With the success of Iron Man, it was only obligatory to bring him back for a sequel. Jon Favreau returned to helm it and of course Robert Downey Jr. comes back as the mascot for the relatively new franchise. People thought lightning would strike twice given how well the first entry went with the general non comic book reading public. Well, aside from the first entry most of the first films were clunky as far as being connected. This one is representative of some issues that persisted with the universe.
1. Demon in a Bottle
Picking up from the last movie, we see Stark fully embrace his Iron Man persona. So much so, that the US government pesters him to turn over his suits they deem as weapons. Meanwhile, Tony discovers that his arc reactor is slowly poisoning him where he starts to live more vicariously. On the other side, we see Ivan Vanko who has a vendetta with Stark that he vows revenge against him.
So yeah, we got three story beats to juggle with. It’s never a good sign to have multiple things get sort of tangled and weaved. I feel like the core story involving Tony attempting to find a solution for his problem could’ve just been the main overall story. So much so that it would’ve enhanced his character growth more as he tries to find a cure, but also see him become reckless with his newfound responsibility.
Watching the movie reminded me just how much it lacked in comparison to the first movie. I feel that most of the camaraderie with Stark and with everyone was amped up more since that’s the key thing that people tuned in for. Not to say the performance is a bad thing, everyone is doing their part and giving a great performance. Although, I think the main problem is that we’re told what’s happening.
Case in point being with seeing Tony’s growing problem with him. We’re mostly told that his poisoning is slowly killing him and that there’s no known cure. Having it be repetitive where it’s uttered is more annoying than anything. Just having be shown visually and have the performance take it from there should’ve been the thing to kick off everything for him.
Apart from that story bit, I think the film’s main MO is to be expansive with the world building. We get a new introduction to Natalie Rushman, and of course Scarlett Johansson is just drop dead gorgeous. She sells being duplicitous with being an assistant to being an undercover spy working with Nick Fury. While everything in the movie is focused on Tony, it does too much to just focus on him.
I haven’t had a chance to talk about the villains, there’s two. Well, there’s technically three since we see a Senator that’s advocating for Tony to turn over his suits. We see Stark’s rival Justin Hammer who basically wants to become like Tony to the point of upstaging him. And then we see Vanko or Whiplash, since his gimmick is that he made his own suit with electric whips. He’s formidable but the movie doesn’t really give him much of anything to do aside from being a lackey to Hammer and give Stark a death wish.
One more thing is that Rhodey was recast in the film. It’s shown in the film since they might as well get through with it without dragging it out. Don Cheadle does a good job with being Rhodey, and the reason for the recast was that Terrance Howard was difficult to work with in the last film. I feel that with how Rhodey was used was more with the government angle of them wanting the suit.
How it went about it is the best part since we see Tony getting blasted at his birthday party and how Rhodey gets upset with Stark treating the suit as a toy. The fight is great and there’s a moment where it reminded me of Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots. As much as that subplot could’ve been just The subplot, it feels obligatory to have Tony lose something and then be humbled back to reality.
2. Sins of the Father
I think the key thing that stops the film from being on par with the first Iron Man is that the whole story is contingent on Tony’s Dad. He’s the one that basically kicks off everything from the ensuing story beats and villain motivations. It’s established in the opening credits that Vanko’s father worked for Stark but was deported to Russia, which fuels Ivan’s rage to recreate the mini arc reactor for him to use.
More so that when Tony is in the Senate hearing, his business rival Justin brings up Howard Stark as his inspiration to be a weapons industrialist. A backhanded remark to what Tony attempted to change. With what we know of Stark’s father, we only ever hear about his involvement with the Vanko’s and not see just how it was played out. The “Show don’t Tell” thing rears it’s head again.
I think it’s more egregious when after Tony sobers up, Fury pays him a visit and dumps more exposition about his dad and the Vankos. To sum up, it’s boring and not just interesting since it’s alluded to and even mentioned that Tony’s father attempted to create a new element but was restricted by technology. All of it brings the movie down when Tony sees old footage of him and gets motivated to finally cure his malady.
At this point, what I’m saying is basically a take down of this movie. Not to say that it’s bad as like a fouled-up entry but more so that it went about telling the story the completely wrong way. It’s okay in the most basic form of a movie, but not game changing or necessary to see the big picture where it’s all leading to. And I think that it’s appropriate that I mention the Marvel Creative Committee.
To sum up, the Committee was basically a team of Marvel Comics’ creatives giving written advice on the writing process of the movie and to practically make necessary the easter eggs to further strengthen the cinematic universe. It upset the filmmakers since it’s an entirely different medium when it comes down to comic books and feature length movies. Inevitably, it would disbanded within the subsequent films later.
3. Overall
Iron Man 2 is one of the weakest entries for the first phase of the Cinematic Universe. It’s okay given the performance of everyone, but just another road to the inevitable team-up.
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