“I am Iron Man”. This is the last thing we heard from Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) before the credits rolled on Iron Man, leaving most of us to wonder, what next? Well how about securing world peace, does that work for you? We meet back up with Tony Stark aka Iron Man at the Stark Expo where he makes a dramatic appearance skydiving onto the expo stage in full armor. As the armor is removed and Stark appears we find him in fine, full of himself, sarcastic, and witty form. All is well….for now, little does Tony know that awaiting him in the very near future is a congressional panel demanding he hand over the Iron Man technology. If only that were the worst of his bad luck. Enter Ivan Venko (Mickey Rourke), who’s father helped Tony’s father develop the arc reactor technology that powers the suit. Venko is more than slightly disgruntled. This is due to Howard and thereby Tony Stark getting all of the credit and glory for his father’s invention. Thankfully his father kept some blueprints so Venko is able to make his own brand of suit, a suit that he will use to destroy Stark. Mixing up in the plot is Pepper Potts (Gwenyth Paltrow), Tony’s former assistant and now CEO of Stark enterprises, Natalie Rushman (Scarlett Johanson) the beautiful newly appointed personal assistant, and S.H.I.E.L.D front man Colonel Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). If it doesn’t sound like a full plot yet, let’s throw in Lt Col. James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes (Don Cheadle), Tony’s best friend and liason for the United States military, it’s his job to keep Stark in line and in check as well as report on and possibly acquire the Iron Man suit. Whew we are rolling and I haven’t even mentioned Justin Hammer, a competitor of Tony’s, and a bit of a wanker who may just be in league with Ivan Venko to develop his own line of Iron Men. All of this and I didn’t even mention that the palladium chest piece that powers his suit is slowly poisoning him. This time around Tony’s got a lot to do, no question there. The question is how well does he do it?
Pretty damn well I must say. Wow was this was an ass-clenching action ride that seriously brings out the kid in you. Let’s start with the framework of the film, without which the movie would fall over. I’m talking about Mr Downey Jr., man this guy is amazing, charismatic, and has damn good comedic timing. He manages to take scenes that, without him, would be boring and tedious and turn them into interesting or funny bits. His raw charisma allows him to pull off even the cheesiest of lines with some charm. NO ONE, and I mean no one can play Tony Stark but Robert Downey Jr. The only real comparison I can think of is Bill Murray’s Peter Venkman from Ghostbusters, that’s the level of fun that Downey brings to this role. Don Cheadle is a massive improvement over Terrance Howard (who wasn’t bad, mind you) in the role of Rhodey, the chemistry seems more genuine which means a lot in this one and his delivery sounds less like a whiney punk and more like a military man with a job to do. Johannson was a delight in her role as Natalie Rushman. Starting the film as Tony’s new assistant and showing later that she’s much more, the SHIELD agent known as Black Widow is a full on bad ass, who drops her comic world Russian accent for a more Americanized dialect. I was at first a little nerdy about this fact thinking they should have kept the Russian accent but in the end I’d rather they just drop it than try and force a bad Russian accent for the comic’s sake. Speaking of for the comic’s sake there is plenty in this flick to keep the avid comic fan happy with tons of throwbacks to Iron Man and other comic all stars. Let’s talk really quick about the newest addition to Tony Stark’s world, War Machine! Wow this might be the most bad ass character I have seen in a comic movie, rivaled only by Blade. Strapped with more firepower than a National Guard battalion and looks that make the Mark IV armor look like a bad comic con rip-off, War Machine is where it’s at, he injects pure adrenaline into any scene in which he appears. On the bad guy end of things Whiplash, played by Mickey Rourke, starts the film off with the energy that War Machine brings in the third act. Using the Iron Man technology filtered through a set of whips that cut through anything like a light saber Whiplash wreaks havoc on a Monaco track and makes you remember just who he is. I spoke earlier about the comic book throwbacks throughout the film, but let’s talk more specifically about the Avengers. Favearu and co. are in full on preparation mode for the joint film venture with a lot of cool drops showing you the future ahead, it’s enough to get even the slightest of geek hyped. So Iron Man 2 is the perfect sequel, right?
Well, not quite. The biggest problem with the movie is the lack of Iron Man himself. He literally only gets three scenes one of which can’t even be considered a battle scene. Usually a sequel amps up the action and gives you more of your hero but not this one. Iron Man time is sacrificed for a storyline, which was necessary, about Tony revamping his power source. That leads into my other complaint, the movie is uneven, starting out with a bang and slowing down to a crawl before speeding you right back up to overdrive for the final act. While I liked the actor switch of Terrance Howard to Don Cheadle I felt like they should’ve given Rhodey a bit more screen time to make his friendship with Stark more clear since they’re relationship is one of the pivotal points of the movie. Lastly is Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), who I found hilarious at first…but then the humor he brings grows tired. Then it just gets annoying, than funny again, and finally it rests on bothersome. Rockwells fine in the role, I just think they went for the brand of funny he brings too many times. I almost wish I could bring up some more points but there isn’t anything bad left to say.
Is this better than the first Iron Man? You know, I honestly can’t tell. I would just say the two are different movies that are equally as awesome. The cool thing about this movie is that even the worst points of the flick are negated by the amazing third act. You may at some points be thinking to yourself that the movie is not as good as the first but I guarantee by the time you leave the theater you will be thinking that this movie was awesome. When it comes to kicking off the summer movie season Iron Man 2 does it in style. If the rest of the flicks coming out way this summer season are as good we are in for the most amazing season in a long while.
4 out of 5 Guttenbergs
