Iron Man 2 – 2010
One of the problems that many sequels have, especially when it comes to action films, is that the filmmakers have to try to be bigger and more exciting than the first film. Unfortunately, this often means that reality, believability, and sometimes, even common get sense thrown out the window, and replaced with what looks good, what looks cool. But darn it, this movie does look cool! Incredibly cool! Just don’t pay too much attention to the physics involved.
The only problem I have with the movie’s effects has more to do with the script than the visual effects themselves. Unfortunately, the visuals are what display this problem. In the first Iron Man film, we see Tony Stark constructing his super suit. We see it assembled as he puts it on, and while we don’t currently have the technology for such an armored suit, they did a pretty good job of grounding it in a kind of reality, and it went a long way to making it believable.
But here, that all gets left behind, and the suitcase Iron Man armor makes me roll my eyes. Stark has made a transformer with the ability to actually increase its total mass. In order for the metal in the suitcase to cover his body, it would have to be spread out so thinly as to offer very little protection, not to mention all the technology needed to make the suit perform its feats of strength and firepower. Also, one would have to assume that the armor, while in suitcase form, would weigh just as much as the fully assembled Iron Man suit. Using that logic, how was Pepper Potts able to lift and toss around the compacted suit with such ease?
But ok, I need to remember that superhero movies are pure fantasies. It’s ok to throw reality out the window, as long as the movie plays by the rules it establishes. And that being said, the magically appearing suit of armor looked fantastic as it increased its mass and covered Stark from head to toe. It looked incredible.
The main villain was Whiplash, whose weapon was an awesome pair of electrified chain whips! Their first iteration was more low budget looking, and the second seemed more sophisticated. The design team really did a great job of making that distinction. Sadly, the climactic battle of the film was just a little anticlimactic. What I mean is that the fight with Whiplash’s army of drone robots was more exciting than when he came down in person to fight Iron Man and War Machine. The three armored combatants scuffled for a short moment, but the bad guy’s electric whips didn’t seem to cause much damage, and he was quickly put down by a kind of mega-explosion that we’d witnessed earlier in the film.
Still, the battle at the car race was pretty exciting. The racing cars, themselves, were all CGI, and they looked fantastic! Whenever one of Whiplash’s whips cut one in half, it looked amazing. I also really liked how Whiplash’s power harness burned away the top half of his jumpsuit. It made him look really dangerous! Funny though, how it burned his clothes completely off, but didn’t burn him at all. Hmm… And lest I forget, all the Black widow stunt effects were amazing! So cool!