I Am Iron Man 2

Two years ago, I wrote an entry on this blog (complete with photos) about the sheer joy I experienced while watching the first Iron Man movie. It was such a revelation to have a superhero movie come together that well.

Thus I was incredibly excited about Iron Man 2: The Ironing. I eagerly awaited each of the two trailers released over the last four months, skimmed some early reviews to assure myself that there was nothing drastically wrong, and then finally went to see the movie on Sunday night.

I really liked it. I didn’t love it.

Iron Man 2 is a very good superhero movie. It elevates the first movie to a new level, although it’s a little slow to move on certain things. The backstory about the father simply didn’t do it for me.

As I digested the movie over the next few days, I tried to put my finger on what was off about the sequel. I’m still not sure if I know what it is, but I definitely know part of it:

The trailers showed too much. I walked into the movie already knowing way too much about the movie, so it wasn’t as fresh as the first one.

I believe that movie trailers should only show footage from the first third of the movie. I don’t need–or want–to know the whole story of the movie. I just wanted to be hooked enough to watch it, and footage from the first third should do just that. (An alternative that I also like is to simply show an uncut minute from a great scene in the first third of the movie.)

The Iron Man 2 trailers showed way too much of the movie. There are so many little surprises spoiled in the trailers–why? Why do this? Is it really that hard to convince people to see this movie?

And yes, I know I had the choice to simply not watch the trailers. But that’s really hard to do when I’m excited about a movie. After all, I’m the audience–shouldn’t the trailers be catered to me, not me to them?

What do you think about Iron Man 2? Or movie trailers in general?

7 thoughts on “I Am Iron Man 2”

  1. Agreeably so they did show way too much in the trailers. HOWEVER, they didn’t mislead the audience with their trailers like the movie Kick-Ass did. Going to see Iron Man, my husband and I got exactly what we were going to see. Going to see Kick Ass, we understood the movie to be something different than it was. (What was in our imagination was more entertaining at times than the movie itself.)

    You’re right though, the second Iron Man isn’t as good as the first, BUT it was still good. It gave the same excitement to me that the Ninja Turtle or Batman movies gave me when I was a kid.

    The father thing didn’t bother me so much because Tony Stark is a bit of an eccentric in nature, so it just seems like his mind moves quickly and gets over things faster than most people. (Which is probably why he had such a hard time understanding why Pepper Potts couldn’t get over things just as fast.)

    Trailers should be shortened to a minute from the first third of the movie, but then you have movie studios who are more anxious to make money than tell a good story, hence the problem with trailers. With the first Iron Man maybe the studios didn’t do this so much because they didn’t know if they could bank on John Favreau. Now they know his capabilities so they’re going to do more promotions. With great capabilities comes great expectations.

    Reply
  2. Trailers are designed to make you want to see the movie. If you already knew you were going to see it because you liked the first one or you really like the franchise, it’s not catered to you. You may enjoy it. You may even obsess over it, because “OHMYGODITSIRONMANANDHEISSOCOOL!” But Trailers are designed to convince people fork over their $8 to go to the theatre to see the movie. If it’s good, that’s when the work of mouth kicks in, and the film is a hit. But they already had your money (Jamey) when you walked out of Iron Man (1).

    But can we talk for a second about the quality of sequals? Movie sequals only work in one method: when there is originally more QUALITY material written than can possibly fit on the screen at once. (See Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and The Matrix [wait, scratch that last one]). I realize that I’m outing myself as a nerd, but come on! Ghostbuster’s 3? The Secret of the Ooze? Indiana Jones and the Quest for More Money? These movies have always sucked, suck now, and will live on in the annals of suckdom forever. Land Before Time IX????? I’ve seen sitcoms on Fox that didn’t last that long!!!

    I forgive movies made from books, because they have to be stand alone books as well (Harry Potter, Narnia, Golden Compas, even [I can’t believe I’m going to say this] Twilight).

    While I expect Iron Man 2 to be fun, I don’t expect it to be ground-breaking film. As long as summer blockbusters bring in boat loads of cash, studios will keep making them. Money talks.

    Reply
    • I would contend that if you don’t have enough material in the first third of the movie to put in a trailer to compel me to see the movie, it’s not going to be that good of a movie anyway.

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      • The first of the five parts of dramatic structure (exposition) deals with introducing Protagonist, Antagonist, basic conflict and Setting. Several of these are pre-established in a sequel. So the trailer has to start farther along the dramatic line.

        Reply
  3. 1) Is that Scarlett Johansson?! So pretty. God, she’s gorgeous!

    2) Sequels are rarely good. The plot, the characters, the graphic etc. have been seen, like Red said, so they have to show more for getting new audience who probably haven’t seen the first one yet. I seen the first and not willing to go see the second. The sequels never give me the satisfaction of the original.

    3) Trailers telling you the movie’s “great” reviews from critics you never heard of means the movie really sucks. Great movies have trailers like this. https://www.ifc.com/news/2009/06/50-greatest-trailers.php?page=36

    Reply
    • Yep, that’s Scarlett. She’s a fine woman 🙂

      That’s an awesome list of the best trailers! I think some of my favorite trailers are those that just show a short scene from the movie. Although they’re not as flashy as other trailers, they can give you a really good idea for the tone and writing of the movie.

      Reply

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