Iron Man 2

Iron Man 2
2010
Directed By: Jon Favreau
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Mickey Rourke

Now, I'm not a comic book fan. But for some reason, I get very excited about these movies. The big-budget, explosion-ridden movies. They are intriguing. The first Iron Man was awesome. It was well written, acted, and mostly everything about the story reeled you in for an exciting 2 hours. This one was good, but lacking in a few areas.

Robert Downey Jr has proved over the last few years that he is a phenomenal actor. When he speaks, the entire room stops. Everyone hangs on every word that Tony Stark blurts out. His delivery is flawless, and the overall rapport between the characters seems effortless. Never would I think the flow of character development would be so smooth in a comic book movie. The consistency of the characters make the new movie flow from the first one.

Of course, the first movie concentrated on the story of the creation of Iron Man. Which is usually how these things go. But Iron Man did something different. In the sequel, they did not try to squeeze in a million bad guys for him to defeat. There is one bad guy. One foe for Iron Man to overcome. Now of course there are those other foes like the US government and his own self deprivation. But overall, it had less of a comic book feel and more of a hero feel.

The movie focused more on the man underneath the Iron Man suit than the costume itself. The subtle lead-in for the highly anticipated Avengers movie was intriguing but did not take away from the story at hand. And of course, with today's technology, it seems almost unnecessary to mention the special effects, but they were very good as well.

The few things I didn't like did not have too much burden on my experience. Don Cheadle's character seemed a little too flip-floppy for me. He seemed all over the place and couldn't make up his mind on which side he was on. There was also a small issue with some fight scenes. The birthday party fight scene with the non-fitting music seemed a little dragged out, and something from a bad episode of Family Guy. Also, the final fight scene seemed a little short-lived. Usually I find final fight scenes in comic book movies to be too long, this one seemed a little too short. But of course there is always the possibility of another sequel, and though I was confused at first over the scene after the credits, it was explained to me, and I do look forward to the next few years of Marvel comic book movies.

Iron Man 2 was exactly as I expected. Action packed, witty, and 2 hours of pure entertainment. Jon Favreau has seemed to find his niche. Though Elf was pretty awesome as well.

Stars (out of 4): ***

A Nightmare On Elm Street

A Nightmare On Elm Street
2010
Directed By: Samuel Bayer
Starring: Jackie Earle Haley, Kyle Gallner

I find these movie remakes being a giant waste of money. I admit that I am part of the generation that has a terrible attention span and wants blood, blood, blood. However, the remake of this very classic slasher film is pretty dysfunctional. Story line: horrible. Acting: abhorrent. Freddy character: draining. I never though I'd get sick of hearing Freddy Kreuger speak. The fact is, there will be no Freddy Kreuger other than Robert Englund.

My first experience of Freddy's character was in the 2003 "Freddy vs. Jason". Now that film was just as senseless, but at least it was somewhat interesting. Taking the 1984 original and butchering it (no pun intended) was a mistake. It makes me upset that Wes Craven's genius is thrown down the toilet. "Freddy vs. Jason" had some interesting characters and a story line I could get behind. You got exactly what you expected.

This remake of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" seemed to have no direction. The classic scenes of the girl being thrown around the room held up a bit, but honestly there was no care about the characters what so ever. The movie jumped around from character to character and you never really know who the "main characters" really are.

Now, going into it, I knew what to expect. However, I did expect a little more to be done for me regarding the movie. This was a remake of a CLASSIC. Wes Craven's first nightmare is a staple and a pioneer for the slasher flick. Freddy is a household name of terror and fear. I feel that this movie just took him down a few notches in the terror belt. There comes a time when loud noises just will not do the job of scaring people anymore. This was a poor representation of a collection of nightmares from 1984-2003. It was not as bad as the remake of Friday the 13th, but it was not very good.

Stars: * 1/2