Review of Iron Man 2 (2010) by Keith A — 26 Jul 2014

*NON-SPOILER RECAP*.

And now, let the summer superhero season commence! And how else to start, but with one of the most anticipated films of the year, the sequel to one of the freshest comic book films in a long time? How does it stack up? Well, it's pretty okay, but it's definitely not perfect. The success? Smooth acting, fine action shots, some surprisingly well-done visual gags, and the usual ice-breaking humor. The problems? A jumble of scenes that seem to be thrown together to throw off the pace, some anti-climactic resolutions, and so many darn characters that it can be hard to connect with anyone. Still, it's quite enjoyable.

*INITIATE SPOILER WARNING*.

...

*REVIEW STARTS NOW*.

Iron Man 2 is an entertaining movie, at times a blast, but it unfortunately has from too many actors - fantastic as they may be - attempting to pull in some screen time (aka, X-Men Syndrome; see also, Spider-Man 3).

Among the colorful characters are Mr. Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.), Pepper, the faithful assistant/love interest (Gwyneth Paltrow), Roadie, his best friend (Don Cheadle), Justin Hammer, the devious CEO (Sam Rockwell), Natalie the new "assistant", who may have a secret agenda (Scarlet Johansson), Ivan Vanko, the revenge-seeking physicist (Mickey Rourke), and Nick Fury, leader of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Samuel L. Jackson). This paragraph will be used for all further reference of characters. You're welcome.

Robert Downey, Jr. is still doing wonders with the Tony Stark character, mixing in tension with sardonic humor, but everyone else, I'm afraid, just has something off about them.

Pepper and Roadie seem to be developing antagonism with their friend and colleague, but we aren't allowed much insight into what's driving them.

Most of the Paltrow's moments are of her dealing with her boss's erratic behavior, occasionally mixed with tender moments of the two bonding; there aren't enough of those moments, I'm afraid, which is unfortunate, as the two leads have a certain chemistry that isn't being FULLY allowed to develop. Roadie, well, he's just shown as angry with Tony's irresponsiblity. I don't know, I've got nothing against Don Cheadle; I just feel that if you're going to recast such an important supporting player (previously nailed by Terrence Howard), that you need to establish some personality and character. We don't get to know this newly cast Roadie. Cheadle mainly just pops in, mutters something about covering Tony's rear, then sort of takes one of the Iron Man suits. How does he even know how to fly one of those things? Some explaining would've been appreciated.

The new additions, Johansson and Jackson are both excellent, flowing smoothly into their roles, but, like Cheadle and Paltrow, they only pop up every so often. Natalie (also known as the Black Widow) is mostly used to look/act seductive (very efficiently, I might add), and is allowed to become a bit of a posterior-kicking heroine at the end. Nick Fury? Well, he's just chop full of bad*** one-liners; Jackson's always refreshing with those. These two are mostly background characters, but I think that this is just an appetizer for future installments, so I'm not too disappointed about that.

As for our villains, I guess that they're the most dissapointing part of the film. Now, hold on, that's not an insult to them. Rourke and Rockwell are solid actors (in fact, I'm becoming big fans of both of them), and they work excellently, here; I just felt that the movie would've benefited from ONE antagonist. I think that the director (Jon Favreau, aka, Happy, the chauffeur) made the mistake of thinking that we'd need two evil dudes to play off of each other. What does that leave us with? Two incomplete villains.

Rourke appears sinister in the trailer and the first twenty minutes of the film, but he only acts as a tech-tweaker following that. Also, he's got this superb chance of a backstory to be realized, about his father being "cheated" by Stark's dad, but Rourke isn't allowed to tap into his emotions. It's mostly just, "I'm Russian and I'm ready to blow up some stuff in rather poorly planned maneuvers". Plus, he only is allowed to fight Downey on two occasions (in the beginning and end), and both times, he is dispatched WAY TOO EASILY. Having a villain that can't keep up a fight for more than two minutes does not bode well for an action picture, tension-wise.

Rockwell handles his sliminess superbly; again, my wish is that this could've been more of a realized character. He spends a majority of his time acting a step behind everyone and sort of repeating lines again and again.That's fine, but since he's working with an evil russian physicist, then I would expect him to have a little bit of a nasty side. He does finally get to access that in one scene (where he confronts Rourke), but, like Rourke, his ending does not fit with his build-up.

Also not helping are the jumble of tones mixed in; a few times, the scene switches erratically between tense and tender (for example, the scene where Pepper becomes CEO after berating her boss). It doesn't happen TOO often, but when you mix it in with the underutilization of everyone, this problem starts to really take notice.

On the plus side, the special effects are well-done, with some exciting camera-work by Favreau, and it's his passion, strewn together with the energy of the Grade-A actors, that is what keeps the film going. The humor works, too, with some chuckle-worthy jokes, verbally and physically (personal favorites are Don Cheadle's line "get your own roof", and the scene transition where Tony is revealed to have put the miniature into his car). That's some pretty clever stuff.

While Iron Man 2 certainly isn't as refreshing as the original (which is rare for a Marvel second installment), it's still a fun time at the movies, thanks to the juiciness of Robert Downey, Jr's performance.

An "A-" or "B+" action flick.