Iron Man (2008 ) and Iron Man 2 (2010)

 

I decided that I would watch all the MCU movies in release order.  I know there is also a chronological order, but I think it's more fun this way to see how things started and progressed, rather than how it ended up.  I have reviewed several of them here and there, so mostly this will be me finding things that made me happy about the movies, rather than actual critiques.  I did not see ANY of the Iron Man movies in the theater, though a few of the movies could actually be considered Iron Man movies in a way.  But I digress.  I enjoyed the first Iron Man movie a lot, even though I knew exactly who the villain would be almost immediately.  This happened a lot, even though I was never a big reader of the Iron Man comic books.  I was happy to hear the 60s Iron Man cartoon song adapted to a jazzy number as well.  It was a good starting point.  And of course, the post credits scene was great, especially Nick telling Tony he was NOT the only superhero around.  Since he had "already" met Ms Marvel, Ant-man and the Wasp, this makes sense.  Not to mention the whole world would have known about Captain America...

This is the second time I have watched Iron Man 2.  I'm glad they got rid of the numbers for the other sequel movies.  I liked this movie fine, but it's probably in the lower tier of MCU movies.  I do wish they had used supervillain names, like Whiplash.  At least Tony called Rhodey "War Machine".  I still can't believe they didn't use the KISS song of the same name for the final fight scene.  I sure sang it, though.  I don't care for all the robots being used, but I get that it's a lot easier to destroy them than actual people getting killed.

The prototype shield is nice to see, and the nods to the upcoming Thor movie was good.  Also, I just love seeing Agent Coulson.  He was headed to New Mexico, since it's a magical place.  We also can't ignore the first appearance of Natasha Romanova, AKA the Black Widow.  She's just great here, and actually helps make Tony a better person.

I found myself enjoying the parts with the people interacting- Nick and Tony, and Pepper (never knew her real name was Virginia) and Happy, even more than the superheroing.  Justin Hammer as the main villain (well, aside from Senator Stern, more on him several movies later) didn't get much character development.  But Mickey Roarke will overshadow just about anyone as Vanko/Whiplash.  

Next up: Thor!