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So, rewatching Iron Man 2 on Blu-Ray, I'm surprised how many of the nitpicks fade away. Natasha showing off her skills in taking down Happy isn't an egregious breach of her cover, it's part of what catches Tony's attention and allows her to infiltrate his circle. And when Pepper quits, it's obviously meant as a momentary panic attack (at the end of the scene, Tony jokes that he doesn't accept her resignation and she laughs), although obviously by the time the next movie rolls around, they could go "Yes, Pepper totally meant it, and now she's following her dream of opening an art gallery dedicated entirely to produce."
It's still not a great movie, but it did have all the ingredients to be one... they just didn't give it enough time to boil. Which is why Jon Favreau being off Iron Man 3 seems like a textbook case of killing the goose that laid the golden eggs. If anything, it's his sensibility that made Iron Man more than say, Ghost Rider and I'm hard-pressed to think of someone that could replace him. Joe Carnahan? McG? Stephen Sommers? I'm not sure any of those guys could come up with a sequence as amusingly inventive as the racetrack fight (which nearly redeems the whole movie, even if I gotta think that if they spent more than five minutes on the script, someone would've realized "Holy shit, did we just write the half-naked villain getting hit by a car five times and then laughing about it? That seems implausible.")
I would have thought that Black Widow would figure prominently into the deleted scenes, maybe even having a whole subplot excised, but no, there's one scene of Tony flirting with her at the party. Apparently, the filmmaker's vision was to have Pepper literally run up to Natasha and yell at her, then have them be best friends in their next scene together. So unless there are deleted scenes that aren't on the Blu-Ray... and come on, it's the Blu-Ray, it's not like there isn't space... what you see is what you get when it comes to Natasha's character.
I'm still not sure what narrative function she serves in the movie, what point she has that would go away if you cut her. I know the metafictional reason for her being there... the Avengers movie can't be a sausagefest and there's no way Hollywood is going to give the chick her own movie, so why not introduce her in that pointless sequel they have going? Even if it results in there being three humorless super-spy characters all literally jockeying for screentime (Fury: I have things to do, Coulson is in charge. Coulson: I have things to do, Natasha is in charge. Natasha: I have boobs). Likewise with Hammer. Do you really need a character whose entire point is to provide the real bad guy with an army of disposable mooks? And in a movie where Tony has to fight both a rival industrialist and an old enemy of his father's, why does he literally get handed a plot point instead of having to work for it somehow?
Come to think of it, what's the point of Vanko if the movie makes it clear that his entire vendetta against Stark is bullshit and Tony doesn't give a shit about him beyond "oh, someone wants to kill me"? What would've interested me more is making Hammer the main bad guy... maybe have him do some Obfuscating Stupidity like Gene Hackman's Luthor... and then have Black Widow and Hawkeye as the henchman, a pair of con men/sneak thieves/mercenaries/whatever who have their sights set on Tony. I always had a soft spot for the Tales of Suspense-era Clint/Natasha... she literally said "hey, sexy mama, wanna kill all Iron Men" and he said "hells yeah, finally a task worthy of my archery skills" and it almost worked.
So you could have all the characters bouncing off each other trying to get arc reactor technology while Tony is playing keep-away, throw in some twists like Natasha being a double-agent or a triple-agent, and keep the focus on the characters. There's lots of room for Screenwriting 101 reflections of Tony in the cast... Clint is an arrogant hothead and Natasha is a user and an abuser, but they do have a healthier, more honest relationship than Tony and Pepper, so you could go places with that. Think something like that episode of Dexter where he killed that husband-and-wife murder team. Clint and Natasha are being all happy couple-y while they ransack the house, Pepper thinks they're adorable, Tony is rolling his eyes and trying to pick the lock on his handcuffs... how fun would that be?
Then by the end, Hammer is defeated, Clint and Natasha are in the Avengers, and fun times were had by all.
ETA: January Jones did an interview on playing Emma Frost, which is about what you'd expect. "I'm wearing a skimpy costume and I read a few issues of what you call 'comics'." You know, what you'd get from every actress ever. Of note is how the writer elevates the fuck out of the conversation -- Frost’s form is well known to comic book fans – IGN readers once voted her “the hottest comic babe,” picking her ahead of Black Widow, Power Girl, Elektra and Catwoman. The reason, no doubt, is Frost’s penchant for especially revealing outfits and the curves beneath those meager threads. ”The costumes are insane,” Jones said. -- and how now that I think about it, it's probably a good thing more actors aren't comic book fans, given how easy it would be to fuck with fandom.
"Oh yes, it was such an honor to be chosen to play Dick Grayson. To prepare for the role, I read two of the most widely-read works written by an acclaimed master of the field. The Dark Knight Strikes Again and All-Star Batman And Robin. They really gave me a lot of insight into the character. I think Frank Miller has informed my performance a lot."
It's still not a great movie, but it did have all the ingredients to be one... they just didn't give it enough time to boil. Which is why Jon Favreau being off Iron Man 3 seems like a textbook case of killing the goose that laid the golden eggs. If anything, it's his sensibility that made Iron Man more than say, Ghost Rider and I'm hard-pressed to think of someone that could replace him. Joe Carnahan? McG? Stephen Sommers? I'm not sure any of those guys could come up with a sequence as amusingly inventive as the racetrack fight (which nearly redeems the whole movie, even if I gotta think that if they spent more than five minutes on the script, someone would've realized "Holy shit, did we just write the half-naked villain getting hit by a car five times and then laughing about it? That seems implausible.")
I would have thought that Black Widow would figure prominently into the deleted scenes, maybe even having a whole subplot excised, but no, there's one scene of Tony flirting with her at the party. Apparently, the filmmaker's vision was to have Pepper literally run up to Natasha and yell at her, then have them be best friends in their next scene together. So unless there are deleted scenes that aren't on the Blu-Ray... and come on, it's the Blu-Ray, it's not like there isn't space... what you see is what you get when it comes to Natasha's character.
I'm still not sure what narrative function she serves in the movie, what point she has that would go away if you cut her. I know the metafictional reason for her being there... the Avengers movie can't be a sausagefest and there's no way Hollywood is going to give the chick her own movie, so why not introduce her in that pointless sequel they have going? Even if it results in there being three humorless super-spy characters all literally jockeying for screentime (Fury: I have things to do, Coulson is in charge. Coulson: I have things to do, Natasha is in charge. Natasha: I have boobs). Likewise with Hammer. Do you really need a character whose entire point is to provide the real bad guy with an army of disposable mooks? And in a movie where Tony has to fight both a rival industrialist and an old enemy of his father's, why does he literally get handed a plot point instead of having to work for it somehow?
Come to think of it, what's the point of Vanko if the movie makes it clear that his entire vendetta against Stark is bullshit and Tony doesn't give a shit about him beyond "oh, someone wants to kill me"? What would've interested me more is making Hammer the main bad guy... maybe have him do some Obfuscating Stupidity like Gene Hackman's Luthor... and then have Black Widow and Hawkeye as the henchman, a pair of con men/sneak thieves/mercenaries/whatever who have their sights set on Tony. I always had a soft spot for the Tales of Suspense-era Clint/Natasha... she literally said "hey, sexy mama, wanna kill all Iron Men" and he said "hells yeah, finally a task worthy of my archery skills" and it almost worked.
So you could have all the characters bouncing off each other trying to get arc reactor technology while Tony is playing keep-away, throw in some twists like Natasha being a double-agent or a triple-agent, and keep the focus on the characters. There's lots of room for Screenwriting 101 reflections of Tony in the cast... Clint is an arrogant hothead and Natasha is a user and an abuser, but they do have a healthier, more honest relationship than Tony and Pepper, so you could go places with that. Think something like that episode of Dexter where he killed that husband-and-wife murder team. Clint and Natasha are being all happy couple-y while they ransack the house, Pepper thinks they're adorable, Tony is rolling his eyes and trying to pick the lock on his handcuffs... how fun would that be?
Then by the end, Hammer is defeated, Clint and Natasha are in the Avengers, and fun times were had by all.
ETA: January Jones did an interview on playing Emma Frost, which is about what you'd expect. "I'm wearing a skimpy costume and I read a few issues of what you call 'comics'." You know, what you'd get from every actress ever. Of note is how the writer elevates the fuck out of the conversation -- Frost’s form is well known to comic book fans – IGN readers once voted her “the hottest comic babe,” picking her ahead of Black Widow, Power Girl, Elektra and Catwoman. The reason, no doubt, is Frost’s penchant for especially revealing outfits and the curves beneath those meager threads. ”The costumes are insane,” Jones said. -- and how now that I think about it, it's probably a good thing more actors aren't comic book fans, given how easy it would be to fuck with fandom.
"Oh yes, it was such an honor to be chosen to play Dick Grayson. To prepare for the role, I read two of the most widely-read works written by an acclaimed master of the field. The Dark Knight Strikes Again and All-Star Batman And Robin. They really gave me a lot of insight into the character. I think Frank Miller has informed my performance a lot."
