Iron Man gets bulky with sequel

In 2008, Jon Favreau and Robert Downey, Jr. teamed up to make the first Iron Man movie. It was also the first movie entirely developed by Marvel Studios. The film balanced mile-high excitement with timely subtexts and rich character development, going on to become one of the most successful blockbusters of its summer.

After two years of anticipation, Iron Man 2 has finally arrived. Does it live up to the first movie? Well, not really. But it’s not a complete disappointment either.

In the first ten minutes of the sequel, we are introduced to no less than four plot points:

- a Russian named Ivan Vanko (played menacingly by Mickey Rourke) plots revenge against Tony Stark
- Tony Stark’s heart device (which was implanted in the first film to prevent shrapnel from entering his heart) is slowly poisoning him
- the United States government is fighting over the right to the Iron Man technology as part of the military industrial complex
- Justin Hammer (played by Sam Rockwell), an ineffective military contractor who admires Stark wants political power and a piece of Stark’s success.

That’s a lot to take in for a superhero popcorn flick. But in the following twenty minutes:

- Stark, playing his personal worries close to the chest, appoints the frazzled Pepper Potts as CEO of Stark Industries
- The friendship between Tony and James Rhodes (previously played by Terrence Howard, is now played by Don Cheadle) becomes strained by Rhodey’s responsibilities to the United States military
- a young assistant from legal named Natalie Rushman (played by Scarlett Johansson) is assigned to aid Potts and presumably keep an eye on Stark’s behavior
- Stark’s behavior starts to become… tipsy
- and S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Nick Fury (played by Samuel L. Jackson) is keeping an eye on Stark as part of assembling the Avengers Initiative.

You got all of that?

Well, it’s far more to follow than the leaner, more efficient Iron Man, but Favreau barely manages to avoid buckling under the weight and handles it all rather well. One villain becomes directly related to the other, the seeds and references to other movies are integrated either subtly or in a way that furthers the story, action we’ve come to expect is delivered upon, and some subtext manages to still be slipped in amidst all of this (I can’t explain how this last element is achieved without spoiling anything).

The problem is not just that this is a lot to be squeezed into a two-hour film, but as a result of all this content, character development gets sacrificed. This is the sequel’s biggest flaw, especially since the first film developed its characters so well. What should be an intriguing fight between friends turns into a rock ‘em, sock ‘em mess that’s about as interesting as watching a three year-old slam two action figures against each other for five minutes. Stark’s slide into alcoholic recklessness is played like something you’d see in a Robot Chicken short. And it seems, during his story’s final moments that we should feel something more for Vanko than we do.

Only Pepper Potts, played with great reserve and determination by Gwyneth Paltrow, gets any significant growth. In the first film, Potts was portrayed as a devoted personal assistant who barely tolerated Stark’s late-night ‘trash’ and life-altering career choice. In Iron Man 2, Potts goes from stressed assistant to confident CEO who’s tired of having to manage a Fortune 500 corporation; Tony Stark’s careless behaviors and lifestyle; and her love for Tony, which will never amount to anything because of her job and his actions.

Scarlett Johansson is introduced as the aforementioned Natalie. I don’t think it would spoil anything to share that there’s more to Natalie than her working knowledge of harassment laws. She is actually Natasha Romanoff (a.k.a. Black Widow); an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Johansson has admitted in interviews that she isn’t typically drawn to comics and knew next to nothing about her character. Comic fandom has proven not to be a necessary prerequisite to portraying a superhero well. But Scarlett comes from a history of period films and Woody Allen dramas – and it shows. She mostly seems uncomfortable in her Lycra skin. The only scene where Scarlett is convincing is her one action scene near the end. She gives Iron Man 2 some of its best action moments. This is promising because maybe in a future film (Avengers is preferred over an Elektra-like solo effort) she’ll be allowed the opportunity to grow into and develop her character more.

One of the film’s strengths is Mickey Rourke as Ivan Vanko. Vanko is a third-world physicist whose father has ties to the Stark family. Rourke plays him as cold, menacing, and unpredictable. Vanko is a brute, but a cunning brute whose aim is not to simply kill Tony Stark, rather to ruin his rock-star public image and turn the public against him. This is an intriguing idea, the result of which isn’t handled as overtly as what we saw in The Dark Knight, but does end up posing some questions for the third installment.

There’s much more in Iron Man 2 to keep straight than its predecessor. It’s possible to navigate through, but it’s a lot for a mainstream superhero film. It’s a movie that packs a lot in and is a bit more serious under the surface, but unfortunately a lot of the fun and character got left behind with the first movie.


6/10

Should you see it? Rent


Iron Man 2 is in theaters now.


Note: there will be no review next week as I'm taking a vacation.