It seems for every successful comic book super-hero movie, the sequel tends to be better.
With an established backstory, the screenwriters are able to explore all the possibilities of their successful characters. Spider-Man 2, the second X-Men movie and The Dark Knight all follow this model. Of course, the most successful sequels are those that not only expand on their respective universes but also draw from the success of their origin, and Iron Man director Jon Favreau has taken that lesson to heart.
All of the things that were great about the original Iron Man show up in Iron Man 2. Robert Downey Jr. proves again he was born to play the eccentric multi-billionaire genius superhero, Tony Stark who, in the face of all danger and awkwardness, can always serve up a fitting joke.
The cool, futuristic-yet-present-day feel of the first film remains, not only with the design of the Iron Man suit, but with believable floating holograms in place of computers and Stark’s artificial intelligence assistant, Jarvis (Paul Bettany, Legion), sending warnings into Iron Man’s helmet.
In all the ways Iron Man 2 could have gone wrong, perhaps the most daunting possibility was having the film overwhelmed by all its new characters.
However, Favreau pulls off the unbelievable by implementing an insane amount of story elements but keeping them all relevant and, most importantly, entertaining.
Stark, on top of dealing with some health issues, has to take on the government’s attempts to acquire the Iron Man suit, new villain Whiplash (Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler) and a rival weapons manufacturer (Sam Rockwell, Moon) — all while enduring erratic visits from Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson, The Spirit), the head of SHIELD.
Lest we forget his love interest Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow, Two Lovers) and some fun sexual innuendo from his new assistant and eye candy Natalie Rushman (Scarlett Johansson, He’s Just Not That Into You). It’s a miracle this movie didn’t crash and burn from the weight of the star power alone.
Someone called in a favor to the movie gods to get this to work. The film moves along at a speedy pace, and with the help of some clever character development techniques, it never misses a beat. Instead of jumping back and forth between character, action and plot development scenes, they are all blended together seamlessly.
Stark, during his birthday party, downs one too many drinks and gets a little too trigger-happy with the million-dollar suit, so his military pal, Lt. Col. James “Rhodey” Rhodes (Don Cheadle, Brooklyn’s Finest) dons another Iron Man suit to stop Stark’s acting out.
The ensuing mini-battle between the two is a concise look into the characters’ motivations. Rhodey commandeers the spare suit, which he later turns into War Machine, becoming yet another super-suit hero from the Marvel comics.
It makes for a pretty entertaining movie. Even scenes with one-on-one conversations between Stark and anyone else are fulfilling thanks to Downey’s playful charm.
The downside to such a fast-paced film is some characters aren’t given the screen time they deserve.
The most obvious victim here is Whiplash. Rourke injects as much personality as he possibly can into the few exclusive scenes he gets, but he should have been given some more room to breathe.
Even in his few battle sequences, the unique Whiplash — he’s a Russian physicist using electric whips as his weapons — doesn’t last nearly as long as he should against Iron Man.
But Favreau more than makes up for this misstep with boatloads of action. He outdoes his work on the original in terms of both variety and pure satisfaction in the metal-on-metal department.
Some may say the emotional weight of the first film is replaced by stereotypical summer blockbuster antics, but more than enough emotion is present amid the high-octane action.
Iron Man 2 roars out of the gate and will definitely soar over its lesser, not-so-super summer competition.
truben@umdbk.com
