I Am Iron Man, Too
Let’s face it, sequels are hard. When you make a really good film, usually everything is neatly tied up at the end and when you revisit it in a sequel, it often comes across as forced or contrived. There are some really good sequels and some, like Batman’s Dark Knight, that even surpass the original, but it’s not as easy as it might seem to be.
Iron Man 2 fails to surpass the original, but it’s almost as good. And when I say “almost as good” I mean it loses by a photo finish. It’s still smart and funny, it continues the story of the first without rehashing it, and teases the some of the future movies coming from Marvel’s stable without letting that story overwhelm the story it’s trying to tell.
There are a few quibbles though. There are a lot of characters in this film and it causes things to feel a bit more crowded than in the first film. We have Tony Stark, Pepper Potts, Rhodey, Ivan Vanko, Justin Hammer, Senator Stern, Black Widow, Nick Fury and we even briefly get Agent Coulson and the reporter from the first film. And while some of these guys have smaller parts then others, they are all so good you want to see more of them and that unfortunately leads to some disappointment. Sadly some of the characters I really wanted to see more of weren’t expanded upon to my satisfaction.
Natasha Romanov aka Natalie Rushman aka Black Widow is featured all over the trailers and movie art, but her role in this story is relatively minor. She gets one action sequence (barring a quick gag when she’s first introduced), and… that’s about it. Her presence seems to be more about setting things up for future stories, as she’s assigned to spy on Tony for SHIELD, but I thought she would have more of a key role in the story. And certainly she gets a moment where she helps save the day, but for the most part she’s just in the background looking attractive and not really contributing one way or another. It looked like for a half-moment that they might be setting her up to be part of a love triangle between her, Tony Stark and Pepper Potts but really nothing happens with that either.
Main villain Ivan Vanko (aka Whiplash) is given more to do, but I wish he was given a bit more development. Mickey Rourke is certainly memorable here and he uses what little he’s given well so it goes much further than it might otherwise, but his motivations seem a bit weak. Other than having a fondness for his pet parrot all he had was his hatred of the Stark legacy. Certainly there are worse motivations, but perhaps if we had gotten to see a young Ivan, or see him do anything it would have helped him develop as a believable character. Compare this to Jeff Bridges’ Obadiah Stane in the first film whose motivations are ever really explained in detail but his performance is so nuanced that it tells you without a word of the story of the charismatic guy behind the throne, who did nasty things behind your back and yet could joke with you to your face, who finally makes his power play and yet things don’t ever quite go right… I seriously love Stane and I think a lot of people overlook the complexity of that performance. Also, back onto Ivan, when he finally gets suited up in some armor, it looks kind of forgettable. The Iron Man, Iron Monger and War Machine suits all looked really awesome. The final look of Whiplash looked like… well other than having two giant whips I can’t tell you what it looked like, because I don’t recall.
And the worst snubbed character of the film is Pepper Potts (as I stated in Pointedview's review). I feel bad for Pepper. In the first film she was Tony’s right hand. She’s smart, confidant (despite some of her own protests) and knows how to handle almost anything. She helps save the day at the end of the first movie and the interplay between her and Tony is a treat. Here? Not so much. I can see what happened, they gave her the important job of running Stark Industries as CEO and that’s sounds good on paper but she’s never given a chance to shine. As Tony’s assistant she fully capable, and it’s half implied she’s already halfway running the company between her and Obadiah in the first film and Tony just rubber stamps what they tell him to, but now she’s all flustered and can’t do the job. Admittedly there’s some logic behind it (I’m sure the shareholders would have a huge loss in confidence in Microsoft if Bill Gates decided to let his secretary run the place no matter how qualified she was) but from a character standpoint she’s wasted. I hope that Iron Man 3 or the Avengers gives her a chance to shine.
But that was the downsides, and quibblely stuff at that, the rest of the movie is quite good.
Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer is excellent as the secondary villain. He was the wannabe Tony Stark. The guy who does a lot of the same things that Tony does but not able to back it up. He wants to be cool and he wants to be badass and… he really kind of sucks at it. Whether when it is when he’s trying to make Tony look foolish in Senate subcommittee hearing and having it turned against him or trying to threat Ivan (“Take his shoes. Now you don’t have shoes! How does that make you feel?!”) Just about any time he was onscreen I was cracking up. Again if they do Iron Man 3 I hope they bring him back.
Don Cheadle takes over for Terrence Howard as James Rhodes, and he does a good job. I do think that it did stand out quite a bit, Cheadle and Howard aren’t very similar in appearance or performance, and that does hurt the flow of the film as you’re taking time to adjust to the new guy, but they are both gave admirable showings. The use of Rhodey is well done here and his role is boosted quite a bit from the first film, and the final fight scene with Iron Man with his repulsor blasts and War Machine with his heavy artillery fighting off a dozen Hammer drones is very awesome. Even the little things like Rhodey’s shoulder mounted chain gun firing targets behind him were cool.
The story of Tony Stark, having to face his death and having to deal with continuing his father’s legacy as well as setting up his own is very nice and doesn’t bash you over the head too strongly, or at least not as much as the last two Batman films did (I mean I love those films but they really made sure you got the messages of those film), and tying that in with his reluctance to rely on others even though its cooperation with Rhodey that save the day at the end and Nick Fury and SHIELD and its resources help keep Tony alive long enough to figure out how to save his own life (with some help from Tony’s departed father). And I think this is going to tie into the Avengers film where Tony is still going to bristle a bit at working with others (towards the end when Fury says that Widow’s report said that it would be better to use Tony as a consultant then having Iron Man on the team there is a nice hesitation that Robert Downey Jr. gives that belies his earlier protests of not wanting to have anything to do with the Fury’s team).
Oh and speaking of Avengers, the stinger after the end of the credits was also awesome. I won’t spoil it unless someone asks (because in spite of my spoilery filled review, this is easy to miss if you left before the credits finished rolling) but it did a good job of teasing the further continuance of Marvel’s film universe.
So in spite of my little nitpicks it’s definitely a good movie and worth catching in the theaters if you enjoyed the first.
Iron Man 2 fails to surpass the original, but it’s almost as good. And when I say “almost as good” I mean it loses by a photo finish. It’s still smart and funny, it continues the story of the first without rehashing it, and teases the some of the future movies coming from Marvel’s stable without letting that story overwhelm the story it’s trying to tell.
There are a few quibbles though. There are a lot of characters in this film and it causes things to feel a bit more crowded than in the first film. We have Tony Stark, Pepper Potts, Rhodey, Ivan Vanko, Justin Hammer, Senator Stern, Black Widow, Nick Fury and we even briefly get Agent Coulson and the reporter from the first film. And while some of these guys have smaller parts then others, they are all so good you want to see more of them and that unfortunately leads to some disappointment. Sadly some of the characters I really wanted to see more of weren’t expanded upon to my satisfaction.
Natasha Romanov aka Natalie Rushman aka Black Widow is featured all over the trailers and movie art, but her role in this story is relatively minor. She gets one action sequence (barring a quick gag when she’s first introduced), and… that’s about it. Her presence seems to be more about setting things up for future stories, as she’s assigned to spy on Tony for SHIELD, but I thought she would have more of a key role in the story. And certainly she gets a moment where she helps save the day, but for the most part she’s just in the background looking attractive and not really contributing one way or another. It looked like for a half-moment that they might be setting her up to be part of a love triangle between her, Tony Stark and Pepper Potts but really nothing happens with that either.
Main villain Ivan Vanko (aka Whiplash) is given more to do, but I wish he was given a bit more development. Mickey Rourke is certainly memorable here and he uses what little he’s given well so it goes much further than it might otherwise, but his motivations seem a bit weak. Other than having a fondness for his pet parrot all he had was his hatred of the Stark legacy. Certainly there are worse motivations, but perhaps if we had gotten to see a young Ivan, or see him do anything it would have helped him develop as a believable character. Compare this to Jeff Bridges’ Obadiah Stane in the first film whose motivations are ever really explained in detail but his performance is so nuanced that it tells you without a word of the story of the charismatic guy behind the throne, who did nasty things behind your back and yet could joke with you to your face, who finally makes his power play and yet things don’t ever quite go right… I seriously love Stane and I think a lot of people overlook the complexity of that performance. Also, back onto Ivan, when he finally gets suited up in some armor, it looks kind of forgettable. The Iron Man, Iron Monger and War Machine suits all looked really awesome. The final look of Whiplash looked like… well other than having two giant whips I can’t tell you what it looked like, because I don’t recall.
And the worst snubbed character of the film is Pepper Potts (as I stated in Pointedview's review). I feel bad for Pepper. In the first film she was Tony’s right hand. She’s smart, confidant (despite some of her own protests) and knows how to handle almost anything. She helps save the day at the end of the first movie and the interplay between her and Tony is a treat. Here? Not so much. I can see what happened, they gave her the important job of running Stark Industries as CEO and that’s sounds good on paper but she’s never given a chance to shine. As Tony’s assistant she fully capable, and it’s half implied she’s already halfway running the company between her and Obadiah in the first film and Tony just rubber stamps what they tell him to, but now she’s all flustered and can’t do the job. Admittedly there’s some logic behind it (I’m sure the shareholders would have a huge loss in confidence in Microsoft if Bill Gates decided to let his secretary run the place no matter how qualified she was) but from a character standpoint she’s wasted. I hope that Iron Man 3 or the Avengers gives her a chance to shine.
But that was the downsides, and quibblely stuff at that, the rest of the movie is quite good.
Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer is excellent as the secondary villain. He was the wannabe Tony Stark. The guy who does a lot of the same things that Tony does but not able to back it up. He wants to be cool and he wants to be badass and… he really kind of sucks at it. Whether when it is when he’s trying to make Tony look foolish in Senate subcommittee hearing and having it turned against him or trying to threat Ivan (“Take his shoes. Now you don’t have shoes! How does that make you feel?!”) Just about any time he was onscreen I was cracking up. Again if they do Iron Man 3 I hope they bring him back.
Don Cheadle takes over for Terrence Howard as James Rhodes, and he does a good job. I do think that it did stand out quite a bit, Cheadle and Howard aren’t very similar in appearance or performance, and that does hurt the flow of the film as you’re taking time to adjust to the new guy, but they are both gave admirable showings. The use of Rhodey is well done here and his role is boosted quite a bit from the first film, and the final fight scene with Iron Man with his repulsor blasts and War Machine with his heavy artillery fighting off a dozen Hammer drones is very awesome. Even the little things like Rhodey’s shoulder mounted chain gun firing targets behind him were cool.
The story of Tony Stark, having to face his death and having to deal with continuing his father’s legacy as well as setting up his own is very nice and doesn’t bash you over the head too strongly, or at least not as much as the last two Batman films did (I mean I love those films but they really made sure you got the messages of those film), and tying that in with his reluctance to rely on others even though its cooperation with Rhodey that save the day at the end and Nick Fury and SHIELD and its resources help keep Tony alive long enough to figure out how to save his own life (with some help from Tony’s departed father). And I think this is going to tie into the Avengers film where Tony is still going to bristle a bit at working with others (towards the end when Fury says that Widow’s report said that it would be better to use Tony as a consultant then having Iron Man on the team there is a nice hesitation that Robert Downey Jr. gives that belies his earlier protests of not wanting to have anything to do with the Fury’s team).
Oh and speaking of Avengers, the stinger after the end of the credits was also awesome. I won’t spoil it unless someone asks (because in spite of my spoilery filled review, this is easy to miss if you left before the credits finished rolling) but it did a good job of teasing the further continuance of Marvel’s film universe.
So in spite of my little nitpicks it’s definitely a good movie and worth catching in the theaters if you enjoyed the first.