Iron Man 2 at I-Max = Iron Max?

Sequels. Sometimes they suck (Men in Black II; Spiderman 3; Transformers 2; The Matrix: Revelations). Sometimes they rock (The Empire Strikes Back; Aliens; Terminator 2, Hellboy 2). Sometimes they're just enjoyable enough to justify their existence (The Whole Ten Yards; 2 Fast 2 Furious).

I thought Iron Man 2 was somewhere on the continuum of 'worthy sequel' to 'it rocked'. On the plus side it had a decent baddy played by Mickey Rourke, an enigmatic goodie played by Scarlett Johansen in a catsuit, the ever-lovely Robert Downey Jr (man-crush fodder), a good dose of humour, and enough going on at any one time to keep me watching. Fast cars, explosions, comedy. What's not to like?

Plus a cameo from Samual L Jackson.

The only downsides were feeling like an outsider because I'm not an avid reader of the Iron Man comic, and also the sense that it wasn't that new. Comic book movies follow a very similar plot. Superhero somehow has wronged super-villain. Super-villain, often in league with power-hungry industrialists/military or other representatives of big business/government threaten superhero. Superhero wins out in climactic battle wherein members of the public scream a lot and run for their lives.

At least the CGI was good in this one though and didn't distract from the story too much (unlike GI Joe: Rise of Cobra, or X-Men Origins: Wolverine). They retained enough humanity by allowing the human characters to walk around and be human. That's what gives a film like this its soul. When the CGI takes over films are soulless as a result.

Jongudmund's rating: 8/10. Worth a watch.

Surprisingly alright for an X Men film

I went to see X-Men Origins: Wolverine last night and I have to say I was surprisingly impressed by it. On the one hand retconning any storyline is difficult. Do you scrap it a la Batman Begins, or embrace it and risk ruining it a la the Star Wars prequels?

But this handled it well. It fits into the film storyline, explaining at the end how Logan winds up in X-Men not knowing who he was. The rest of the story is passable. The development of Weapon XI wasn't perhaps as well-thought through as it could have been. I was a bit nonplussed at how casually the film-makers killed off some quite interesting mutants, not to mention passers-by who get in the way. Gone are the days when innocent people survived in Hollywood blockbusters.

Overall, there is something slightly fragmentary about the storyline, and the scriptwriter assumes you know who the hell everyone is. And keep an eye out for a laughable 'cameo' from Professor X at the end, who looks like a jobbing actor wearing a Patrick Stewart mask, or a really bad attempt at a CGI face. Either that or Patrick Stewart needs to cut down on the botox!

Speaking of Patrick Stewart, I saw another Star Trek trailer before the main feature. I've seen three now and they seem to keep getting better. I never thougth I'd admit this on my blog, but I'm starting to feel a bit excited at the prospect of seeing the new Star Trek film. There, I've said it. I can't believe it.

My rating for X-Men Origins: Wolverine: 6.5/10 (Worth a watch, if only for the Star Trek trailer)