Apologies for the delay, here is my overdue mini-review on Iron Man 2, no spoilers.
Iron Man 2 (2010), Marvel Studios, US, 124min
Comicbook derivatives, especially sequels, have the tendency to become slightly incoherent by the second installment. Iron Man 2 is not immune.
The story more or less continues from where they left off in 2008. Stark facing some sort of crisis, goes amok for a while and manages to fix everything for himself (with help). Music and CGI is still to Marvel's high standards, but that is about it. A sequel has to be better than the original in order to standout, and to be "as good" is in fact a form of decline.
The most strange aspect of the theatrical release is the deletion of several scenes shown in the trailers. #1: Pepper kissing Stark's helmet before he leapt out yelling"You complete me"; #2: Stark standing behind the new face while she test fires the suit. While #1 is probably giving the wrong idea about the plot, #2 is even more mysterious as there is no obvious place to put it, or we have to assume that there were more scenes deleted than it seems to be.
Well keep your eyes open for the DVD, with the possibility of a radically different edit coming to light. For other fans out there, I strongly recommend you get hold of the 2 DVD special set for the first Iron Man which indeed contains many takes that did not make it to the cinema.
Scarlett J, is the staple femme fatale that does not develop at all. in fact the revelation of her real intentions came so uneventful that the entire affair becomes a bit, well, bland. To some extent the SHIELD trio is an overextended deus ex machina, and their absence is in no way going to negatively affect the storyline but make it less aberrant.
To its saving grace, the directlor handled pacing very well and it is a very enjoyable. Overall a solid 3.5/5, not as fresh as the first one but not as bad as its Spiderman and/or Hulk counterparts.
P.S. Marvel is apparently in the habit of putting up post-credit scenes, however these scenes are nothing but shamless plugs to related titles, so it is not really going to make people sit through the full credits part.
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In other news, did a survery on sleeping patterns
[quote]
You are a moderate early type. This chronotype sometimes gets too little sleep on free days:the social environment lures moderate early types into staying up later at night than theirbiological clock would prefer, yet they still awaken in the morning, under the control of theirbiological clock, at their usual early hour. (Figure A)
According to the sleep times that you have given, on work days you sleep between 31 minutesand an hour less than your average sleep need. (Figure B)
[/quote]
Pretty accurate in fact, I am too old to be able to have 10hr sleeps. Most days I wake up around 0630 and dont really go to sleep till midnight. I feel like if I need more sleep, well arnt we all.
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Just ran a quick check with ndeva and excel, a few facts FYI
1. I have done 17 papers at AU so far, plus the
2. GPA right now stands at 5.5, which makes me a agreeable B+ student.
3. To have an average GPA of 6.5 requires that I pass all my papers with a A+, well, the joy of mathematics, I am going home.
