John’s Movie Musings

Welcome to summer.  Well, according to Hollywood’s calendar, anyway.  Remember when Memorial Day kicked off the big summer blockbusters?  At this rate, Iron Man 4 will be released on Valentine’s Day.

So yeah, sequels.  They should be awesome, but so rarely are.  With an origin story, you’ve got to give so much time to introducing the characters that the plot gets a little thin.  But in a sequel, you don’t have to waste time explaining who Iron Man is (well, maybe to American audiences), but there should be plenty of time for a decent story.  Sadly, Hollywood manages to screw it up most of the time.  How?  By introducing more new characters than were in the first.

Comic book movies are especially bad at this.  Listen, Hollywood.  Just because the characters are in costume, it doesn’t mean the movie should resemble a clown car.  The fantasy elements should be used to enhance elements of the human condition.  That’s why comics got started.  Want to talk about race relations in a very explosive period?  Invent the X-Men.  Iron Man was created to talk about the Cold War.  Times have changed, but there are certainly no lack of themes to explore.  Especially those you would have time to explore in a sequel.  Grrr.

Now the odd part in this is that it’s all just one big origin story for the upcoming Avengers movie.  In addition to the Iron Man flicks, we’ve had Ed Norton’s Hulk, with Thor and Captain America coming shortly.  But to what end?  We’ll get introduced to these characters just in time for yet another introduction to them as The Avengers?  My inner cynic is not impressed.

But enough ranting.  Go see Iron Man 2.  It’s more fluff than the first one, but it’s also a lot more fun.  You’ll laugh and have a good time.  Can’t complain about that.

Grade: B