Thompson on Hollywood: Summer Movies: “What Can Top Iron Man 2?”
One of my favorite Hwood bloggers Anne Thompson provides this great overview of the 2010 summer slate of movies:
It’s starting to look a lot like summer.
Previews and forecasts are cropping up, as Hollywood hopes to best last year’s $4.31 billion domestic summer total.
She focuses on Iron Man 2 and provides some plot details:
Iron Man 2 starts out six months after the first one, as billionaire Tony Stark deals with going public as Iron Man. Now everyone knows he has the power to save the world — if he can keep his sanity. Assistant/love interest Pepper (Gwenyth Paltrow) tries to help him to fly straight, shooting him stern glances as he baits a nasty Senator (Gary Shandling) out to steal his invention. And old chum Colonel Rhodes (now played by Don Cheadle) is not necessarily on his side.
Word is, the villains are better this time: Mickey Rourke, Sam Rockwell and Scarlett Johannson deliver the goods as vicious Russian prison vet Whiplash, snarky rival arms dealer Sam Rockwell and super-fit fatale Black Widow. Paramount grabbed the same early May slot as the first one, and should roll up enormous grosses before any real summer competition gets under way. What could beat Iron Man 2 at the summer box office?
I thought the original Iron Man was “a cut above typical comic book superhero movies” in large part due to the emotional and psychological journey of its Protagonist Tony Stark. SFX and CGI are great, but if you don’t resonate with the characters on screen, it’s all just meaningless bombast — and I thought the screenwriters, Robert Downey, Jr., and the movie’s director Jon Favreau did a great job translating Tony Stark onto film, providing the character with a compelling transformation arc. Which is to say I’m excited to see the sequel.
How about you?