Ryan Watches a Motion Picture #28: Iron Man 2 (2010)

Robert Downey Jr. returns as Tony Stark, roguish playboy billionaire turned superguy (I'll say superguy since he never quite reaches hero status in the films - he just owns up to negligence and cleans up his own messes). He's Iron Man of course, and this was the big summer action sequel many people were waiting for.

And it's really fucking boring. Not since Transformers 2 have I sat in a theatre to watch a blockbuster and suddenly realised that I was completely, utterly bored. That I didn't care about anything that was happening on the screen, and that when there was a glitzy CGI sequence, couldn't anchor it to any kind of sense of emotional import. But I don't want to lead you too astray by bringing up one of the worst movies I've ever seen - Iron Man 2 isn't anywhere near as vapid as Transformers 2 because there's only one dick joke in it, if I remember rightly.

Sadly I can only think of one or two action sequences that are somewhat satisfying, and one is close to the beginning and the other not quite at the end, and short. Everything else is annoying quip. A glib talk back and forth that goes nowhere and isn't funny, instead of, say, illuminating the audience as to what's going with either plot or character. In regards to character, there isn't much present. We get a Tony Stark who's a dick and a fantasy of wealth without redeeming quality that I can find, and a Paltrow/Pepperpot that gets mad sometimes about how careless Stark is. Oh, and Don Cheadle getting mad about that too, to the point where he dons a suit of robo-armour for a really ridiculous fight scene at a party. Apart from that there's a lot of time spent trying to sell you on secondary characters. Scarlett Johansson and Sammy J were somewhat fun to watch, but Mickey Rourke's grizzled Russian antagonist was really the only thing I actually found entertaining. Or justifiable.

At least after the credits we see Thor's hammer in an impact crater unrelated to anything we saw in Iron Man 2.

So: A movie as careless and self-serving as Tony Stark. Save your money.

tm Does the QT 20 Part 16: Lost in Translation

Lost In Translation (dir. Sofia Coppola – 2003)

We start off with Charlotte (Scarlett), who’s in Tokyo with her husband (played by Giovanni Ribisi), a photographer (allegedly based on director Spike Jonze, Sofia’s ex-husband as of 2003). He’s gone most of time, photographing a band, so Charlotte kicks around the hotel and the city, eventually bumping into fellow lonely-soul Bob Harris (Bill Murray), a past-his-prime actor who’s there to shoot a whiskey ad. He’s married but clearly not into it and hitting a life crisis pretty much head-on. So, Charlotte and Bob hang out and kick around – eat some food, sing some karaoke, etc. They form a quick friendship – they go through some up’s and down’s but clearly they’re both enjoying the attention of the other; both are in a questioning state of their lives, though clearly coming at it from different viewpoints.

The movie had the buzz around it when it came – mostly focusing on Sofia (she is a Coppola, after all) and the allegedly glorious return of Bill Murray. Sofia’s next movie was Maria Antoinette which disappointed and since then Bill’s done some crazy things, like drive a golf cart after having some major doobage and storming out of the Oscar ceremony when he didn’t win Best Lead Actor (losing out to Sean Penn for Mystic River – hard to argue with that decision). Sofia did win for Best Original Screenplay but lost on Best Picture and Best Director in the Lord of the Rings /Return of the King cataclysm. The ‘making of’ bonus features on the disc are all about Sofia and Bill, too – Bill doing silly things, Bill learning some wacky words in Japanese, etc. while you Scarlett for about 30 seconds. Strange, as Scarlett probably got the biggest bump out of it, boosting her profile after generating some buzz in Ghost World (2001) and now has gone on to be Woody Allen’s new muse.

A movie where not much happens, it still unfolds gracefully and deliberately, telling what little it tells patiently and well.

tm sez: 7/10