This one’s gonna sound a bit petty, but hear me out.
Gwyneth Paltrow plays Tony Stark’s semi-love interest again in the new sequel “Iron Man 2.”
But this time she’s got competition in the form of Scarlett Johansson, or ScarJo to tabloid scribes. Johansson plays one of Stark’s newest employees, a woman whose glamour and dry humor quickly catch Tony’s eye.
Who doesn’t dig a love triangle, even in the midst of a superhero movie?
But the alleged source of friction here is that while Paltrow’s Pepper Potts character is supposed to be the plain, reliable Jane compared to Johansson’s va-va-va voom vixen, the visuals don’t play along.
Paltrow is flat-out gorgeous in the film. She’s poured into a series of short, attractive shirts, and her curves are on ample display. The contrast between the female characters doesn’t exist as intended.
Yes, it’s a minor criticism to throw at the film, and one I didn’t mention in my initial review. But it still seemed like a missed opportunity, a case perhaps of movie star ego getting in the way of telling a story.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Pepper might have been attractive in the film, but in terms of her interaction with Tony Stark, she’s a full-on ice queen. To a lonely, dying man like him, that makes big difference, and given how nice Johanssen’s character was being to him, it’s understandable that he would gravitate toward her instead.
Good point. If the film hadn’t loaded up on story angles/subplots/new characters the romantic angle could have been more fully explored hitting both our points better.
Come on, Christian! They put a brown wig on her! That’s how they make pretty blondes ugly in Hollywood.
P.S. Gwynneth Paltrow has curves?
Check out the gams, Erin!
Really missed the flirty banter from the first film. Paltrow laid it on thick and heavy, much to my chagrin, and much because there wasn’t any room in the story for her to do so. Not that I hated the story, I liked it quite a bit (I wasn’t aware Mr. Theroux co-wrote “Tropic Thunder), but the one element I didn’t like was the forced romantic interlude at the end (without giving much away). The friction always works better.
Paltrow’s quite attractive, but not my type. Leggy is fine and dandy, but I always liked girls who were more athletic, and ScarJo hits the notes fine in this. Still, she didn’t get to do much either, but if big stars are willing to sign up for bit parts just to tag along on a blockbuster ride, more power to them. Favreau’s hallway fight sequence at the end was good.
So far Favreau has implemented Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Suicidal Tendencies, 32 Ford roadsters, pizza, Formula-1 racing and donuts into his franchise – I must be his niche market.
I’m sorta with Erin; Hollywood hardly *has* any unattractive actresses, let alone ugly ones, in its “star” categories.
Paltrow always has had her mother’s fine-boned facial features but she was lit and shot better in IM than in IM2. Still, while she could not compete with Johansson in the curvaceousness category, hers is significantly the prettier face.
That established, the initial triangle did appear to be driven more by Rushman’s mysterious allure vs. Potts’ standoffishness than by the attractiveness of either (younger) actress.
D.
Gwynith is NOT too pretty for anything. She’s a stick.
ANy real guy would be all over Scarlett in a flash. Gwin is strictly for metrosexshul critters.