IM2: Pumping up the volume for Thor, Captain America, and all the other Mighty Avengers

Okay, I did it: last weekend I got my ass in gear and went and saw Iron Man 2. It was a busy Friday night at the downtown megaplex, so it was a good thing that I had purchased my ticket online hours in advance. (As an aside to this, it is also pretty cool that the online ticket, printed out at home, lets you walk right by the long line-ups and right up to the ticket taker/checker and on to the theater)

  My thoughts?  Well, I don't really feel like getting into a serious review of the film right here and now, however I will say that if you liked the first Iron Man movie then you will most likely end up enjoying this sequel; there are enough of the same elements in both films and the principle characters get time to be more fully developed - even minor supporting characters such as SHIELD Agent Coulson are given some more face time to at least develop their personalities a little more.  I thought that Scarlet Johannson did a decent enough job with what she was given. (I did not think that her character was given enough time to be much more than a plot device for bringing SHIELD and Samuel Jackson tighter into the storyline)  I was okay with Mickey Rourke's portrayal of Whiplash as a foil for Robert Downey Junior, even though his character had nothing to do with the Whiplash from the comic book series that I read for years as a kid.

  There is no denying that the pre-eminent focus of IM2 was to show that Marvel has a larger World view when it comes to the development of their self-managed "Marvel Cinematic Universe". (their name for it, not mine)  I am not the first one to suggest that IM2 was not much more than a feature length trailer for the upcoming Thor and Captain America movie, as well as the eventual Marvel Avengers movie, replete with multiple references to the "Avengers Initiative", as well as several well placed hints to the Marvel movie future, however I am not at all complaining; If Marvel wants to aim high by hinting at much bigger and better things to come from them and can then deliver, hats off to them for it and for the large amount of enjoyment that they will most likely bring for moviegoers like myself.  For the record, I think that they can do it.

BTW, in case you haven't heard already: you really should stay until the end of the closing credits of IM2 for a neat little bonus scene. (similar to the Easter egg they gave us last time around at the end of IM1, and one which I won't spoil for anyone here)

BTW2, did you all know that the Ed Norton The Incredible Hulk movie is considered to be set  or take place sometime after the events of IM2 but before Avengers? The extra scene involving Tony Stark and General Ross at the end of the Hulk movie makes a lot more sense when viewed in that context, no?

 A FEW ODDS AND ENDS

 I have some rough ideas about what I will be hoping to cover with this here little blog in the next few posts; One thing that I am hoping to have is at least one guest post believe it or not.  I think that it sounds funny to be mentioning the idea of a guest post on a blog as esoteric as this, but if someone says that they have something to contribute who am I to turn a blind eye? (okay, so maybe I almost begged someone to write something for here, lol)

One thing I might do is blather on a bit about the way the merchandising landscape has changed for Marvel and how you can have fun watching it change again in the near future!

  Another idea I am toying with is the introduction of a feature that will look at the predicted reasons for any given future Marvel movie to succeed or fail; A Future 'PASS or FAIL', if you will, and yes it would be partly tongue in cheek.

  Okay it's late and I'm spent, so consider this me signing off...

The Implications Of IM2's Success For Captain America's Future Movie

Well this past week was a big deal for Comic movie fans. Last weekend the super-mega hyped Iron Man sequel, Iron Man 2 (crazy title, eh?) made it into theaters across North America. The movie had already been released a week before in some other parts of the world, such as parts of Europe, and had reportedly alrerady cleared $100 million from those advanced releases. That was apretty good sign of things to come over here and sure enough, over it's opening weekend, IM2 cleared waayy over that amount - however the exact amount eludes me at the moment. I had planned to see the movie over the opening weekend but a few things kept me from doing so; I was busy with my Mum on Mothers Day (ahh), I was kept distracted by the NHL Playoffs which have been crazy amazing good this year, and I tried to work my way through a few rental DVDs that have been sitting around awhile.

So there you go for some excuses.

The release of the new Iron Man movie also signifies something else - at least for me. The movie is a kind of herald of the next wave of Marvel movies that we all know are coming over the next few years. The first Iron Man movie was a first shot by Marvel to see if they could successfully produce their own feature films based on their line of Marvel comics characters - a very rich source of material for future film projects/movie licences. I see the huge success of Iron Man as being the public reassurance that Marvel needed to cement its plans to move forward on all of the other key film projects that it had waiting in the wings and which were all but confirmed at the time. These films include:

The Iron Man sequel, Iron Man 2
The Thor movie
The First Avenger: Captain America
The Avengers movie
A Possible Ant-Man project

See all of these films were ones that Marvel wanted to develope but that you just know they were kind of holding back from confirming dates on until they saw how well Iron Man would do. The success of IM is the reason we are seeing IM2 in theaters right now and the reason that we will be seeing all of these other Marvel movies over the next few years - as well as the reason that we can expect multiple sequels to such films as the Avengers or Captain America. Good thing Marvel believed in multiple picture deals with stars like Robert Downey Junior before he hit it big with Iron Man!

Another interesting thing for me is the success over the last six months or so of the 3D movie; i suppose that it is no surprise really that even Marvel wants to get on board this potential gravy train with new reports being released that Marvel Entertainment would like to have the Captain America movie be released as a 3D feature film. I am only okay with this plan if the film is shot for 3D (like Avatar) and doesn't just have the 3D effect parachuted in after the fact (ala Clash Of The Titans). If that were to be the case, I would probably go for the regular 2D version instead.

Okay that's enough from me: it's time for me to start thinking about going out and lining up for IM2...