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Iron Man 2
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Written by Henry Mouat
Grade: B
Sequels are never exactly a sure shot; sometimes the directors really have more to say, sometimes they just need to do whatever it takes just to make the cash—kind if like a prostitute. Superhero sequels, however, are usually more solid—just look at Spiderman 2, X-Men 2, or The Dark Knight if you need convincing. Iron Man 2 isn’t quite the leap of progression that it could have been: it doesn’t exactly rekindle the brilliance the made the first movie so enjoyable. It does, however, give us improved action, more witty dialogue, a catalogue of super-characters in tow, and more Robert Downey Jr. Even in spite of its shortcomings, Iron Man 2 is a ton of fun at the movies.
{If you want to experience all of the over-stuffed superhero glory completely fresh, consider this your SPOILER ALERT, as most of the new characters will be acknowledged. But seriously, they’re all in the previews, so unless you have no idea about anything relating to this movie (in which case you’re probably not social enough to read Journalism articles) you should know the gist of the film anyway.}
In the original movie, Tony Stark changed from being an egotistical playboy billionaire to a motivated and genuine hero for America when he created his mechanized super-suit, a figure the public lovingly dubbed Iron Man. We find him now slipping back to his old ways; he uses his Iron Man outfit to impress girls at parties just as often as he uses it to deal with terrorists; his relations with his friends Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Jim Rhodes (Don Cheadle, replacing Terrence Howard) are growing tense as his renewed playboy antics grow steadily out of control. After six months, his Iron Man pursuits have only fueled his self-infatuation, rather than repressed it. In addition, life is growing very hard for Tony/Iron Man; revealing his identity to the world caught the attention of the U.S. government, who wants to confiscate the suit for military use; Tony’s rival Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) is desperately trying to claim Tony’s throne as both America’s greatest weapons manufacturer and its most egotistical billionaire; and the mysterious and vengeful Whiplash (Mickey Rourke) wants to take revenge on Tony for the sins of Tony’s father. And then somewhere in all these plotlines, Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlet Johansson show up. It’s a bit of a super-orgy, all right.
If you just sit back and allow these plotlines to come to you, you can certainly have plenty of fun and make full sense of the movie. They do a good enough job of prioritizing the different threads so that you don’t try to focus on one aspect of Tony’s adventures while something else is going on. The interweaving certainly won’t leave you confused; it may of course leave you exhausted if you were expecting a superhero movie with a little more focus. Because Iron Man 2 really doesn’t go anywhere particularly special—it takes the hero we loved from the first movie and gives him another, bigger adventure. Which is plenty of fun, all told, but it could’ve advanced in a much more straightforward narrative.
One of the reasons it doesn’t follow a focused storyline is that the studio clearly wanted to use the film as an overextended teaser trailer for its upcoming new superhero movies, such as Captain America and Thor (both of whom will appear in their own respective films next summer). There are ‘Easter eggs’ scattered throughout the movie—little hints and nods at the prospective films through subtle object placements that only comic fans will recognize.
Iron Man 2 really heaps on the heroes. The most important is Whiplash, the most fearsome of the film’s villains. The film never refers to him by the title ‘Whiplash’—that’s a bit of info only the informed supergeek can tell you about. His power comes from a pair of energy whips that he uses to slash apart and electrocute everything in the way. Mickey Rourke does an excellent job of making the character dangerous without overplaying it—you always have the sense that his calm expression will explode to reveal the hellion you know resides within. One of the character’s flaws (which is not Rourke’s fault) is that he both invents his whips and then uses them. This means that he’s a physicist, an engineer, a welder, a computer wizard, a weapon’s specialist, and on top of it all, he’s just as ferocious and experienced in brawling as Rourke’s character from The Wrestler. Once you take it all in, it starts becoming a little hard to swallow—it’s best not to think about, in all honesty. Because at the end of the day (and the end of the film) his use of the whips really makes for some interesting and exciting action sequences, especially in comparison with those of the first film.
Speaking of which, the action of the first film has been greatly improved upon in the second. The film isn’t stuffed with action set pieces (which is good—the film has good enough quality that it doesn’t need to become Transformers) but when they appear, they’re pumped and ready to shake the house. The first film had lots of great power moments that all led up to a very dull robot-on-robot (well, robot-suit) fight scene at the end that was really not exciting all. So how did the sequel overcome the blandness of a fight between two robot heroes? The solution is, for better or worse, very quintessentially American—add MORE ROBOTS!!! Who needs a single villain when he can come with a small battalion of robo-minions at his side? In all honesty, the extra robots help make the action more varied—the film makers never take too long on any single sequence. The finale of the movie strings together quite a few sequences, but for a first time watch, it never grew stale.
An interesting and completely original character (as in, NOT from the comic books) was Justin Hammer, the evil and annoying version of Tony Stark the Playboy. As played by Sam Rockwell, he really steals some scenes—usually the scenes that aren’t already stolen by Robert Downey Jr. He’s smarmy, self-absorbed, ignorant, and greedy—together with Whiplash, he presents Tony with another kind of villain to face, one who has the support of the public and the U.S. government. His only problem is that he never seems particularly threatening. He’s a nuisance to Tony, and an enemy, but he never gives you the impression that he’ll directly cause any major damage (that task is left all for Whiplash). Still, he’s perhaps the strongest new character in the film.
Apparently someone in the studio was displeased with the fact that the hero’s love interest (Gwyneth Paltrow) was intellectual as well as attractive; it was therefore deemed necessary to give the film a more…revealing femme fatale. Enter Black Widow, a.k.a. Scarlet Johansson. Like Whiplash, she never goes by that alias, but she is clearly the same figure; namely, a super-spy for the S.H.I.E.L.D. agency (in case you have no idea what that is or how it ties in, all I can say, as a tried-and-true supergeek, is this: it’s very mysterious, very undercover, very secretive, very unknown, and it’s run by Samuel L. Jackson). As for her qualifications, she is a master of fitting inside a tight, black leather cat-suit; in addition, she can perform Matrix style take-downs without her curly hair getting in her face (she keeps it down, for crying out loud). Her actual character is underutilized—she has some tension with Gwyneth Paltrow, and she poses a temptation for Tony, but she doesn’t really DO anything particularly special. Still, she fits into a black leather cat suit, so it’s still a win for some people.
Don Cheadle, on the other hand, is very well used, taking over the role of Tony’s friend Rhodey from Terrence Howard. Cheadle never comes across as trying to fill anyone’s shoes in the part; he makes it his own, while still keeping the essence of the character familiar to the audience. The character Rhodey also makes his debut as War Machine, who’s basically the conservative version of Iron Man—he’s decked out with an armory of guns mounted over his entire suit. Although he elicits many comparisons to Iron Monger (Jeff Bridges’ villain from the first movie), his scenes are a lot more exciting in terms of action, although like Iron Monger, he takes an Iron Suit (which took Tony over half of the first movie to master) and learns its ins-and-outs in the course of a few minutes. Hmmm…
And, as usual, Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow are perfect, both separately as their characters and together onscreen. If you still aren’t convinced that this movie will be fun (it does have its share of problems) it’s because you want to see these two reprise their roles from the first movie—they’re still brilliant, after all.
Iron Man 2 is superheroic fun all the way, even with an uneven plotline and various flaws. It still provides more Iron Man, one of the best superhero adaptations after Batman, and for that, you’re definitely going to have fun. Just don’t expect The Stark Knight.
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