Iron Man 2 – Movie Review

Iron Man 2 is a great movie. Let’s get that out of the way right now. If that’s all you were waiting to hear, there it is: it’s well worth the price of admission, as it provides you a very solid couple hours’ of entertainment. Robert Downey, Jr. is still a fantastic Tony Stark, the action scenes are still beautiful, and both Mickey Rourke and Don Cheadle acquit themselves extremely well in their new roles. Go thou therefore, and purchase tickets now! …Unless, that is, you want more details, in which case read on. (And THEN go thou forth and purchase tickets!)

Spoiler warnings for Iron Man 2 ahead!

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The movie picks up shortly after the original Iron Man ends. The world knows that Tony Stark is Iron Man, and he has parlayed that fame into a giant “Stark Expo” that brings the world’s finest minds under a single roof to work together for the good of mankind. However, all is not as rosy as the image Stark presents to his adoring public. The military is pressuring him to turn over the Iron Man technology to the Pentagon, while Tony himself is slowly dying of poison being leeched into his blood by the same mini-reactor that’s keeping shrapnel from piercing his heart. While all this is going on, Tony must also deal with a new super-villain in Ivan Vanko (aka Whiplash), a Russian physicist whose father worked with Howard Stark to develop a prototype arc-reactor technology.

Once again, Robert Downey, Jr. carries the movie on his back with his formidable acting talent and tremendous charisma. That’s not a criticism of the movie, but an acknowledgment of just how integral Downey is to its success. More than the story of superhero vs. villain, this movie is the story of Tony Stark, and the struggle taking place within him. Without Downey the effects would still be wonderful, the story would still be exciting and the suit would still look amazing, but the movie would lose its heart and soul if he wasn’t there to provide Stark with the necessary dose of humanity. Even on the rare occasions that the film lags, or one of the other actors falls below par, Downey is there to pick up the slack and makes every single frame of the movie work regardless of what’s going on or who is in it.

Not that there is a whole lot for Downey to have to make up for, the visuals are excellent across the board and the action scenes—particularly the much-touted showdown on the Monaco racetrack between Stark and Vanko— are thrilling to experience. Mickey Rourke provides an absolutely fantastic villain, and imbues Vanko/Whisplash with terrifying confidence, and shows that he is a threat any time, and anywhere. But Vanko, of course, is far more than simple brute force; he has a mind that rivals Tony’s own, and Rourke does a great job of showing off the character’s intellect as well as his physical strength.

As for Cheadle as War Machine, he doesn’t quite fare quite as well as Rhodey/War Machine. Although he’s a very good actor, he’s just too soft-spoken and doesn’t turn the ‘badass meter’ up quite enough for me to buy him as the pilot of War Machine. Still, his performance is good enough that he never detracts from proceedings even if he doesn’t actively add to them.

Overall, the movie follows the Empire Strikes Back model of being a lot darker than its predecessor. Unfortunately, Iron Man 2 also ends up being less awe-inspiring than the first, and lacks the same sense of joy, discovery and possibility. Some of the best scenes in the first movie, for example, involved Tony improving and learning how to use the technology he had created, and the excitement he felt as he began to master it was shared by the audience. There are no equivalent moments in this film. Although there are several new suits, for the most part we as the audience simply watch them in action; we don’t get to participate in their creation. We do get to watch Tony create a new version of the mini arc-reactor–which is one of the strongest scenes in the film–but once its actually in his chest, the initial feeling of awe at what has been created is glossed over in favor of another fight scene. This is not to say that the movie isn’t wonderful and exciting and fun, because it is— I think it’s just not possible to recapture the same lightning-in-a-bottle that powered the original.

Conclusion: A great film, and a worthy (if slightly inferior) successor to the first. Absolutely worth your time and money.

Grade: A-

-SoldierHawk