Review: Iron Man 2
Posted May 6, 2010 11:31 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It took me about 30 minutes to really get into Iron Man 2. It could have been that I was seated way in the back of the theatre or that the teenagers behind me kept talking. Either way, when I connected with it, I enjoyed the hell out of it and feel that it did a better job with the character than the first. Which is saying a lot considering I regard Iron Man as one of the greatest superhero movies ever made, on par with The Dark Knight.
Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) has been outed as Iron Man and he’s even cockier now than he was in the original film, mainly because he’s brought peace to the world. It’s been six months without any violence anywhere and the United States isn’t fighting in any war for the first time since 1974 thanks to him. What he doesn’t know is that Russian scientist Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) is building a weapon to kill him because he believes Stark Enterprises screwed over his father for the technology that keeps Stark alive (and makes the Iron Man suit tick). Their first encounter, on a race track in Monaco with cars being cut in half, ends with Vanko going to prison and Stark a little more than shaken up.
Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), who has been trying to get Stark to hand over the Iron Man suit to the government (because he considers it a weapon), gets Vanko out of prison and brings him back to the U.S. to help him and his company build their own suits of destruction. Vanko has other plans and instead goes to work on building an army of deadly droids.
Stark, meanwhile, is struggling with the fact that the technology keeping him alive is starting to poison him. Going through a bit of mid-life crisis over the realization he might die, he promotes Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) to CEO of the company. He officially hits rock bottom during his birthday party where, drunk and dressed in the Iron Man suit, he starts blowing stuff up and endangering his guests. His friend Lt. Col. James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) tries to stop him by donning one of Stark’s extra armoured outfits and going toe-to-toe with him until the house is destroyed. Thinking Stark has lost his mind for even battling with him, Rhodes takes off back to the military base with the armour.
The next day Stark is visited by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) who informs him that the new assistant he hired, Natalie (Scarlett Johansson), is actually part of Fury’s “Avengers” team. He also guides him to a way to save his life. Stark goes to work on the new device while Hammer is called in to tweak the outfit Rhodes stole by adding guns and missiles to it. This all leads to the big action fueled finale where Iron Man gets his butt kicked and then kicks everyone’s butt in return.
We all know Downey Jr. was made for this role. He’s equal parts charm and arrogance, and you love him and hate him at the same time. The new additions of Rourke and Johansson are perfect, especially Rourke who has the Russian accent down to an art. The only complaint I have with the cast is Cheadle, who is taking over the role from Terrence Howard. Where Howard came across as strong and confident, Cheadle appears weak and small.
You can tell director Jon Favreau and writer Justin Theroux (who last co-wrote Tropic Thunder) went into this with fun in mind, and it works. Sure, there are some ridiculous scenes, but they add to the overall value of the entertainment and should please fans of the comic and the first film. It’s also refreshing to see the filmmakers and the studio didn’t try to do a 3-D makeover before releasing it. I think the action sequences alone are enough special effects to keep moviegoers happy for the rest of the summer.
Iron Man 2 is a winner. Go see it and have a good time. Oh, and make sure to stay until after the end credits for a special surprise.
**** out of 5 stars
Rated PG
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Mickey Rourke, Scarlett Johansson, Gwyneth Paltrow
Directed by: Jon Favreau
Official Site IMDb
brian.mckechnie@citynews.rogers.com
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