Iron Man 2...

Tops the first film in every way, if that's possible.
Deeper interactions between the good guys, a more passionate and complex villain....and we get to see Scarlet Johansen beat the living crap out of a small army.

Yeah...Scarlet's the real star of this movie, as far as the "action film" part of it goes.

The best word to sum up this movie as compared to the first: DEEPER.
Everything, every character, even the random SHIELD agent from the first movie, the villains, plus the little extra after the credits (it's a good thing that was worth the wait...after almost 3 hours I had to PEE).


Since this is a blog, I don't give a crap about spoiling it for people.

There's less humor in 2 than in 1, but that's mainly because Tony spends the first half of this movie DYING.
Yeah.

There's a scene where he gets drunk while wearing the suit, and a fight with Rhoadie (also suited) ensuits...er--ensues.

Don Cheadle owns the part of Rhoadie in ways that make Terrence Howard look like an amateur.

Yeah...War Machine...looks awesome, kicks ass...and even provides a little comic relief.

Of course the movie wouldn't be complete without Mickey Rourke as Ivan Vankov, possible the deadliest SANE supervillain yet to appear in a comic book film.
Electric whips, mastery of robotics technology, and the biggest axe to grind outside of Sakaar.

Blacklash + Crimson Dynamo = Ivan Vankov in Iron Man 2.
And what a sweet love child it is.


My one and only complaint:
Whoever let Sam Rockwell play Justin Hammer needs to be shot and speared and castrated with a red-hot spork.

Seriously.

If they were worried that audiences would be too stupid to see a difference between Obadiah Stane and Justin Hammer, they seriously didn't know their freakin' audience.

The audience that showed up tonight in thousand-dollar Iron Man and War Machine and Thor and Captain America and Wasp (shout out to the big girl at Q. Springs!) costumes, and quite possibly knows the characters better than anyone who's never worked for Marvel.

Seriously guys, your target audience KNOWS THE CHARACTERS...except when you butcher them in favor of a metrosexual villain!
Then you didn't even give us the pleasure of seeing Hammer sliced in half by one of Ivan's whips! WTH?!
You'd already shown Ivan to be a master hand-to-hand fighter!
Show us Ivan snapping Hammer's neck or something!


Not that I'm ranting or anything.

Waiting Up

It's kinda weird.

My wife spent so much time looking for a job that I got into a rhythm, which involved her always being at home when I was.

Now that she has a job (waitress), she's out late at night (downtown no less)...and I feel lonely for the first time in probably a decade or more.

Today she had to be at work at 11 AM...and 12 1/2 hours later is still working.
In contrast, I had to be at work at noon, and finished at 5 PM.

In the long run it'll be good, both of us bringing in money, and on the financial side could greatly reduce our stress.

But I wonder how much time with each other we'll lose when she's getting home dead tired in the wee hours of the morning night after night, and I sit at home bored, restless, and lonely night after night.

Tonight I'll force myself to stay awake long enough for her to get home, even if that requires a second trip to Wal-Mart and a case of VAULT.


Oh, and just to clarify my moping:
We've been in a two-income situation before, but she worked set hours (kinda hard as a waitress), so we always knew when we'd be able to spend time together.

I hope our marriage doesn't suffer as a result, no matter how much money we earn.