Iron Man 2

Comic book films. For so long they were done so poorly, people began to shut them out completely. Remember David Hasselhoff as Nick Fury? How about the Joel Schumacher directed Batman's? Or even, and I know I'll catch flak for this, the Tim Burton directed Batman's? Recently, ever since Christopher Nolan's exceptional reboot of the Batman series, and even Bryan Singer's X-Men movies (Singer, not Rattner), comic book movies have started to get better. They are more interesting, more realistic, and feel more relevant than ever before. Iron Man was a successor to the groundwork that Nolan laid down in Batman Begins, and director Jon Favreau took all of those cues to build the film into something enjoyable on almost every level. Iron Man 2, however, is a different story.

We are back with Tony Stark and company for the follow up, and this time Tony has, effectively, shut down war, seemingly, single handedly. In fact, he goes so far as to boast this during a senate trial that comprises much of the opening part of the film. We are also introduced, in the opening, to a character, Ivan Vanko (played by Mickey Rourke), who is obviously after Stark and is building his own version of the miniature reactor core that Stark is using to power the Iron Man suit, and to keep himself alive. Vanko succeeds in this, and meets Stark in Monaco, where he uses the core's energy to try and kill Stark. Unsuccessful at doing so, Vanko is captured and imprisoned, but not without catching the notice of Stark's direct competitor, Justin Hammer (played by Sam Rockwell). Hammer breaks Vanko out of prison, and throws endless amounts of money at him to build a knockoff of the Iron Man suit that Hammer can sell to the US government (since Stark is refusing to hand over his suit), but Vanko has his own plans.

Iron Man 2 is not a complete failure. It manages, at times, to entertain, but one has to wonder if Favreau really intended for the film to be as dull as it was, or if the studios tied one arm behind his back in order to try and make the film that they thought audiences wanted to see. Pretty much everyone in this film, even Robert Downey Jr., is criminally underused. Favreau seems to bring Stark back as the unapologetic, full of himself millionaire playboy, with only a tinge of the maturity we saw developing in the first film. Paltrow, as Pepper Potts, Cheadle as Rhodes, Rourke as Vanko, ALL of these people had parts that had potential for something greater than was up there on the screen. Scarlett Johansson's character, especially, felt tacked on, as if she was almost an after thought for Favreau and company.

The film failed because, unlike the first one, it was more about action and explosions than it was about character development. I'm honestly surprised they didn't throw in some boobs, just to round out all of the cliche's, but, they were gunning for the PG-13. Iron Man 2, while not the WORST it could be, is still, in my mind, one of the biggest let down's in the category of sequels to great first films. Favreau, I hope that we can blame the studio's on this one, and not you. And, if that's the case, I hope we see a director's cut that is everything many of us wanted out of this film in the first place.

The Spirit

How bad can a movie that is based on a classic comic book series, AND has Scarlett Johansson (the most beautiful woman in the world, as declared by the writer of this blog) in it be? Pretty bad. Frank Miller's big screen adaptation of Will Eisner's The Spirit is a wreck. With a boring plot, a villian so over the top and ridiculous that he's just annoying, and jokes that fall flat EVERY time, The Spirit is a film that should have never seen the light of day. Miller seems to use every filmmaking tidbit he may have learned from Robert Rodriguez during the making of Sin City, but he seems to have forgotten one thing - a great movie is all about a great story.

I don't know enough about The Spirit to be able to say whether or not the story was lifted frame by frame from one of the comics (like Sin City was), but I will say that, if it was, it shouldn't have been. You have to figure one thing - A comic, created in the 1940's, that hasn't been popular in fifty some odd years, might need some sort of update to it to make it meaningful to todays audience. The whole thing was idiotic and I just didn't care about it the whole time I was watching it. In fact, the only two interesting things in the film was Scarlett and Eva Mendes (Sorry ladies, but you don't get much eye candy, unless your a fan of both Gabriel Macht AND Samuel L. Jackson).

Honestly, I would say don't waste your time with this one. Of course, by the time of this writing, I don't think its even in theaters anymore, but don't buy it or even rent it on DVD. If its on TV, then watch it, but don't waste your hard earned cash in any other way on The Spirit.