Monday afternoon after doing RBTN, I often go to the movies, if there's anything interesting at the theaters. Today I went to see Iron Man 2. A brief review follows with no spoilers. 

Its a sequel to an action movie. There can be no surprises. First they set up the ensemble, and what a group it is! Mickey Rourke, Scarlett Johansson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Samuel L Jackson (who lookes like Stowe Boyd these days). Don Cheadle. Gary Shandling as a US Senator. 

Okay now we know who's in the movie -- there's a bad guy, and a couple of weaklings, some good guys. Same old schtick. It builds to a final fight scene in which the good guy (and his sidekick and girlfriend) triumphs and the bad guys look foolish and some of them die. You can see it coming from the first scene. That's why I said no spoilers. 

Along the way as little happens as happens in Alice in Wonderland. Actually even less. Actually much less. Just a bunch of talking and people riding in cars and planes, and hanging out in offices, and watching old movies. Sounds like what most of us do in an average week. So much for escapism. Okay one guy breaks out of prison. Big deal. 

But -- you expect in 2010 from a blockbuster franchise, some great freaking special effects that burn huge money. They're just not there. At the end you kind of think maybe they're going to steal the great scene from the Matrix Reloaded when Neo swoops down and snatches the Keymaker and Morpheus off the top of the truck as it's exploding, but nope -- nothing even remotely in that ballpark. (I searched for video of that scene, but Neo doing his Superman thing is the closest I could find.) 

I really came close to walking out on this movie, I was that bored.  

I noticed as the credits rolled by that Larry Ellison is in the movie, playing himself. I missed that entirely. I did see the "Oracle" name plastered all over the end of the movie. Maybe Ellison was one of the supposedly evil robots who actually looked like actors in stupid outfits more than they looked like impressive special effects. 

One thing I loved about the movie is that it starred my hometown, Flushing, NY. They even mention the 7 train and the Willets Point station (is it still called that?). Amazingly, Flushing has become kind of cool. How the frack did that happen? "> 

The original Iron Man was worth it. It had a great ending. The second one is worth skipping.