Supplemental Post 5: Iron-Man 2

I went to see Iron Man 2 at LA Live last night and the line was around the corner for the film. This is clearly an established franchise behind the star-power of Robert Downey Jr. and is expected to gross 140-150 million dollars in it's first weekend domestically. It has already broken even overseas. It is amazing how easy it is to profit on a film once it has name recognition. However, I was quite disappointed with the film and I was a big fan of the first. For those who still haven't seen it, there are some spoiler alerts ahead. I feel in the movie they packed it with far too many stars to try to drag in different types of audiences. Although Scarlet Johanson is a sex symbol she might be there to attract more females, and Samuel L Jackson could help attract a more diverse audience as well. It is disappointing to see Johanson reduced to a few promiscuous comments, she has shown she is a good actress but is now just shown as a sex doll in films such as "Ironman" and "He's Just Not That Into You". She really has no function in the film besides shaking her butt and making sexy faces at Downey Jr. Samuel L Jackson also has no real function besides doing his normal yelling. Mickey Rourke was another star they used to glitz up the production and he is one of the worst villains in recent memory. He speaks in a Russian accent which at times is barely understandable and quite hard to believe after seeing him as tough New Jersey man in "The Wrestler". For most of the film Rourke just sits in a lab building drones to take down Ironman and when he finally comes out and faces Ironman, he is defeated in about 30 seconds in one of the more lame villain fights in recent memory. Although I wouldn't call this a bad movie, I just think they loaded it with stars to cash in more in the box office rather than these characters actually having a purpose.