a rocking soundtrack from AC/DC I think you get very much a good bang for your buck. Robert Downey Jr is one of may favourite actors and his portrayal of Tony Stark is spot on - he's a bit arrogant but a bit witty but has his heart in the right place. Scarlett Johansson plays a really sexy part in the film and can kick ass as no one else can, and the remaining characters help the story along.

There is always that problem of the difficult second movie.  But retaining the original cast, moving on from what was developed in the first film and the immediately likeable Tony Stark - this film is fantastic and I'm sure there will be another sequel. There have been a lot of questionable Marvel films out - but this is totally in line with X-men and Spiderman blockbuster standard.

Brilliant movie, if you like action or comic book movies it's a must see.

POPSCORE:  9/10

Oh and as an addition - I really think you should sit through the credits... they may be a surprise at the end... ;-)

REVIEW: Avengers: Age of Ultron (12A)

Oh my goodness! It's finally here after three years of waiting and one of the most hyped up, advertised and eagerly anticipated movies that I have ever experienced in my life. Avengers: Age of Ultron is here, in the UK, now.

 

Let's start with a quick catch up - after phase one and the absolutely astoundingly marvellous amazing Avengers Assemble in 2012, we moved into phase two. But let's not forget the constant battling and grumbling between all the heroes. Then everyone's mind was blown as they all worked together, we saw the Hulk in action and everyone went home happy and felt the need to binge eat shwarma's. I wonder if there is any link to the fact that once this movie hit the cinemas, a load of shwarma shops appeared in my local town?

 

We started with the not-bad-but-not-brilliant Iron Man 3 with Tony Stark facing repercussions from his Battle of New York experiences and the Chitauri invasion masterminded by Loki. Fast forward and we had Guardians of the Galaxy which was a risk but a hit, and then the critically acclaimed Captain America: Winter Soldier. Now we have this - but how did it do?

 

I've read a load on the internet about this movie - Loki is in it, an Avenger dies, there's no post credit sequence, there's no teaser sting after the first bit of the credits, this, that, the other. I can tell you some of those are true and some are just rubbish. The bit where they say Stan Lee's cameo is awesome is true though - especially if you are clued into the Marvel universe.

 

The movie centres around Tony Stark and his worry over the events of New York and, in an attempt to protect the world,  he decides to try and create a defence mechanism to protect from potential invaders as he feels the Avengers, for want of a better term are "hopelessly outgunned."  His response to this is to create a robot defence using ideas from J.A.R.V.I.S and the power from Loki's staff (which was nabbed from him back in Avengers Assemble) with the help of fellow Science Bro, Bruce Banner.  But, while the Avengers are partying downstairs, the experiment he left to boil goes a bit awry and creates Ultron. Ultron is a sentient robot taking Tony's idea of saving the world to the nth degree by concluding that, to save the world, is to cause extinction of the human race. When Ultron crashes the party and the other Avengers find out Tony has been tinkering without their knowledge, this leads to a bit of a conflict between the team and also gives Ultron time to leave and start his world domination plans. The rest of the movie is all about stopping him.

 

The movie is fantastic and I can't take that away from it. From the beginning strains of the orchestral Avengers theme introduced to us in the first movie, to the fighting and CGI effects, this film is a visceral beauty. There are some unbelievably amazing shots and sequences which really stretch the imagination and the first 15 minutes or so is the Avengers kicking butt like they did in the New York battle of AA in 2012. Even some of the sustained shots of all the Avengers fighting individually are carried through with gusto and this is where the film really shines. But if you think that battle was immense - and it was - then there's a canny few others to ogle at. The Hulkbuster vs Hulk battle was amazing, and the finale was too. However, every single time there is a battle where there is people there is a massive emphasis on protecting the people and elaborate evacuation procedures. There's a few scenes were innocent bystanders are caught in the battle and an Avenger saves them at the last minute.

 

We also find out a lot more about the characters though some of it was probably unnecessary. Hawkeye gets a meatier role, and we find out a lot more about him and there is a hilarious sequence where all of the Avengers have been caught under mind control except him and he says something along the lines of "not this time, been there, done that!". There's a lot of comedy in this film, and there was a lot of laughing out loud in the cinema over it, but as the action moved on quickly your laugh when kind of haha -ooo as something exciting happened. I'm not entirely sure of Chris Hemsworth's comic timing, but Thor has a lot of comical lines too which makes the film quite enjoyable. Hulk gets lots of screen time too - and this is a good thing. There is also a similar joke like Loki's "ta-da" in Dark World, and the punching of Thor by the Hulk in AA in this movie too. And speaking of Thor there is an on-going joke over his hammer which I found amusing.

 

The soundtrack, story and special effects in this movie are second to none. The actors reprise their roles fiercely and the new additions to the team - namely Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and The Vision fit in rather nicely with the rest of the cast. Having such a large set of main characters is difficult but they even managed cameos from Agent Carter, Heimdall and a little bit of support from War Machine and Falcon. It seems that this movie has got everyone together for a bit of a party and it's nice to see some of the old faces appear.

 

So what do I think? Well, I've been hyped to the max with this movie and I have been waiting 3 years for this and admittedly Avengers Assemble set the bar very high. I really liked the movie and think it is great but something about it was missing and I don't know what. Maybe it was that for all that James Spader was awesome as Ultron, he wasn't as fun as Loki. Or was it that we've seen all the surprises that we can and now it's about telling the story? The first movie teased and teased the Hulk and we didn't see him do his stuff until the very end. We didn't see the Avengers come together until the very end and when they did it was mind blowing. This movie they are already together and are fighting right from the off.

 

In summary I really liked this movie, but I think it just fell short of my stupidly high expectation, but then again, who cares as it's a worthy addition to the Marvel universe. I need to see this again and I'm sure I will get to see more of what I missed as this movie has so much in it that is practically a treasure trove of Marvel stuff. Go see it yourself and make your own mind up - regardless it is action packed to the rafters and is a fantastic ending to phase two. Jeez, I can't wait for phase three.

 

Avengers: Age of Ultron is out now in the UK and comes out May 1 at all good cinemas in the US.

 

POPSCORE: 8.5/10

What am I talking about? Avengers: Age of Ultron
Where can I find out more? http://marvel.com/movies/movie/193/avengers_age_of_ultron

If you like this try: Avengers Assemble (2012), any other marvel Movie really

Anything else?
This is actually not the end of "Phase 2" of the Marvel Cinematic Universe or MCU - Ant-Man is.
This movie features Andy Serkis as Ulysses Klaue who has links to Wakanda (a clue to a movie in Phase Three perhaps?)
This film references Disney's Pinocchio
Kevin Fiege stated that there is a homage to Star Wars' the chopping off of hands in every Phase Two movie and this one is no exception.
There IS a sequence a few minutes into the credit sequence so don't leave as soon as the credit roll. Honestly, it's worth it.