Stark Raving Concerns

I can't quite put my finger on it, but something about Iron Man 2 rubs me the wrong way. I really liked the first movie, except for pretty much everything involving the villain, but something about this trailer just feels off. There are probably others who have legitimate concerns, especially about that scene from the trailer where Tony is attacked while driving a Formula One car (seriously what's up with that?), but my issues lie with the snippets of plot they've shown us.

Now I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a huge fan of the Iron Man character, he's actually quite boring and there are many other heroes who deserved a proper big screen adaptation from Marvel Studios first (Oh, I dunno. Maybe Captain America?). I think it's the concept of Iron Man that I have the biggest problem with, nothing about it feels "cool" to me. He's like Batman without the vulnerability, or Superman without the character, either way you're taking away something that is special about those characters. I know Tony has his issues with alcohol, but to me that just makes him less sympathetic and harder to relate to.

I love superhero mythology and movies, I really do, but this one just seems like a cash-in. They're bringing in a new villain, giving us War Machine, and the trailer already shows shots of Black Widow and more Nick Fury. I don't know about anyone else, but the last time I had concerns about a movie's ability to handle the sudden addition of multiple complicated plot elements we ended up with Spider-Man 3. Here's hoping Favreau can handle things a little better than Raimi did.