— by CAM SMITH —
Back in 2008, “Iron Man” was considered an expensive gamble on Marvel’s part; a superhero adventure with a non-super-powered, middle-aged corporate tycoon at its centre, directed by the guy from “Swingers” and that episode of “Friends” where Monica dated a crazy Ultimate Fighter dude.
Over half-a-billion dollars in grosses later, John Favreau’s “Iron Man 2” will be arriving with very different — read: loftier — expectations when it storms theatres across the globe on May 7, 2010. Early prognosticators are already predicting the flick to be a guaranteed 10-ton box-office juggernaut and rival studios are steering well clear of its flight path.
For the past few months, fans have already been salivating and gnashing like Asgardian Fenris Wolves (whoops, wrong franchise!) over early images of Whiplash (Mickey Rourke), Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and it was only a matter of time before those who couldn’t afford Comi-Con tickets would get a sneak peak at Don Cheadle’s War Machine armor.
Well, true believers, the day is finally upon us, with Yahoo! Movies bestowing upon the internets an exclusive new “Iron Man 2” teaser poster, which features Robert Downey Jr.’s gold ‘n red avenger standing back-to-back with the grey, Gatling-gun-toting dynamo.
Although I’m not a fan of the poster’s overly-cartoony, Photoshop-plagued design — the crammed-together characters look like their either going to engage in an Old West-style “Draw!” contest or pull off a wicked hair metal dueling guitar solo — I really, truly love the overall look of War Machine. His bulky and sharp-angled, weapon-packing form makes a nice contrast to the stream-lined, rounded edges of the title character’s polished and colorful attire. A great costume should always speak volumes about the individual wearing it and these two battle-suits are right on the money.
At any rate, hopefully this teaser poster will temporarily placate Iron Fans until the first trailer — currently rumored to be arriving attached to “Sherlock Holmes” (an apt choice, I’d say …) — hits theatre and computer screens just in time for Christmas.
Follow Cam Smith on Twitter at http://twitter.com/camspcepisodes.
I’m pretty stoked for the crazy guitar solo at the end of the movie.
It looks cool,but it looks an awful lot like Iron Mans non-painted armor from the first movie.I guess you can’t really do much to differentiate from it,I mean,you do have the gun and rocket thing.I’m still 100% going to see it though.
Looks awesome very excited.
Iron Man was a pleasant surprise and I hope that Iron Man 2 magnifies what Iron Man did right. I’m happy that they got Don Cheadle since he is an extremely talented actor.
I cannot wait!! hopefully it will be asamazing as the first!
Awesome sauce!
Love it!