Less funny. Better action. Just as good as the first.
I’m going to throw something out there that might be a little controversial to fanboys. Perhaps Iron Man 2 would have been better if there was no such thing as Iron Man. Imagine what this movie could have been as simply an intense rivalry between two egotistical, charming, nutty, arms manufacturing CEOs played by Robert Downey Jr. and Sam Rockwell. There would still be plenty of witty dialogue, arrogant machismo, gear-head porn, and explosions galore but less to distract from all of that like glitzy special effects sequences that involve battle suits whose functions and limits I don’t fully understand. I mentioned in my review for the first “Iron Man,” that I found Tony Stark more interesting outside of his suit than inside of it. That continues in this movie. I think the problem was that I was never sure how protective the Iron Man suit was. Would bullets actually penetrate it? How badly did it need to be hit before Stark became hurt? It seems that it could be thrown through walls and it wouldn’t affect Stark at all. I don’t know if bullets actually would hurt it. Plenty were thrown around but I don’t think a single bullet from any gun hit any target in this movie. After awhile the sound of machine guns sort of gets redundant. I don’t recall the last movie I saw when the bad guys weren’t shooting blanks.
The movie was directed Jon Favreau and written by Justin Theroux. Both are mainly recognized as actors but do a competent job here. The inspiration in this movie has primarily to do with casting. If you want to hear me gush over Robert Downey Jr. see my previous review of “Iron Man.” I also particularly like Sam Rockwell as his business competitor, Justin Hammer. Together I suppose they could be called the Kings of Nuance. Both have this incredible ability to insert odd rhythms into their speech that can really liven up the conversation. I was very glad that the movie gave each of them plenty of lines. I can listen to these two all day long, it was just too bad that they didn’t have more than one conversation with each other. It could be said that normal people don’t talk like these two. But then again, megalomaniacal arms manufacturing CEOs aren’t normal people. One of my favorite moments in the movie is when Sam Rockwell opens his keynote speech at the Stark Expo by doing a nutty little dance up to the podium. I love that dude.
The story has two main conflicts. One is that Tony Stark is dying. The core that is keeping him alive is also poisoning his blood. The Second is that a disgruntled Russian named Ivan Vanko (played by Mickey Rourke) believes Tony Stark’s father stole his father’s idea for the iron man suit. He is out for revenge and has a pretty cool suit for himself. There’s also a side story that involves an eye-patch wearing Samuel L. Jackson who seems to be recruiting Robert Downey Jr. for another sequel. I’m sure anyone who has read the comic books will know what that is about. I didn’t but it didn’t particularly bother me.
The laughs in Iron Man 2 do not come as early as they do in Iron Man, but after a half hour through the film they start to pick up. The makers do a good job of keeping up a screwball pace to the dialogue and the actors are eminently capable of throwing the lines back and forth. There is a particularly great scene where Tony Stark attempts to apologize to Pepper Pots for several arrogant indiscretions. Stark’s attempt reminded me of the Dude trying to explain the new shit that had come to light to the Big Lebowski. It really is perfectly delivered.
For the reasons stated above, the best action scenes are those that don’t involve the Iron Man Suit. I particularly liked Ivan Vanko first battle with Tony Stark in which he chops his racecar in half on the Monaco speedway. More impressive though was Scarlett Johansson’s fight scene in which she beats the crap out of about ten much larger dudes. It was the first time I have seen a movie put in the effort to debunk the ‘Implausibly Tough Girl’ cliché. (For reference sake the Implausibly Tough Girl is any woman in an action movie who has the extraordinary ability to disable men twice her size simply by knowing kung fu. This hard to believe discrepancy occurs because we like our action women in a certain paradoxical way. We want them to match our standards of beauty i.e. be very thin, buxom, wear lots of makeup, etc. but also possess the ability to kick-ass. Of course someone who is very thin will also naturally be very weak. That’s why it’s implausible. Because it happens all the time makes it a cliché.) How “Iron Man 2” does this is something I advocate all the time. They show the action sequence in long enough shots so the audience can tell exactly how Scarlett does it. I’m still not sure the physics made complete sense but I did actually see it happen. In one scene she manages something related to a scissors kick to grasp Jon Favreau by the neck and throw him to the ground. I was impressed. I’m very much looking forward to what Scarlett will get to do in the next movie. As far as I remember the first movie didn’t have any hand-to-hand combat, something I will always find more entertaining than the consistently ineffective use of machine guns. For that reason I’d say the action in the second is slightly better than the first. In short, the movies are about the same caliber and are worth seeing.
I should also mention a small part of Garry Shandling as a Senator who repeatedly fails to get Tony Stark to give over the Iron Man suit to the United States. He plays the type of hapless person you would think he would play and is consistently funny in doing so.
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