Another good cut would involve cutting those bikini straps. I'm all for a Rated R Iron Man 2.

Let's be honest, TDK made it look like a saturday morning cartoon with no merit other than putting an underdog actor on the limelight for good. Except the sympathy we have - or had - for Downey, the movie was unfathomably silly. To me, it's the Marvel equivalent to Batman Forever: charismatic lead phoning it in, lost in the middle of the most brainless plot they could've found. The shameless whoring of the director worked beyond the suits' expectations, but so did Jan De Bont or Emmerich movies.

He has a "Q" to make gadgets. (Lucius)

He always has a romantic interest who is in danger.

He gets involved in car chases

He relies on gadgets more than fighting skill.

He lets the computers and brainy folks do the hard detective work.

He's a rich playboy with expensive sports cars.

He's after a "terrorist". (his words)

That's not to say I didn't like TDK, but that I think Heath's death propelled it into a level of admiration that it wouldn't have otherwise gotten. There was a LOT wrong with that movie. It wasn't perfect, and it wasn't very loyal to Batman's lore. It was essentially James Bond wearing a bat-suit.

Iron Man was very true to the current Iron Man comics. Maybe you're into the Silver Age, but that version of Marvel's characters hasn't existed for a long time, and Marvel was pretty good at getting the current version of Tony Stark onto the screen.

I didn't see any romantic comedy, except for the almost-kiss between Tony and Pepper. I saw a lot of Tony Stark acting like Tony Stark, and I saw an Iron Man that did justice to the source material.

Batman wasn't Batman. He growled and needed a lozenge. He barely fought. He barely did any detective work. He was dressed like Robocop lite. He was barely even in the movie! You could count all his lines and scenes on your fingers.

They should have called the movie "The Joker! (plus Batman)" or better yet, they could have just called it, "Heath Ledger's Last Movie" because that's what really made people give it more credit than it deserved.

Already I preordered the Blu-Ray from Amazon but in the meantime I'm gonna watch the leaked screener.:P

I loved both Iron Man AND TDK. They are actually the only two movies this summer that I have seen on the big screen twice (each). Movies cost too much nowadays for repeat viewings unless they are spectacularly awesome, and that's how I felt about both flicks.

That being said, I disagree with ZeroCorpse, based upon my interpretation of TDK. The second movie is still a Batman story. His SECOND story. Bruce has faced the usual suspects of criminals until The Joker comes along. Someone so over-the-top nutso that he pushes Batman to the brink of giving it all up to save lives. And discovers that other Gothamites (Gordon and Dent, etc.) believe in what he is doing. In the end, TDK is about the reinforcement of Bruce's crusade to wear the Batsuit, even when, in the end it means making him a criminal vigilante.

I don't see that as being a Bond story. Yes, he has a Q, but this serves as a much better way to explain where Batman's gadgets come from, rather than.. Bruce invented them himself. I mean... he's not Tondy Stark.

From what I saw, he used both hand to hand combat AND his gadgets to fight the bad guys (and the good guys). That's just smart.

I will agree that they don't show enough of Bruce being the detective. So, I don't have a counter-point for this arguement.

Ledger's death had nothing to do with the evaluation of his superb performance--if NOT for his performance, it would have been a pretty dull film. BECAUSE of his performance, none of the other low-rent stuff matters. Bale phoned it in--so what? Ledger's Joker owned the screen and film in a way that surpassed the flaws of the film, nearly making them invisible, as the Joker is all you see, all you want to see....

As a whole film, Iron Man was better and more interesting. But for a performance, Ledger's Joker is untouchable.

That's not to say his force of nature performance still wouldn't of knocked me over with its sheer awesomeness, but it did make it more meaningful for me. Odd considering how sadistic it was...

Oh, and yes... that apparent DVD cover for the film IS terrible. Looks like it's for Marvel's animated version of Iron Man. Try using the movie poster art, so people know what they're actually buying.

And can someone PLEASE explain to me why Eva — whose mission was to discover if life had re-sprung on Earth and preserve it — was equipped with a laser blaster and tried to DESTROY anything that moved, once she was on the planet???

Little details like that tend to keep me from enjoying a movie.

Oddly enough, that was one of my nitpicks with The Dark Knight. There were too many monologues telegraphing the themes. At times it was a bit heavy handed. The first film was a little better at dealing with similar themes without hitting the audience on the head with them. Of course the second film is better in almost every way. Nolan sometimes uses his script as a crutch.

Iron Man was great entertainment. While it wasn't a better film than TDK, it was a lot more fun. Robert Downy Junior owned that role, and Favreau showed he wasn't just a one hit wonder. I would nominate him for an Avengers flick.