Iron Man 2: At the Core of It

This is a valiant effort. There are structural flaws to Iron Man 2 that no editing can fix, but what CAN be done is to smooth out all the weird crap and make what IS there enjoyable. Lapis has done this.

*** SPOILERS ***
Problems that can't be solved:
-Rhodey just flying away with a suit, to say nothing of getting in and out of it later. O_O
-The recipe for a new element -coincidentally, the one Tony needs for his chest battery- hidden in the miniature layout for a science expo from decades ago? What? I mean, really. WHAT?!! And that's what resolves the MAIN problem of this film. Deus Ex Dopey.

Also, I was about to complain about Tony's drunk party and how it reminded me of Raimi's Spiderman 3, but I think in this case it's appropriate. He did believe he was dying, AND is canonically an alcoholic. ;)

The good news is that what Lapis has done with his edit here is take the emotional story of Tony's attempt to find a solution to his Palladium Problem, set against The Revenge of Whip Guy™ and make it very watchable. He focused on those themes and removed any superfluous nonsense that would have distracted from them, and has made a much stronger film by doing so.

So, this movie was, in my opinion, a great example of great concepts, poor execution. This edit jettisons the crap and retains the jewels. That said, with a revamp on this level, there were a few scenes that were too chopped up to really flow. The office scene ALMOST works (where he brings Pepper the strawberries) but the rooftop scene at the end was just an unbelievable mess. Pepper stops in mid sentence and then the next time we see her she is in a different place and the conversation is on a different topic and in a different tone, and then they kiss out of nowhere. It just didn't work. I have to watch the original scene again, but my recollection of it is that it would have worked better with fewer cuts. That being said, however, it is still better than the original in almost every way, and those two scenes were the only places that were really jarring.

First of all, a disclaimer: I am a fan of Iron Man 2. It's my second favourite Iron Man, and my 11th favourite MCU film. I understand the flaws people have with it, but I am still a fan of it's 'goofy/wacky' nature and love every second of it. With that said, I do strongly believe the narrative is all over the place in these films.

This edit fully changes those 'problems', however. If you had any issues with the narrative structure of Iron Man 2, I assure you they will be gone when you watch this edit. It puts a clear focus on the main plotline of this film, and really gets to THE CORE OF IT.

Besides a few unfortunate A/V moments, just due to lack of available footage, I assume, this edit is probably the best way to watch this film. Especially if you noticed the scattered plot of the original.

I really liked the original cut of Iron Man 2 but this edit is so much better and that is mainly to the idea of focusing on the palladium poisoning. But sometimes the transition from scenes is not to good. and also some cutting of lines are noticeable.
overall i love this edit.
Highly recommend it
I love the new post credit scene

I quite enjoyed the original cut at the time, but this edit strengthens the narrative, diminishing the nagging from Pepper and the more obnoxious Hammer moments. The deleted scenes and audio mixing are very well integrated...some scenes transition through weird Star Wars-like wipes which feel out of place in an MCU film (it's weird the editor chose not to run these other moments by the suppor in his project's main thread, when they had been instrumental in getting him to sort out another transition, dropping the wipe altogether for that one scene), there was nothing visually or audibly wrong here regardless, but it is a bit funky. There are ways in which to transition spotlessly without resorting to wipes, but I'll let it slide if he had no alternative.