“‘Bout freakin’ time I make it over to Iron Man 2. Waiting nearly 2 weeks for the first big movie of the summer is unheard of for me. I can’t even remember the last time I delayed summer movie season. I blame Mom. Although, of course, today she says I could have gone anytime I wanted, I really couldnt’ve. So I put her on a plane this morning, and this afternoon was at the movies.
While its rare that I’ll see a non-indie movie at a theater other than the Regal Fenway, I decided to go to the AMC Loews Boston Common. Reason being that they have a new IMAX auditorium, or should I say “”IMAX””. Yeah, it turned out being one of those fake ones, which is what I suspected. How can an IMAX be fake, you ask? I’d actually heard about these a while back, and was somewhat morally outraged over them. What’s the first thing you think of when you hear the word IMAX? Prolly the giant-ass screen, yeah? Well these dont have a giant-ass screen. Yes, the screen is somewhat larger than usual, but it was still less than half the size of a real IMAX. So why call it an IMAX? Slightly bigger screen, even higher definition picture, rumbling speakers in the seats, high quality audio. If that’s the direction movies are headed, great. However, I dont feel justified in paying an extra 5 dollars for that. Yeah, you heard me. They charge extra of course (again, expected). Was it worth it? No. The best picture quality was during the trailers. Kinda like what often happens with me with 3D movies, once we got past the first 20 minutes I really wasn’t noticing anything too special about the screen. I think my biggest point of contention is again the lack of aforementioned giant-ass screen. That’s the novelty of IMAX. If you’re gonna do these uber quality film screening thing, pleaes give it another name. But if I want real IMAX, I’ll stick to going to Jordans. They have Fuddruckers downstairs.
Now that the “”IMAX”” rant is out of the way. How was Iron Man 2 itself? Decent. Not quite the big bang I usually expect to start my summer. I think part of the awesome that was Iron Man 1 is that it was very unexpected. Not too many people knew much about this obscure Marvel hero. Robert Downey Jr hadn’t fully reemerged from his, shall we say, dark period. But it all ended up kicking major ass. This time, it was all very much expected, and very much expected is what was delivered. RDJr was suave while clevery narcissistic (spelling?). Shit got blowed up. There was some fuzzy science. Nothing we didnt really see coming.
What I most approve of this time around is the addition of Sam Rockwell to the ensemble, as baddie Justin Hammer. Rockwell has been on my fave list since Choke (speaking of, nice to see Clark Gregg as well). He played awkward yet slightly deranged quite well here. Side note: really psyched to see Rockwell play opposite Christopher Walken in Behanding in Spokane on b’way. Will be going there on the 29th.
RDJr was great at playing RDJr x10. Although I hafta say, as a bit of a nerd myself, this single sequence I found him hottest in was when he was, hmm trying to phrase this without spoilage, engineering something. As bad ass as he his kicking butt and taking names or smooth talking like the best of ’em, super smart = super sexy every time.
While on the subject of nerd stuff, one disappointment that Im sure the rest of my fellow beavers (you’re likely included in that group if you know what it means. For the rest of you, that’s MIT’s mascot) will feel with me. One of the greatest subtle surprises in Iron Man 1 was the screen time that Stark and Rhodey’s brass rats got (non-beavers, thats our class ring). I remember hearing about it before seeing the film last time, and just being on pins and needles waiting for it. Stark’s was kinda subtle but Rhodey’s was a lot more blatant. This time, not only was there no money shot of the rat, but the ring Rhodey was wearing clearly wasn’t a rat. It looked like your typical class ring with the big heaping stone on it. Sadness.
Anyways, getting tired now, so wrapping it up. Decent start to the summer, but considering the lead in we got from April I was expecting more. Although there was a trailer for Inception that just looks \m/ awesome. Can’t wait
Iron Man 2 – \m/ \m/ \m/