Iron Man 2 Review

Author: Tom

Source: http://www.boxofficebuz.net

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Tony Stark, makes you feel, he's a cool exec with a heart of steel. The other portion of that opening jingle from the 60's Iron Man cartoon then goes on to describe the fantastic power of his alter ego. If there was one common complaint concerning the first Iron-Man movie, it was the general lack of said alter-ego. However the film was widely praised by critics and this one common criticism was shrugged off with the knowledge that Iron Man, like most initial Superhero titles, was an origin story. So going into Iron-Man 2, it's expected with the origin story out of the way, its time to see some super-superheroics. However the film the viewer gets is a mixed bag, with many positives and many negatives that can only be described as symptoms of Sequelitus.

Sequelitus is a debilitating condition with a penchant for ravaging movie franchises. Symptoms include, too many characters, too many storylines, too many loose ends, and blatant retreding of old material. All of these symptoms (As I'm certain you've guessed by now) apply to Iron Man 2. The original Iron Man was a gamble, he was a fairly unknown property given a huge budget and it paid off. Apart of the gamble was the idea growing popular amongst Marvel at the time (late 2006 early 2007) that they may be able to do what DC had never dared to do, pair up their heroes on the big screen. Thus Iron Man featured a brief reference to an Avengers franchise and the Incredible Hulk, of the same year featured a brief appearance by Robert Downey Jr.(Stark). Thus success of Iron Man only encouraged this experiment. An Avengers film was green-lit and Samuel Jackson along with a handful of others were given EPIC NINE MOVIE CONTRACTS And Iron Man 2 was partially retooled into a launch pad for the forth-coming franchise. Not to say the film is a big advertisement, it simply wastes too much time with Samuel Jackson (Nick Fury) and an incredibly pointless Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow) when such time could be placed developing Mickey Rourke's, Whiplash.

Rourke seems to have not trimmed his hair since his appearance in The Wrestler and his Russian accent is just barely passable as the Russian villain Whiplash/Kinda-sorta-Red-Dynamo. That being said he does play an almost convincing character for the first thirty minutes before he takes a complete back seat to Robert Downey Jr.'s whacky drunken antics and Sam Rockwell portraying a younger, faster talking and all around more amusing version of Jeff Bridges Obadiah Stane. Rourke is ever more shadowed by as mentioned before, Jackson and Johansson floating around. Don Cheadle appears replacing Terrence Howard as James Rhodes (Warmachine) who apparently wanted more money. I would argue Cheadle is a much stronger actor and he fits the role much better then Howard ever did. The film does make a brief reference to the shift in cast as well with Tony Stark initially not recognizing his best friend at all. The cast is further inflated by the director John Favreau himself as Happy Hogan. Iron Man 2 isn't just over burdened by the sheer number of personalities, but the number of sub plots as well.

While Iron Man is a rather corporate superhero tied into a very corporate character, it does seem a bit disappointing that one of the main plots of the film centers around the exact same plot of the original, that being corporate intrigue. In Iron Man, Tony's jealous quasi-rival Obadiah Stane sought to steal the Iron Man suit design and build a suit of his own. In Iron Man 2, Tony's jealous rival Justin Hammer seeks to mimic the Iron Man suits and the man hired to build them builds a suit of his own. And despite the drone-suits resembling and falling apart just about as efficiently as Zakus', it just didn't really amuse me as much as it should have. Yes Iron-Man is fighting more stuff, but there really are only two actual fight sequences in the entire film. That being said, both of these fight scenes are fun to watch and feature the techno-gadgetry one hopes to see in an Iron Man film. Still the film lacks enough action to really move beyond the place it achieved in the first movie. On a side note, Downey Jr. and Paltrow (Pepper Pots) talking over each other conversations, are growing increasingly irritating to watch. Paltrow herself is irritating throughout the film as a perpetually whiney and crying Pepper Pots.

Iron Man 2 however, despite its many flaws, is a fun film. While it does become convoluted and character development is hit and miss, the multiple storylines are fun to watch as are the Iron Man suit visuals which while still brief have improved quite a bit upon what was seen in the first film. I also must admit that while somewhat out of place and time consuming, the references to the Avengers are Nerdtastical to watch. So all in all I'd give it a Matinee or a strong 2 and a half stars.