Iron Man 2 is about what you'd expect from a sequel. A whole bunch of money has been thrown at the screen, it's bigger, louder and more explodey; but once the cinema buzz has worn off you may well find yourself pining for the original. It is also nowhere near as good as either The Dark Knight or Spiderman 2.
Set six months after the end of the first film, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is trying to come to terms with the aftermath of his public admission that he is Iron Man. The US government is demanding that he turn over the Iron Man suit to the military, as business rivals and foreign governments race to copy its technology. But Stark has bigger problems, the experimental reactor in his chest that keeps his heart beating is malfunctioning and is slowly killing him with heavy metal poisoning unless he can develop a cure.
I have to admit that I'm not terribly familiar with the comic incarnation of Iron Man, so I can't say how it faithful the movie version is; but to me Tony Stark/Iron Man is one of the more complex characters in Marvel's lineup. In many ways Tony Stark is the polar opposite of Bruce Wayne/Batman - both are eccentric billionaires, but where Wayne is motivated by an ideological desire to be a symbol against crime, Stark is driven by no particular goal other than his own capricious nature.
This makes for easily one of the most character-driven superheroes we've seen to date and so it is in the Iron Man movies. Where the film-makers have succeeded is they clearly understood how important it was to get the casting right as a larger than life character requires a larger than life actor to pull it off. Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark is about as good as it gets, without his charisma and energy, neither of these movies would have gotten off the ground.
Unfortunately that is both the big flaw and the saving grace of Iron Man 2. As with the first film, it relies heavily on Robert Downey Jr's performance and the eccentricities of Tony Stark's character to distract the audience from the paper-thin story underneath. In Iron Man 2, Stark's manner and behaviour are so erratic that it is impossible to identify with him in a context that the audience can relate to.
What the film really lacks is a strong character arc. Stark's brush with his own mortality should really be the central theme, just as Peter Parker's struggle with living a double life formed the heart and soul of Spiderman 2. As it is, Stark flits from eccentric genius to complete nutter in the blink of an eye. One moment he's drunkenly wrecking his own birthday party, the next he's building a particle accelerator in his basement. Downey Jr. is so good that it's never less than fun to watch, but I was left wondering what the point of it all was or what Stark learned from his experiences.
Quite simply, the film-makers have sacrificed character development in order to deliver a film that is as much a direct sequel to Iron Man as it is a curtain raiser for The Avengers movie. The result of this is a script that introduces a number of characters and sub-plots for the spin-off which tie into, but ultimately distract from the main storyline. The main casualty of this is that short shrift is given to the villains and the themes that those characters are intended to embody are never really explored.
Sam Rockwell as Stark's business rival Justin Hammer does a great job of channeling Bill Gates, but apart from a lot of monologuing and corporate speak - his character is given very little to do. The same is true of Ivan Vanko, a Russian underworld figure with a grudge against the Stark family (played in a rather understated performance by Mickey Rourke). If anything, Vanko is the more interesting of the two; but his backstory, which should provide the central conflict in the movie, never really goes anywhere. Ultimately, it all comes down to a big action shoot-out and at this Iron Man 2 excels as well as any big summer movie.
All grumbling aside, it is a fun movie and it's good to see the cast of the first film reunited again. Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow still have great on-screen chemistry and the sexual tension between their characters adds a lot of humour to the movie. Don Cheadle is a worthy replacement for Terence Howard as Rhodes and his character enjoys a much bigger role this time around. I was less keen on Scarlett Johansen and Samuel L. Jackson, mainly because their characters are only in it to promote The Avengers.
If you're looking for a big summer movie that you can sit back with a big bag of popcorn and switch off your brain to, you could do a lot worse than Iron Man 2.
I have to admit that I'm not terribly familiar with the comic incarnation of Iron Man, so I can't say how it faithful the movie version is; but to me Tony Stark/Iron Man is one of the more complex characters in Marvel's lineup. In many ways Tony Stark is the polar opposite of Bruce Wayne/Batman - both are eccentric billionaires, but where Wayne is motivated by an ideological desire to be a symbol against crime, Stark is driven by no particular goal other than his own capricious nature.
This makes for easily one of the most character-driven superheroes we've seen to date and so it is in the Iron Man movies. Where the film-makers have succeeded is they clearly understood how important it was to get the casting right as a larger than life character requires a larger than life actor to pull it off. Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark is about as good as it gets, without his charisma and energy, neither of these movies would have gotten off the ground.
Unfortunately that is both the big flaw and the saving grace of Iron Man 2. As with the first film, it relies heavily on Robert Downey Jr's performance and the eccentricities of Tony Stark's character to distract the audience from the paper-thin story underneath. In Iron Man 2, Stark's manner and behaviour are so erratic that it is impossible to identify with him in a context that the audience can relate to.
What the film really lacks is a strong character arc. Stark's brush with his own mortality should really be the central theme, just as Peter Parker's struggle with living a double life formed the heart and soul of Spiderman 2. As it is, Stark flits from eccentric genius to complete nutter in the blink of an eye. One moment he's drunkenly wrecking his own birthday party, the next he's building a particle accelerator in his basement. Downey Jr. is so good that it's never less than fun to watch, but I was left wondering what the point of it all was or what Stark learned from his experiences.
Quite simply, the film-makers have sacrificed character development in order to deliver a film that is as much a direct sequel to Iron Man as it is a curtain raiser for The Avengers movie. The result of this is a script that introduces a number of characters and sub-plots for the spin-off which tie into, but ultimately distract from the main storyline. The main casualty of this is that short shrift is given to the villains and the themes that those characters are intended to embody are never really explored.
Sam Rockwell as Stark's business rival Justin Hammer does a great job of channeling Bill Gates, but apart from a lot of monologuing and corporate speak - his character is given very little to do. The same is true of Ivan Vanko, a Russian underworld figure with a grudge against the Stark family (played in a rather understated performance by Mickey Rourke). If anything, Vanko is the more interesting of the two; but his backstory, which should provide the central conflict in the movie, never really goes anywhere. Ultimately, it all comes down to a big action shoot-out and at this Iron Man 2 excels as well as any big summer movie.
All grumbling aside, it is a fun movie and it's good to see the cast of the first film reunited again. Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow still have great on-screen chemistry and the sexual tension between their characters adds a lot of humour to the movie. Don Cheadle is a worthy replacement for Terence Howard as Rhodes and his character enjoys a much bigger role this time around. I was less keen on Scarlett Johansen and Samuel L. Jackson, mainly because their characters are only in it to promote The Avengers.
If you're looking for a big summer movie that you can sit back with a big bag of popcorn and switch off your brain to, you could do a lot worse than Iron Man 2.
