The Iron Man 2 Review

Hail my geeky brothers and sisters!  A little departure from our usual programming today, because I finally got to see Iron Man 2.  Let me say if you liked Iron Man, you'll like IM2 more.  On the plus side, the story is more developed and seems more complete than IM.  There's still plenty of cool high-tech action and bad-assery, from Samuel Jackson to Scarlett Johansson, to go around.  On the minus side:  It needs MORE Scarlett Johansson!!! On a very shallow level, the story explores the cost of technology, fame and greed on our humanity.  All the major characters explore this to some extent.  I realize that this is an action flick, but I find it hard to sympathize with Robert Downey, Jr.'s Tony Stark as we are rushed through all of these themes in the movie.  I realize that Jon Favreau had a lot to cover, but I don't think we really get to feel any emotional depth as Downey glibly moves from scene to scene and problem to problem like a kid off his ritalin.  The special effects are again, top-notch, as they make me really do believe that a man can slap on an steel jump suit and fly.  The fight scenes are to sum up:  Awesome.  Johansson did an amazing job as the Black Widow.  Okay, I will admit that at times I have not been a huge fan of Johansson, but I think that she was a great compliment to Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts.  It was almost as if Favreau needed both strong actresses/characters to contrast and reign in Downey's Stark.  Johansson's big fight scene was nicely choreographed, but I felt like it needed more.  This is a character that could easily spin off into her own movie and hold her own unlike the horrible Elektra spin-off from Daredevil.  Even her costume was perfect.  It conveyed a sexy practicalness for an acrobatic, and *ahem* limber, super-spy.  And as I said, the consensus around most of my male friends is that the movie just needed MORE Scarlett Johansson/Black Widow.  And I'm not even talking about more naughty Black Widow as there was hardly any of that (I could probably take my 9 year old to watch it).  Sadly her fight scenes were just not long enough, and if given a little more time, could have stolen the show.  So one more time:  More Black Widow!  Are we clear?   Good.

Now for the hard numbers:  I did an 8 mile tempo run today at marathon pace (7:33/mi).  Along with the quick rains and the breeze, it was relatively cool day, which translated into decent numbers for today.  The effort was hard, but I didn't feel all that winded afterwards.  It was a nice change from the sweltering heat that we've had lately, but I probably could have gone without the rain though.  Still, a good run, all things considered.  I just hope tomorrow that we get a break in the rains so that I can get in some base miles.  All right, I'm out.  Later kids!