04 May Nerdy for Thirty #28: Iron Man 2

IRON MAN 2

dir. John Favreau, starring Robert Downey Jr., Mickey Rourke, Gwenyth Paltrow, and Scarlett Johansson

Iron Man 2 marks the return of Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, having fully embraced his role as Iron Man, America’s armor-clad protector. Fresh off a successful heroic run, its revealed that Tony’s arc reactor is causing him grave issues, leading him to a more and more reckless lifestyle. Fed up with the showboating, loudmouthed hero is Ivan Vanko, aka Whiplash, who seeks to assemble his own weapons based off the arc reactor and enact vengeance on Tony thanks to a generation long beef. Backing Vanko is Justin Hammer, a weapons manufacturer that attempts to rival Stark Industries and is constantly slighted and dismissed by Tony. Joining the film are Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow and a new James Rhodes as War Machine. Together, all of them have to stop the egotistical Hammer and hellbent on murder Ivan Vanko before they can destroy the Stark Expo and thousands of innocent people.

Returning to direct after the smash hit of the first Iron Man, John Favreau continues the story of Tony Stark’s personal journey, albeit with a number of backslides and setbacks. As a film, Favreau continues to be razor sharp in how he decides to translate the story from page to screen. Unfortunately, a lot of the film’s issues comes from the story itself, not Favreau’s direction. Disney’s refusal to let Favreau tell the Demon in the Bottle story, easily the most famous and loved of all Iron Man stories, forced writer Justin Theroux to find a way to mimic Tony’s life spiraling out of control without being able to use alcohol as its catalyst. Thusly is born an issue with the palladium inside of Tony’s arc reactor slowly poisoning him and Tony’s inability to find a cure. That, combined with taking far too much of the story’s time to expand the MCU as a whole (a criticism that would come back to bite Feige and the team multiple times over the course of their run), hampers Tony’s progression as a character.

The theme of this movie is legacy: Tony attempts to honor his father’s legacy by reopening the Stark Expo, Howard passes his legacy down to Tony via a video recorded for him in the 70s, and the movie as a whole serves to establish and build upon the legacy of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Starring Robert Downey Jr once more as Tony Stark/Iron Man, the veteran actor easily slips into the shoes of the character he’ll forever be associated with. Still cheeky as ever, this Tony has a harder edge than previously seen as he battles the mystery of how to save himself. We get a different, more fatalistic side of Tony, which allows Downey more material to play with and further depths of the character to explore. Downey is still top notch here, brilliant in his scenes with Gwenyth Paltrow’s Pepper.

One of the great things to come out of Iron Man 2 is Pepper’s promotion to CEO of Stark Industries, giving the character more agency than the previous movie. Tony and Pepper’s fun, flirty relationship is almost nonexistent here as Paltrow has to shift into a more exasperated role, dealing with being a new CEO along with Tony’s self-destructive nature. Paltrow is great as Pepper Potts, and it’s a shame that as Iron Man grew into The Avengers, her scenes became more and more minimal.

Introducing Scarlett Johansson into the MCU as master spy/assassin Natasha Romanoff, thus was born the MCU’S first teamup film. Johansson is wonderful as the undercover infiltrator to Stark Industries, able to balance using her sexuality to lower men’s defenses as well as using her fists, feet, and any manner of gadgetry to fight off a half dozen guards. Romanoff’s Black Widow is only given one action scene in the movie’s final act, but it remains possibly the best scene of the movie. Johansson’s introduction here was a strong outing, making her arrival in The Avengers an anticipated one based off the strength of her performance here.

Mickey Rourke headlines as Ivan Vanko/Whiplash, the movie’s physical antagonist. Playing a Russian thug just as intelligent as Tony Stark without the resources, Whiplash remains one of the MCU’s most disappointing villains due to Rourke’s questionable performance as well as the handling of the character. Vanko’s vow of revenge after Tony’s father ousted Vanko’s father, leaving them destitute for life is the seed of what could be a great rivalry between the two, but unfortunately, due to the introduction of so many new characters and concepts, Whiplash is relegated to the film’s boogeyman, appearing to inconvenience Tony at some of the worst times. It could be postulated that Rourke’s eccentric performance is due to the script not having much meat for the actor to chew on, but it still remains one of the oddest outings of the franchise as a whole.

Don Cheadle replaces Terrence Howard as James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes, best friend of Tony Stark and eventually the War Machine, a suit overloaded with firepower for what we’ll assume is for ‘peacekeeping’ purposes. Levels better than Howard’s performance in the first movie, Cheadle knocks it out of the park as a man who is concerned, angered, and frustrated as he watches his best friend rapidly deteriorate. The chemistry between Cheadle and Downey is undeniable, one of the best friendships in the entire MCU.

Directed yet again by John Favreau, who continues to also play Tony’s bodyguard Happy Hogan, Iron Man 2’s issues certainly aren’t in its direction. Much like the initial Iron Man, Favreau injects the fun and energy into the scenes like Whiplash’s attack on Tony at the raceway in Monaco, and the third act cat-and-mouse game of Tony/Rhodey/Whiplash. At just over 2 hours, the movie’s middle segment, when Tony is at his worst, is where the story drags to a halt as they take the spotlight away from the character to help set up and expand the MCU.

Overall, while weaker than its predecessor, Iron Man 2 is still a fun time to be had, if for no other reason than spending its entire runtime trying to figure out exactly what the hell Mickey Rourke is doing at any given time. Downey, with a bit of a darker edge in this outing, is still effortlessly charming as the lovable Tony Stark, even if his armor isn’t shining as bright as it did in the first. Tony’s relationships with both Pepper and Rhody become more unstable in this shaky second act of Iron Man movies, but those rocky relationships make for interesting interactions between all the characters. Faverau’s direction is as solid as ever, and the action scenes continue to hold up, delighting viewers with the first movie tease of seeing Iron Man and War Machine team up. While usually ranked in the lower levels of MCU films, there’s still a few diamonds to sift out of the muck.

Review by Darryl Mansel