Should I start with the bottom line? OK then, I’ll cut to the chase:
IRON MAN >
IRON MAN 2.
This was the first time in quite a while that I have been let down by a comic book film’s first sequel. In fact, I’d have to go back to 1992 and BATMAN RETURNS for that.
Now, don’t misunderstand me, OK? IM2 is no where in the sequel suck range as BATMAN RETURNS and it’s actually a quite enjoyable flick.
It’s just that we’ve had such a good run of late with these first sequels, you know what I mean? Case in point…
HELLBOY 2…
SPIDER-MAN 2
X-MEN 2…
And of course, the greatest comic book film of all-time, THE DARK KNIGHT.
It’s like the folks behind IM2 said, “Screw the great 1st sequel tradition, lets opt for the 3rd movie sucks curse!”
Yes, I’m being a bit sarcastic here. IM2 is actually a fairly fun film and it’s definitely not an embarrassment to superhero movies and their fans. Nevertheless, I feel as they missed the boat here in terms of improving upon the original as well as raising the bar for the comic book movie genre.
In this outing, Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.) squares off against two villains. One -- Mickey Rourke’s Ivan Vanko -- is a Russian physicist who becomes the revenge-minded super-villain “Whiplash.” The other -- Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer -- is an insufferable weapons manufacturer who wants to discover the secret of the “Iron Man technology” and sell a slew of super-powered robot soldiers to the U.S. government. Naturally, Vanko and Hammer team up -- as villains often do in comic book movies -- to take out Tony Stark and Stark Industries once and for all.
Both Rourke and Rockwell do a fine job in their respective bad guy roles, but I thought that the latter was particularly good. Really y’all, he was such an A-hole, you wanted someone to smack the hell out of him!
As in the original, Robert Downey, Jr. is outstanding as Tony Stark. In fact, there’s much more Tony than Iron Man this time around. If you were expecting or wanting a lot of more of ‘ol Shellhead in this outing, your probably going to be disappointed. Personally, it really didn’t bother me THAT much because I thought RDJ as Stark was terrific -- and quite funny. But yeah, I would have liked a bit more of Tony in the suit myself to be honest.
Enjoy!
As far as the other major cast members -- Don Cheadle as “Rhodey” Rhodes/War Machine, Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanov/Black Widow (see pic above), and Gwyneth Paltrow as “Pepper” Potts -- I’ve got nothing negative to say about their performances, but you won’t find me singing their praises either. They were all “alright.”
OK, one negative thing about these three -- well, one of them actually. Gwyneth Paltrow simply wasn’t as good this time around as she was in IM. I found her rather unbelievable as the CEO of Stark Enterprises as some of her line delivery -- while in that particular role mind you -- wasn’t up to the standard of an actress of her caliber.
The action does pick up for the finale where Iron Man and his new partner, War Machine, team up to take down Whiplash. While a pretty good action piece, it's basically the same damn ending as IM, except with more good and bad guys in Iron Man-eque suits.
Couldn’t they have come up with something a bit more -- I don’t know -- original?
One thing before I wind this all up and give it a grade…
This THE ADVENGERS stuff.
Was it overt? Absolutely.
Did it take away from the film? No, not really. In fact, I’ll go as far as to say that they worked THE AVENGERS angle into the flick quite well. HOWEVER…
It’s looking to me as if this whole thing with setting up THE AVENGERS movie is starting to become the tail that wags the dog -- you know what I mean? As smoothly as it went with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Black Widow, I still think that you could have made both IM and IM2 without these characters and the blatant winks/nods (AKA “Easter Eggs”) to these other Marvel Comics characters and their respective solo films.
Maybe it’s just me, but I feel that’s putting the cart before the horse. Not only that, but it’s GOT to force these directors of the solo films to include stuff in their movies that they probably wouldn’t if Marvel wasn’t so dead set on an Avengers film.
Here’s the bottom line with me: I liked IRON MAN 2 and would recommend it to both my non-comic book reading fans as well as my superhero nerd comrades as well. BUT…
1) It’s not as good as #1 as Favreau and co. didn’t up the ante.
2) More Tony than Iron Man won’t please many moviegoers.
3) AND, having “THE AVENGERS IS COMING” shoved down my throat was a bit obnoxious.
Other than that ENJOY!
(Take note on #3 Warner Bros./DC Entertainment, OK?)
GRADE: C+
IRON MAN 2 hits theaters everywhere on May 7, 2010.
