Iron Man is one of the greatest comic book movies ever made. Some might say the greatest. But I will not go that far because it has many problems in the story, acting and action.
There are two main problems and two smaller problems that I can pick out. First of all, I am not a fan of Gwyneth Paltrow. The movie did not have a complete script, just notes on how each scene would go and the main lines during the expository scenes. In the humorous scenes with Robert Downey Jr., he is improvising, and most of the actors can keep up with him. Paltrow, on the other hand, cannot. Pepper Potts, Paltrow’s character, is Tony Stark’s secretary and love interest, but whenever Paltrow is trying to do a scene with Downey Jr., you can tell she is improvising because it doesn’t feel natural, it feels forced. In fact, at some times, there are some long pauses and mumbling at which point you can tell she is trying to figure out what to say.
The second major problem is the end battle between Stark and Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), aka Iron Monger. The battle is quick with little fighting, horrendously tacky lines, and quick punches that do not satisfy. I hoped for more because the action up to this point was very well done.
The smaller problems revolve around Jeff Bridges and Terrence Howard (James Rhodes). The acting in this film is not up to par with Robert Downey Jr. Jon Favreau, the director, surrounded Downey with mediocre actors that amplified their bad acting. Jeff Bridges is good in many of his other films (The Big Lebowski, K-Pax), but did not do a good job as a villain. Terrence Howard’s voice is annoying, period. I just couldn’t stand listening to his higher pitched voice.
This isn’t to say that it was all bad. The action before the ending battle is great. (SPOLIER ALERT) Iron Man in battle with terrorists at the beginning of the film and middle was great and I was cheering the whole time (END OF SPOILERS). Robert Downey Jr. has made a new name for himself with this movie, making the audience and filmmakers forget about his substance abuse and remind us of how great of an actor he is.
Iron Man 2 is leaps and bounds from the second one. This movie was supremely enjoyable with only one main flaw: Gwyneth Paltrow (again). She still doesn’t know how to improvise with Downey Jr., making huge pauses to cue the viewers that she now doesn’t know what to do (“Help me Robert! What do I say?). Sam Rockwell and Mickey Rourke as the two bad guys was a brilliant idea. Jon Favreau gave himself a bigger role as Happy Hogan (appearing only two times in the previous film). Don Cheadle is so much better than Terrence Howard. He is what I hoped Rhodey would have been in the first one. And the addition of Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff was a stroke of genius. And her bloody brilliant (sorry British children, forget I said that) fight sequence in a hall way left me cheering and on my feet.
The action improved and the final battle was better than the first one, but still a little fast. The audience hardly has time to enjoy it.
Over all, see these movies, but expect some predictability and some bad acting in the first movie and some more predictability in the second.
No comments:
Post a Comment