Writer: Justin Theroux
Runtime: 124 min.
Iron Man, the first, was by all accounts a blast, heavy on the repartee and CGI demolition, and established Robert Downey Jr. as the most likeable and fun super-/anti-hero and screen presence to date. I didn't think it was perfect and I didn't really understand people claiming it was the best comic book movie ever, but it was definitely a fun ride and had all the necessary elements.
Iron Man 2 picks up where that one left off to a great extent. Downey is once again a riot on screen, he talks so fast and has such a captivating persona--it's kind of hard to envision the divide between Downey, Stark, and Stark's ultra-ego. It all just blends. The movie is nothing without him, and his awareness of his importance is evident, as it bleeds over into the character--a character who sits in front of the United States government and tells it to bugger off, essentially, "You can't touch me because you need me too bad." It's believable, it follows accordingly from the actions of the first film, and it's one of the few not-excruciatingly-obvious plot devices for the rest of the film. Tony's narcissism is going to come back and bite him in the ass. It's clear, but it's his character.
The setup, I think, is fantastic. Mickey Rourke wastes no time making his presence felt as Ivan Vanko, the supposed villain of the story. In fact, I think his grand entrance is probably the best scene of the movie, even though it's ridiculous on so many levels (the rest of the drivers would continue to race even though cars are being blown up left and right? Isn't that why you have crew chiefs?). Rourke is pretty good. I was concerned his Russian accent was going to be garbage from the trailer, but it actually wasn't too bad--maybe because they limited him to only a handful of lines. But he was quite badass and a freaking genius to boot--which is actually one of the things I thought was problematic about the movie. Sure, Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) is obviously the main villain. He wants to take down Stark and make him look like a little girl (in a little dress, little saddleshoes, little pigtails) at any cost, even though it seems like his villainy is forced. But that's besides the point. He's hateable. It makes sense. Vanko, though, isn't really hateable at all. His gripe with Stark is kind of legit (Stark's father banished Vanko's father to Russia after the two had been partners) and they only really address it with one line of dialogue, but in a rush to do everything else they're trying to do, don't really come back to it. So all we see is Vanko as a one-man wrecking crew, totally dismantling Hammer's entire software mainframe and fleet of drone soldiers. And he makes himself a kickin' Iron Man replica, complete with wickedly awesome electric tentacles (alright, I'm not sure how to describe it, but you know what I'm talking about). He's not even really that evil. He's just brilliant. He made all of his stuff without the resources of Stark, all on his own in this tiny shack in a frozen Russian town, and yet was able to compete. That gets more thumbs up than thumbs down in my book.
Most of that is forgivable, though. I think Favreau (and maybe more important, the Marvel suits behind the financing) had a bigger agenda--trying to cram all this Avengers stuff into the plot, trying to fit in a few too many plot points (Rhodes fighting Tony and stealing the War Machine suit is maybe the weakest moment in the movie, and ideally would have been skipped--but they needed to facilitate the War Machine storyline somehow) and the end result was a long movie with a million events happening inside of it. So you can't blame them for everything. The fight scenes were still cool, Iron Man zipped across the screen with as much flair as ever (even though I think they upped the CGI ante a little too much, everything was like the computers from Minority Report and Tony carries Iron Man around inside a briefcase), and most importantly, the characters were well done and had terrific interactions. That, I think, is the hallmark of the Iron Man movies--viciously quick banter between Stark and others, especially Pepper, that makes the movie a lot more fun and natural than other comic book films with hackneyed one-liners. That feature remains intact. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Scarlett Johansson as Natalie/Natasha/Black Widow, who plays the part of sexy assistant quite dashingly, and then blows everyone's doors off when she whips into high gear (and a leather catsuit). Seriously, good for her. I think she'll just pull out a reel of this movie the next time some online gossip columnist rags on her for being thick in the thighs. All good, all the time.
The part I found to be not-so-all-good? Blah. The end. I think some other people out there have commented on the quick and painless nature of the final fight sequence, but it really was kind of a letdown for me. As devastating as Vanko was in the first encounter--quite nearly killing Stark--he came back with an even more powerful suit at the end, but was dismissed quite effortlessly. And the scene only took about 40 seconds. This was disappointing, and was not too different than how I felt about the ending of the first movie. The final victories just seem to come too easily for Iron Man. And when you've sifted through all the wheelings and dealings of the first 115 minutes, what would have really driven the stake home would have been a killer final battle--only the movie ended up going out with a whimper. And that's a shame, because based on the first matchup, it could have been a doozy.
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