Iron Man 2 (2010)

The beginning of the summer blockbuster season has officially begun, but unfortunately it’s stumbled out of the gate with Iron Man 2. One of the problems with the movie isn’t it’s willingness to please, it’s the fact that the filmmakers are trying to please everyone, thus robbing the film of much of its own personality and in turn creating very flat, disengaging viewing experience. While it succeeds in giving the audience a bigger spectacle than the efficient first film, Iron Man 2 tries to cram in too many characters and sub-plots, leaving me caring less and less about the characters and their stories by the end of it all. Director Jon Favreau was able to give us a breezy and witty first film, so what exactly changed?

Part of the problem was that the plot becomes so busy with multiple characters and unrelated scenes that it almost becomes an exercise of connecting the dots to figure out how the plotline you enjoy the most will come to its tidy conclusion. Are you ready for this? You have Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr., his performance still one of the highlights of the movie) relishing in his success with “privatizing national security” with Iron Man suit now coming under scrutiny from the government (led by Garry Shandling playing an oily senator). You also have physicist Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke, giving the character an introspective menace) building his own suit to take revenge against the Stark for some unresolved issues between his father and Stark’s father. There’s also Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell, relishing in the weasely qualities of his character, even seemingly sporting a bad spray-on tan in some scenes), who is trying to build his own army of robots for the government to push Stark out of the business. Also, Stark’s assistant Pepper Potts (Gwenyth Paltrow, somewhat confusingly giving her character a more frazzled personality than the first movie) has now been given the keys to Stark Industries, and she’s having to deal with not only the pressures from the outside world but also Stark’s indifferent attitude towards his own company. Potts hires mysterious new assistant Natasha (Scarlet Johansson, unfortunately reduced to little more than flirtatious glances and a few acrobatic moves), who may know a little more than she’s leading on, and also the return of Stark’s buddy Lt. James Rhodes (Don Cheadle, replacing Terrence Howard from the first film), whose big scene comes when he has to break up a party by brandishing one of Stark’s old suits and becoming sidekick War Machine. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson, hamming it up just so he doesn’t get lost) also shows up to talk about the Avengers project. Oh, and Tony Stark’s chest plate is also causing him to die, further increasing his downward spiral into alcoholism. Are you still reading? It’s a lot to take in, and at least half of the sub-plots were entirely unnecessary--namely, Scarlet Johansson’s character and Sam Jackson’s appearance as Nick Fury.

One of the primary joys of the original Iron Man was its sense of wonderment and discovery that Tony Stark feels as he builds and tests the abilities of his newly acquired suit. Thankfully, that sense of joy translated well to the audience, and the movie contained a certain sense of energy that was hard to deny. Couple that with a wonderfully egotistical performance from Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, and the movie succeeded by keeping the plot lean and efficient. Thankfully, Downey is still one of the primary highlights of the sequel, not losing a beat as the hyperactive and narcissistic Stark. I always felt that the least interesting part of the first film were the fight scenes, especially the final fight between Iron Man and his nemesis. It almost felt like an unnecessary add-on to all the engaging interactions the characters had experienced prior to that point. Unfortunately, Iron Man 2 seems to at least double all the action, which still stands to reason as the weakest point of these films. Both movies seem to do well with their interactions among the characters while managing to fall flat when it comes to action. It seems almost counter-intuitive for superhero flicks to have the action scenes become the most boring part, but I found more energy and excitement in the scenes between Downey and Rockwell or Rourke when they were sitting down debating physics instead of duking it out like Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots.

The movie isn’t incompetently made by any means, and thankfully the filmmakers knowingly keep the proceedings filled with wit and humor. It’s just unfortunate that the film manages to succumb to the inherent problem with many sequels--it’s too busy. I found myself bored with at least half of the subplots, and the action felt borderline generic to a fault (save for one exciting sequence involving Mickey Rourke’s character tearing up a Formula-1 racetrack.). The movie feels more like a misstep that could easily be corrected by removing all unnecessary characters or hints of future sequels (yes, we all know about the future Avengers movie. If it has almost nothing to do with the main plot, please stop advertising so brazenly here.). They say actions speak louder than words, but for Iron Man 3, here’s hoping Tony Stark can just talk all he wants.

Rating: 2 ½ stars (out of 5)