The Last Movie I Saw

I went to see Iron Man 2 the other night. Directed by Jon Favreau and starring the always entertaining Robert Downey, Jr., I have to say the movie was a good time though I'd be hardpressed to make a case that the plot had anything to do with that. The appeal of this particular franchise is probably 75% Downey, whose Tony Stark/Iron Man is such a lovable cad that he pretty much carries the movie with his weirdly self-aware narcissistic manner. Buty Favreau deserves some credit too, in giving Downey the necessary room to chew the scenery. Unlike most action pictures, there are actually long scenes of dialogue (or monologue, depending how you count Stark's interactions with his computers) between the fights, and even when the momentum picks up, Favreaus sometimes lets his camera linger more than a second or two on what is unfolding, which to these old-fashioned eyes is kind of a relief from the more common frenetic style of IM2's most recent genre counterparts. Much like the first film, I probably won't remember many of the details from this one, except that it was an easy and enjoyable way to while away a couple summer hours. Sometimes that's good enough.