Note: This review will contain some slight spoilers, but nothing too bad. You'll probably be able to see the plot coming from a mile away anyways.
Back in 2008, the first Iron Man film kicked off a summer filled with great comic book movies. The film wasn't particularly smart, and it wasn't perfect - the villain was somewhat weak, and the final fight scene was pretty lame - but it managed to be an extremely enjoyable time at the theater, with great special effects, a cast with loads of chemistry, and a witty, fast-paced script. After making tons of cash at the box office and being overwhelmingly well-received by critics, everyone knew there would be a sequel, but does it carry the same appeal as the first? Find out after the jump.
Mickey Rourke as Whiplash (though they never actually call him that).
Iron Man 2 picks up basically right where the first movie ended - Tony Stark has made public knowledge of the fact that he is Iron Man, and the United States government is now trying to seize the suit to be used as a government weapon. Meanwhile, Stark is being poisoned by the material in his arc reactor, which both powers the Iron Man suit and keeps the shrapnel in his body from reaching his heart and killing him. Meanwhile, Ivan Vanko, the son of a business associate of Stark's father (Howard Stark), is plotting revenge on Tony for Howard screwing over Ivan's father back in the day. Meanwhile, Justin Hammer, a rival weapons dealer, is attempting to build his own version of the Iron Man suit for mass military consumption. Meanwhile, Tony is being watched very closely by S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury's somewhat secret militant organization, to see if he is fit to join the "Avengers Initiative".
So, as you can see from the above paragraph, there's quite a lot of plot threads happening at once. Iron Man 2 is a movie that has a lot of responsibility - it has the dual task of being the first movie which really starts to lead up to the upcoming Avengers movie, as well as having to support it's own canon and lead up to it's inevitable next sequel. The movie mostly does a good job of keeping all the balls in the air, but it's somewhat unfocused, which is a bit of a shame as the first film was pretty damn tight in terms of pacing. Part of the problem (and this happens with a lot of comic book sequels) is that there's no more origin story to rely on. This means that it's a bit more difficult on the writer's part to come up with new and exciting situations for the character, because that initial learning curve for the character is lost. Overall, I thought the movie did a pretty solid job of keeping everything together, but I'm a comic book fan; for someone who doesn't know about The Avengers film, or doesn't even know who The Avengers are, I'd imagine the film would seem rather bloated. We're not talking Spider-Man 3 levels here, but there's a few too many THINGS happening at once, and it doesn't always pay off.
Everyone from the first film is just as great here as they were then - Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow have a lot of chemistry as Tony Stark and his assistant, Pepper Potts, and I liked that Jon Favreau gave his character a bigger part in this movie (he's the director, in case you didn't know, but also plays Happy Hogan). Don Cheadle replaces Terrence Howard as James Rhodes, and fits right in with the returning cast. In terms of the newcomers, Sam Rockwell does a great job as the weasel-y Justin Hammer; Scarlett Johansson doesn't have much to work with as Natasha Romanoff (AKA Black Widow) but she's just fine despite her lack of a Russian accent (better than having a bad accent I suppose); Samuel L. Jackson is okay as Nick Fury, but he's pretty obviously just playing himself and not the actual character; and Mickey Rourke, despite overacting a bit, particularly in the beginning of the movie, does a good job as the sinister Ivan Vanko.
OF COURSE I CAN'T STOP YELLING, 'CUZ THAT'S HOW I TALK!!
I actually want to talk about Ivan Vanko a little bit, because one of the sacrifices made to get all that plot into the film was character development on the part of some of the new faces (though the movie actually does a good job of expanding the characters of the returning cast, most notably - and importantly - Tony). Ivan Vanko is touted as the main villain of Iron Man 2, but he's not really on-screen all that much, and while he hints at having a bit of depth, he never really does more than that; he's also a little bit TOO ridiculous, being a dude who clearly knows his way in a fistfight AND a brilliant scientist. It's just a bit too much to swallow, even from a comic book movie. The Whiplash in this movie is sort of a mash-up of the comic book Whiplash and Crimson Dynamo, another big Iron Man villain, and this generally works out pretty well. He fares better than Iron Monger from the first film, but I was really disappointed with his action scenes. He only gets two in the whole movie, and they're both extremely short and feature him getting beaten way too easily.
Ah, those action scenes though. I'll admit, none of them have that same exhilarating, fresh feeling as in the first movie - again, one of the problems with not having an origin story - but aside from the really weak Whiplash scenes, they're pretty well done. I won't ruin too much, but I will say that the last fight was, shamefully, just as weak as in the first movie. Overall though, there's some pretty cool stuff here.
Look, Iron Man 2 is not The Dark Knight; but then, the movie never really tries to be anything other than an entertaining summer popcorn flick. At the end of the day, is it as good, as fun, or as exciting as the first one? No, it's not. It's bloated whereas the first one was tightly-paced, it's a bit cheesy whereas the first one was able to be undeniably cool; it's big, it's dumb, and it's predictable in the most Hollywood way possible. But it still nails the characters, serves up some solid action scenes, and throws in some great chemistry between its cast. If you hated the first Iron Man, this won't change your mind; if you liked the first one, you'll PROBABLY like this one. Me? I dug it, but I've got to admit that I walked away from the theater feeling just a little bit hollow.
Stuff That I Liked:
- Well done translation of the characters from the comic
- Snappy, rapid-fire dialogue
- Good performances by most of the cast
- Returning characters are expanded upon from the first film
- Some pretty sweet action scenes
- Doesn't try to be anything it's not
- The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 of the series - not as well done as the first, goofier and harder to take seriously, but still fun.
Stuff That I Didn't:
- Lacks the freshness of the first film
- Tries to do too many things at once, sacrificing new character development and pacing
- Extremely predictable story structure, sometimes relying on some weird Deus Ex Machina-type stuff.
- Lacks narrative tension
- Some shots that are just plain cheesy
- Introduction of lead-up threads to Avengers movie could turn off non-comic book fans
- Whiplash is kind of a pussy
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