10 Monday, May 10, 2010 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com POTTER From Page 9 atre & Dance graduate), are thor- oughly satisfied with the final script. Without giving the plot away, they said the sequel adds new characters and draws heavily from the first, third and fifth books. "It's better than anything I thought we could have done," Matt said. Although the six-month writing process was taxing throughout, the team hopes the shows will be the opposite. "It's really the first time all of us will be in a room together since this thing has taken off, and I think it will be less stressful and more of just, 'This is awesome,' " said Joey Richter (Ron Weasley), a senior in the School of Music, The- atre & Dance. The main purpose of the live shows is to film the YouTube video to be launched in July. All of the free tickets for the 100-person the- ater have been reserved, but there will be a standby line. While many of the friends have dispersed since "AVPM" last year, the original cast and crew gave themselves the name Team StarKid after their YouTube suc- cess so they could accept dona- tions. The StarKid brand also produced the Basement Arts musi- cal "Me and My Dick" last fall and the Web series "Little White Lie." "A Very Potter Sequel" is another incarnation of their "last project together," Matt said. "When I did the original musi- cal, I said, 'This the last show I'll ever do,' and then I did two more, so it could very well change," Matt explained. While members will most likely move on from StarKid to individual careers, prospects look hopeful due to the success of their productions. "We've got industry people pay- ing attention, and really that's how you start out," Nick Lang said. "It's helped our reputation; it's techni- cally hurt our careers, because we've spent all of our money. But your reputation is gold." The team consistently hears from admirers that it makes the- ater for its generation. "Although our teachers don't know how to do it, they know we know how to do it," Gruesen explained. "It's exciting that we get to make theater for our friends and our friends' friends." Jamie Lyn Beatty (Ginny Wea- sley), who graduated from the School of Music, Theatre & Dance this spring, agrees that StarKid takes theater in a modern direction. "It is a new form of theater because it's so self-conscious," Beatty said. "So many of the scenes in the musical make fun of the fact that there is an audience or that the props are made of cardboard, and there's something really charming about that for an audience to wit- ness." No matter what StarKid mem- bers pursue, they will bring with them the optimism and positivity that has surrounded their produc- tions thus far. "It's easy to be pessimistic because it's easy to find ways the world sucks - the world kind of does suck," Matt said. "But it's hard to find truthful reasons to think about something in an opti- mistic way." After all of the Potter shows' parodic plot spirals, Matt hopes the show will coax smiles from viewers in the end. "We always want to end up with something that makes you feel good." Feel the burn. I1o Man' lacks mettle . ONLY at the Ann Arbor Store! - 1621 S. State St. Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 T-Shirts Sheet Music Records 5 Keyboards ic Posters j Books. - Music Stands Instruments 86.GIV.TOOnd Mch, Much More! www.SalArmyThrift.com By TIMOTHY RABB Daily Arts Writer In 2008, Jon Favreau - the Jew- fro-sporting comic whose film career includes supporting turns in "Swingers," "Elf" and "The Break- * Up" - surprised film honMan 2 and comic book gurus alike when he directed At Quality16 the politically relevant, and Showcase morally reverent first Paramount "Iron Man" movie. Well, step aside "Iron Man," because your updated, prima donna brother is in town. Lucky for you, many of his charac- ters are miscast and his script is filled with hyperbolized plot threads sure to alienate even some of the most lenient movie enthusiasts. By now, the origi- nal "Iron Man" franchise has devolved to the extent that it is indistinguishable from anytother stock superhero film. Rest assured, predecessor, your placement as one of the best comic book adaptations in recent memory is still quite safe. Now, hyperbole in the context of a superhero movie may seem appropriate to the genre, but not when a sequel relin- quishes its political vision and completely falls offtheproverbial wagon, riddlingits two-hour narrative (especially the first half-hour) with arbitrary cameos, flat character expression and a five-minute drunken battle between best friends clad in Iron"Man"suits. Ultimately, viewers are left with nothing but an emotional hang- over and the distinct impression that they've just seen bad reality television. Naysayers, just watch the entirety of the Stark Expo scene at the beginning before you disagree. Overall, "Iron Man 2" resembles something closer to a Mel Brooks farce or a slapstick comedy when compared to its predecessor. It's far removed from the subtle, classy drollness of Robert Downey, Jr.'s performance in the first film. The Iron Man comic was originally conceived as a commentarv on the Cold War. In keeping with the spirit of intel- lect that inspired the first Iron Man comic, Jeff Bridges's flexible acting abili- ties were a perfect complement to the intelligent (but wildly entertaining) dis- course of the first "Iron Man" movie. His role as the embittered former partner of Tony Stark's father was an excellent illus- tration of the conflict between greed, warfare and ethics. Not so in the case of Mickey Rourke ("The Wrestler"). His portrayal of Ivan Venko, the sequel's villain, seems like a questionable choice. Rourke said in an interview that Ivan's trademark gold teeth and beloved parrot were paid for from his own pocketnmoney in an attempt to render his character less "one-dimen- sional." Well, suffice to say, it's hard not to seem one-dimensional when you have scarcely 80 words of dialogue in a two- hour movie. But maybe it's better that way; the best part of "The Wrestler" was the brutal honesty of Rourke's role, and the demeanor one would expect of Venko - a brilliant physicist's psychotic son - simply doesn't befit Rourke as an actor. At least he played the wrestler role well. Some sequels just shouldn't be made. In its defense, "Iron Man 2" gets much better after the confounding 30-minute introduction, and Downey, Jr. possesses the same snappy poise that made his superhero debut a spectacular one. The bright, colorful "Speed Racer"-style cin- ematography makes for some spectacu- lar action sequences. But in its attempt to straddle the wide gap between dramnedy and action film, "Iron Man 2" makes a few errors of judgment that diminish the cerebral character of the first film and provide us with only the flashy, mind- numbing, three-act entertainment we expect from I-movies. Even so, be sure to watch all the way through the ending credits -hint, hint.