Iron Man 2

A few months ago, I was listening to the great Canadian comedy podcast Stop Podcasting Yourself (which is, sincerely, very much worth your time, and free). One of the two hosts, Graham Clark, was talking about having seen Iron Man 2 in theaters and not being a fan. While he wasn't really able to pinpoint one thing or another that truly sucked, he did point out that Mickey Rourke saying, "I want my bird," was just about the stupidest thing he could have imagined; that he mentioned this while goofily impersonating Rourke with a mix of Russian and Brooklynese made the whole thing funnier, while also being true.

I didn't like Iron Man 2 as much as I'd wanted to, and it was not nearly as good as its predecessor, but the movie does have strengths. Whenever you stick Robert Downey, Jr., Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow, Rourke, Sam Rockwell, and Scarlett Johansson in a movie, it's not going to be terrible. That said, with that cast, Iron Man 2 really should be a lot better. Some of the action is memorable and completely appropriate; the early fight on a Monaco race track manages to be properly intense but end quickly because it makes sense within the story. I watched the film again this weekend, the first time since it came out in theaters, and kind of understood where the movie falls apart just a bit.

In terms of storytelling, the first 40-50 minutes make perfect sense and don't disappoint. Tony Stark is living it up in the public as Iron Man, but the technology he created to keep himself alive is killing him, and he doesn't want to tell anyone. Fine. As Iron Man becomes more popular, the son of the other man who came up with the arc reactor with Tony Stark's dad wants revenge on the title character. Also, fine. The government wants the Iron Man suit for military use, and if they can't get it, they'll take the work of his rival, Justin Hammer, a man who would be Tony Stark if he was just a bit smarter. Again, fine. I don't think Iron Man 2 suffers from the same problems Spider-Man 3 did, tossing too much into the pot. Though there are two villains in the film, Ivan Vanko is much more formidable for having creating the Whiplash technology. Rather, Ivan Vanko should be much more formidable, but he's not.

That's the problem with Iron Man 2; after the first third of the film, Vanko disappears or is sat behind a computer. He appears as a supervillain only twice, and the first time is on that race track, as an unknown quantity. Who's Tony going to face off with if not a supervillain? Having Tony deal with personal problems is not the issue, nor are his tussles with his friend Rhodey. The issue is that we end up focusing a bit too much on the side characters who aren't going to pose much of a threat to Tony. For example, I wasn't that annoyed with the Avengers aspect of the film, but I can see why some people were. We spend a good chunk of the final hour of Iron Man 2 as Tony discovers that some people surrounding him are working on a much bigger project that he ends up being a very small part of. What's the point, within Iron Man 2, of watching Tony Stark face off with Nick Fury and Natasha Romanoff if he's told in the end that he can be a consultant, maybe, but nothing more. Obviously, based on the Comic-Con news from this summer, one would assume Tony Stark will be in plenty of The Avengers (and based on the cast and Joss Whedon directing, I am excited), but that doesn't make Iron Man 2 feel as complete or successful. There are good action sequences, specifically the climactic battle, and Downey, Jr. (as well as Rockwell) gets some funny moments, but Iron Man 2 felt a bit more like a letdown on Blu-ray.