Review: Iron Man 2
As usual, this post contains some spoilers. I have done my best to keep them small and generalized, but it's hard to be truly critical of a film without pointing out specific examples of what works and what doesn't.
When I saw the first Iron Man, I have to admit I was not entirely impressed. I was unfamiliar with comics at the time and saw the first film as another adaptation in a long line of them. I was pleased with the acting, but overall felt the plot was rather clichéd and predictable.
After getting into the Marvel Universe (and growing up a bit, as well) I decided I wanted to see the movie again, and see what kind of difference a few years, a better understanding of the story’s origins, and a greater pool of knowledge regarding the circumstances surrounding the creation of the first movie (ie - that it had no script and was predominately improvised) made.
In short, it was a huge difference. I now greatly admired the work Jeff Bridges, Robert Downey Jr., Gwenyth Paltrow, Terrence Howard, and Jon Favreau had put into the film. I appreciated the fact that this story told Iron Man’s origins without trying to cram too much information and characters and comic references into it. I liked that there was a balance between humor and drama, and that each character had a reason for being there and was developed to some degree. I liked that this film established Iron Man without having to tie him immediately to other too many characters in the Marvel Universe. And I loved that each actor and actress brought something special to their characters, giving them a life and a spirit I could believe in.
Iron Man, I realized, was a successful film in a number of ways. And I realized, too, that when Iron Man 2 came out, it was going to have some very big shoes to fill.
My first* thoughts on the second movie follow. If you would like to skip them but are still interested in an assessment of sorts, this is mine: while a good movie and an awesome ride, Iron Man 2 is not quite as successful as the first movie. It is still good and still fun and still its own level of awesome, but it doesn’t hit all the right buttons the way the first film did.
The biggest reason why I feel that Iron Man 2 is not quite as successful as the first film is because this film smacked of set up for later films. While Iron Man was a brilliant stand-alone story, and felt completely independent of the greater Marvel Universe (aside from the basic introduction of S.H.I.E.L.D.), its sequel introduced characters and ideas that will obviously go on to have their own arcs in later films - and in Marvel’s many other upcoming movies, all of which are going to eventually lead up to the 2012 Avengers film.
I mention this because Iron Man 2 started to fall into the same trap as I feel the Harry Potter films do - you almost have to have some basic idea of how things are in the source material to fully understand and appreciate the movie, and without it you might miss out on exactly why thus and such a character or scene or item is nearly as important as it feels when presented onscreen.
(For instance: in Iron Man 2, we get to see Tony handle a prototype for Captain America’s shield. This is a very obvious reference, unlike the glimpse of the shield we saw in the first film. But if I hadn’t recognized it as Captain America’s shield I would have had no clue as to the significance of that scene and what it sets up, but I would have known it was important because the camera very lovingly sits on the shield for a few seconds. While laying such groundwork is often key to good storytelling, in cases like this knowing something is important without knowing why or how it is important - or even when you’re going to find out why or how it’s important - hurts the movie rather than helps it. Especially when a number of other people get it and you don’t.)
This movie also juggled a couple of additional storylines that the first film did not. Instead of only going back and forth between Tony’s storyline and the villain’s storyline as in the first film, here we had Tony’s storyline and Pepper’s and Rhodey’s and Justin Hammer’s and Whiplash’s and even Black Widow’s and Nick Fury’s - not to mention the overarching question of whether or not Iron Man was an asset or a threat to national security. While those storylines were pretty closely related for large chunks of the movie (Hammer and Whiplash teaming up as villains, for example), they were still independent stories and the metaphorical mosh pit of storylines felt slightly cumbersome. Eliminating, say, Justin Hammer’s story (I’m sorry, Sam Rockwell!) and working solely with Whiplash as the villain would have worked much better. Mr. Hammer could have been saved for later. He’d make a good enemy down the line. Here, much as I loved Sam Rockwell’s performance (speech patterns aside - and that’s something I touch on below) I really was annoyed with Justin Hammer and wanted him to go away.
I also could have done without Nick Fury’s introduction for at least another film. Yes, I know, his existence is all but common knowledge now, but I think dropping the Avengers storyline for a while longer would have been a wise move, as including it just made for one more storyline than the movie could really handle effectively. (Of course, this couldn’t have happened - there is no guarantee that there will be an Iron Man 3 before the Avengers movie is released, so if he is not introduced now it’s unlikely it would be possible later.)
I also felt that the acting in this film was a little weaker than in the first. In the first Iron Man, Pepper was really the only character to truly stumble over her words sometimes - an action that felt deliberate as opposed to accidental, however, and made it seem as though Tony exasperated Pepper to no end, and the stumbling was the result of her trying to keep up with him when he changed his mind so often. In this film, however, Tony AND Pepper AND Justin Hammer all adopted similar ways of repeating themselves, restarting ideas in mid-sentence, and generally stumbling a little more with the dialogue. Again, these felt like deliberate decisions, but while it worked in the first movie with Pepper, here it just made it somewhat difficult to identify each character on speech patterns alone. (Rhodey, meanwhile, despite being an entirely different actor still managed to be Rhodey. Mad props to Mr. Cheadle, even as much as I miss Terrence Howard.)
Additionally, I was a little miffed at how easily some of the characters dismissed Pepper Potts as the CEO of Stark Industries. (I’m looking at you, Mr. Fury, with your ‘you made a girl CEO’ line.) Pepper is a perfectly capable woman, and it’s obvious Tony trusts her (she has also been basically running the company for years, after all. Tony really just passed along the title. And, while I was sad to see her quit, I probably would have, too, if my first few weeks on the job were as much of a PR disaster as hers.)
The movie was certainly not without its good points, however.
One of my favorite parts of the first movie was the dynamic between Tony and Pepper. While Tony obviously had the upper hand, it was also pretty clear that he wouldn’t be nearly as capable if he didn’t have Pepper there to help him out. Their banter and the nice dose of UST - not a massive overdose, mind, but something that could be seen without being overbearing - only added to my geeky adoration. So to say that I went into this film hoping for more of that dynamic was an understatement, and thankfully this film delivered in spades. (I will never forget the omelets scene. And I will squee forever over it.)
I also really enjoyed seeing Tony Stark’s development. In the first movie the change was dramatic - he did go from being a war monger to a superhero, and that’s a hell of a change - and while this movie was slightly less dramatic it was still nice to see Tony grapple with his mortality as well as the implications of what the Iron Man suit was and meant to the greater world - even if he really seemed to blow off the implications by being a conceited fool who didn’t seem to recall that his last major battle involved a man who had reverse engineered a suit of his own out of the Mark I. Geniuses like Tony Stark might be rare, but intelligent men like Obadiah Stane are almost a dime a dozen. (Oh, and then Whiplash in this film, who created his own version of the Arc Reactor. Some one of a kind suit, huh, Tony?)
And, thank goodness, the movie was also not without witty, quotable dialogue. The first film gave me one of my favorite phrases of all time - “Cheeseburger first.” - and this film was no different. I have nothing completely committed to memory - in my defense, I was very, very tired and have a poor memory when I’m busy squeeing my heart out - but by the time I see it again I’ll have a better feel for some of the quotes and then you will hear them and it will be awesome.
I also really appreciated the way this movie began. By leading with a voiceover of the ending of the previous movie (in which Tony Stark announces that he is, in fact, Iron Man) the movie set its timeline up efficiently and well, and the shift from a voiceover to seeing Tony speak on television with a Russian translation was very effective.
I can’t leave here without mentioning Rhodey, either. I was very sad to see that Terrence Howard was to be replaced in the second film, but I feel like Don Cheadle lived up to the role and played Rhodey very well. His love for the suit was hilarious. “Just because you have the biggest gun does not make you the big gun.” (or however that went, exactly.) I hope Rhodey comes back again as War Machine - not necessarily in a spin-off movie, but I would love to see him and Tony team up and kick ass together again.
Overall, while I (again) feel like this movie was definitely weaker than its predecessor, I still encourage fans to see it. It’s a ride, there’s good development, and it’s pretty well worth the money.
More thoughts will probably be added to this later, once I am no longer feeling quite so sleep deprived.
*They may end up being updated slightly after I see the film a second time, which I have plans to do already.
When I saw the first Iron Man, I have to admit I was not entirely impressed. I was unfamiliar with comics at the time and saw the first film as another adaptation in a long line of them. I was pleased with the acting, but overall felt the plot was rather clichéd and predictable.
After getting into the Marvel Universe (and growing up a bit, as well) I decided I wanted to see the movie again, and see what kind of difference a few years, a better understanding of the story’s origins, and a greater pool of knowledge regarding the circumstances surrounding the creation of the first movie (ie - that it had no script and was predominately improvised) made.
In short, it was a huge difference. I now greatly admired the work Jeff Bridges, Robert Downey Jr., Gwenyth Paltrow, Terrence Howard, and Jon Favreau had put into the film. I appreciated the fact that this story told Iron Man’s origins without trying to cram too much information and characters and comic references into it. I liked that there was a balance between humor and drama, and that each character had a reason for being there and was developed to some degree. I liked that this film established Iron Man without having to tie him immediately to other too many characters in the Marvel Universe. And I loved that each actor and actress brought something special to their characters, giving them a life and a spirit I could believe in.
Iron Man, I realized, was a successful film in a number of ways. And I realized, too, that when Iron Man 2 came out, it was going to have some very big shoes to fill.
My first* thoughts on the second movie follow. If you would like to skip them but are still interested in an assessment of sorts, this is mine: while a good movie and an awesome ride, Iron Man 2 is not quite as successful as the first movie. It is still good and still fun and still its own level of awesome, but it doesn’t hit all the right buttons the way the first film did.
The biggest reason why I feel that Iron Man 2 is not quite as successful as the first film is because this film smacked of set up for later films. While Iron Man was a brilliant stand-alone story, and felt completely independent of the greater Marvel Universe (aside from the basic introduction of S.H.I.E.L.D.), its sequel introduced characters and ideas that will obviously go on to have their own arcs in later films - and in Marvel’s many other upcoming movies, all of which are going to eventually lead up to the 2012 Avengers film.
I mention this because Iron Man 2 started to fall into the same trap as I feel the Harry Potter films do - you almost have to have some basic idea of how things are in the source material to fully understand and appreciate the movie, and without it you might miss out on exactly why thus and such a character or scene or item is nearly as important as it feels when presented onscreen.
(For instance: in Iron Man 2, we get to see Tony handle a prototype for Captain America’s shield. This is a very obvious reference, unlike the glimpse of the shield we saw in the first film. But if I hadn’t recognized it as Captain America’s shield I would have had no clue as to the significance of that scene and what it sets up, but I would have known it was important because the camera very lovingly sits on the shield for a few seconds. While laying such groundwork is often key to good storytelling, in cases like this knowing something is important without knowing why or how it is important - or even when you’re going to find out why or how it’s important - hurts the movie rather than helps it. Especially when a number of other people get it and you don’t.)
This movie also juggled a couple of additional storylines that the first film did not. Instead of only going back and forth between Tony’s storyline and the villain’s storyline as in the first film, here we had Tony’s storyline and Pepper’s and Rhodey’s and Justin Hammer’s and Whiplash’s and even Black Widow’s and Nick Fury’s - not to mention the overarching question of whether or not Iron Man was an asset or a threat to national security. While those storylines were pretty closely related for large chunks of the movie (Hammer and Whiplash teaming up as villains, for example), they were still independent stories and the metaphorical mosh pit of storylines felt slightly cumbersome. Eliminating, say, Justin Hammer’s story (I’m sorry, Sam Rockwell!) and working solely with Whiplash as the villain would have worked much better. Mr. Hammer could have been saved for later. He’d make a good enemy down the line. Here, much as I loved Sam Rockwell’s performance (speech patterns aside - and that’s something I touch on below) I really was annoyed with Justin Hammer and wanted him to go away.
I also could have done without Nick Fury’s introduction for at least another film. Yes, I know, his existence is all but common knowledge now, but I think dropping the Avengers storyline for a while longer would have been a wise move, as including it just made for one more storyline than the movie could really handle effectively. (Of course, this couldn’t have happened - there is no guarantee that there will be an Iron Man 3 before the Avengers movie is released, so if he is not introduced now it’s unlikely it would be possible later.)
I also felt that the acting in this film was a little weaker than in the first. In the first Iron Man, Pepper was really the only character to truly stumble over her words sometimes - an action that felt deliberate as opposed to accidental, however, and made it seem as though Tony exasperated Pepper to no end, and the stumbling was the result of her trying to keep up with him when he changed his mind so often. In this film, however, Tony AND Pepper AND Justin Hammer all adopted similar ways of repeating themselves, restarting ideas in mid-sentence, and generally stumbling a little more with the dialogue. Again, these felt like deliberate decisions, but while it worked in the first movie with Pepper, here it just made it somewhat difficult to identify each character on speech patterns alone. (Rhodey, meanwhile, despite being an entirely different actor still managed to be Rhodey. Mad props to Mr. Cheadle, even as much as I miss Terrence Howard.)
Additionally, I was a little miffed at how easily some of the characters dismissed Pepper Potts as the CEO of Stark Industries. (I’m looking at you, Mr. Fury, with your ‘you made a girl CEO’ line.) Pepper is a perfectly capable woman, and it’s obvious Tony trusts her (she has also been basically running the company for years, after all. Tony really just passed along the title. And, while I was sad to see her quit, I probably would have, too, if my first few weeks on the job were as much of a PR disaster as hers.)
The movie was certainly not without its good points, however.
One of my favorite parts of the first movie was the dynamic between Tony and Pepper. While Tony obviously had the upper hand, it was also pretty clear that he wouldn’t be nearly as capable if he didn’t have Pepper there to help him out. Their banter and the nice dose of UST - not a massive overdose, mind, but something that could be seen without being overbearing - only added to my geeky adoration. So to say that I went into this film hoping for more of that dynamic was an understatement, and thankfully this film delivered in spades. (I will never forget the omelets scene. And I will squee forever over it.)
I also really enjoyed seeing Tony Stark’s development. In the first movie the change was dramatic - he did go from being a war monger to a superhero, and that’s a hell of a change - and while this movie was slightly less dramatic it was still nice to see Tony grapple with his mortality as well as the implications of what the Iron Man suit was and meant to the greater world - even if he really seemed to blow off the implications by being a conceited fool who didn’t seem to recall that his last major battle involved a man who had reverse engineered a suit of his own out of the Mark I. Geniuses like Tony Stark might be rare, but intelligent men like Obadiah Stane are almost a dime a dozen. (Oh, and then Whiplash in this film, who created his own version of the Arc Reactor. Some one of a kind suit, huh, Tony?)
And, thank goodness, the movie was also not without witty, quotable dialogue. The first film gave me one of my favorite phrases of all time - “Cheeseburger first.” - and this film was no different. I have nothing completely committed to memory - in my defense, I was very, very tired and have a poor memory when I’m busy squeeing my heart out - but by the time I see it again I’ll have a better feel for some of the quotes and then you will hear them and it will be awesome.
I also really appreciated the way this movie began. By leading with a voiceover of the ending of the previous movie (in which Tony Stark announces that he is, in fact, Iron Man) the movie set its timeline up efficiently and well, and the shift from a voiceover to seeing Tony speak on television with a Russian translation was very effective.
I can’t leave here without mentioning Rhodey, either. I was very sad to see that Terrence Howard was to be replaced in the second film, but I feel like Don Cheadle lived up to the role and played Rhodey very well. His love for the suit was hilarious. “Just because you have the biggest gun does not make you the big gun.” (or however that went, exactly.) I hope Rhodey comes back again as War Machine - not necessarily in a spin-off movie, but I would love to see him and Tony team up and kick ass together again.
Overall, while I (again) feel like this movie was definitely weaker than its predecessor, I still encourage fans to see it. It’s a ride, there’s good development, and it’s pretty well worth the money.
More thoughts will probably be added to this later, once I am no longer feeling quite so sleep deprived.
*They may end up being updated slightly after I see the film a second time, which I have plans to do already.