Robert Downey Jr. returns as billionaire weapons designer/superhero/stand-up comedian Tony Stark. Unwilling to mass-produce his Iron Man suit, the race is on to replicate it. Justin Hammer played (Sam Rockwell) is the Bill Gates to Tony’s Steve Jobs, evidenced by the stress on their competing arms expos. When Stark’s showboating at a racetrack leads to a curiously well-timed showdown with a mysterious Russian named Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), Hammer sees an opportunity to fund a project to surpass Tony’s and win a lucrative military contract. Ivan has other ideas in mind, wanting to make Tony pay for the betrayal his father was dealt. Can Tony stop them? Will Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) finally accuse him of sexual harassment?
Truth be told there are some funny lines and a couple of quality moments of comic book style action. There’s also a ton of falsified marketing. Iron Man 2 is going to get your hopes up, then disappoint you with a ridiculous subplot. There is a tremendous lull in the action because Tony is forced to discover a cure for a blood-polluting toxin found in his arch reactor. It’s not terribly interesting and it’s brought in for what I like to call the “Batman Effect”: the altering of a hero’s costume for the purpose of merchandising.
I know the first movie wasn’t action heavy. It was the origin story explaining how Tony Stark became Iron Man and it was filled with witty jokes and banter between Tony and his secretary Pepper. Well for some reason it was decided to take out those sincere moments and throw in interloping arguments. Many conversations in Iron Man 2 can’t be recalled because they consist of characters talking over one another.
Don Cheadle has replaced Terrence Howard as Stark’s go-to guy Lt. Col. James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes. Though Rhodes physically does more in this sequel, he seems to have less face time because Tony needs to talk to just about everyone else in the world. Now Tony is to meeting with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) who you may not remember if you left Iron Man prior to the completion of the credits. Scarlett Johansson is brought on board for a role that equates to eye candy. Rather than see her emote like an android, I’d prefer some more time with Stark’s robots. In the original, Stark’s lab was a fun set where he tinkered with his suit while being assisted by his inventions. It was Frankenstein meets Pee-wee’s Playhouse and it was one of the many strong points of Iron Man. I suppose that since he has his suit now he doesn’t need to spend time in the lab, but the subplot that has him making adjustments is a tough pill to swallow. It’s not unreasonable to say that his arch reactor is poisoning his blood, sure it’s not a story line worth spending half the film on, but it’s not unreasonable.
Then Rhodes willingly, and stupidly, betrays his better judgment. I understand that there is a plan in place to make Rhodes into the hero known off-camera as War Machine, it just bothers me that they would take the already powerful Iron Man suit and find it necessary to add a minigun. I’m sure if they used some thought, someone could have found a more reasonable method to create the character.
By this time, I’m not certain that anyone actually directed this movie. These Marvel sequels look so much alike and play the same numbers for an encore, it’s movie making by committee. Some scenes really could have been trimmed down, take the protracted Senate hearing for example. Action scenes were few for comic book hero film with it’s protagonist in his post-origin stage. In the first film Tony was a charismatic guy who was bit of a jerk but made up for it with redeeming actions and humor, ultimately changing his character over the course of the film. In Iron Man 2, he’s taken a step back in all regards as though Iron Man rusts. In fact, the only good laughs I found in the film came from the timing of Sam Rockwell. There’s even a S.H.I.E.L.D agent whose sole purpose makes him the harbinger of movie titles. Since when was it considered okay to load a feature length film with promos? These are not decisions made with the guidance of an “artistic vision”.
Iron Man 2 isn’t the worst sequel from Marvel (I think Spider-Man 3 will carry that moniker till the day I’m placed in the cryogenic chamber). At its best you will be entertained by parts and not offended by the rest. It’s not terribly juvenile, nor is it loaded with kitsch. The saving grace of this par treatment is its cast, who put in as much effort as the licensing factory will allow… minus Scarlett. **½
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