Iron Man 2 (New Movie Review)

Iron Man 2 (Jon Favreau, 2010) – The joy of the Iron Man franchise is seeing one of our most talented and entertaining actors play a man who is unabashedly in love with himself. Iron Man is the masculine ideal for the modern high-tech age. Robert Downey, Jr., teaming again with director Jon Favreau, enjoys playing Tony Stark, the muscular, genius inventor who is the best at what he does and knows it. Because his worth and uniqueness are so high, the superhero can essentially do whatever he wants, outside the law, flaunting US senators who try to force him to hand over the technology. He’s also so charming that he can sleep with whoever he wants without alienating his close confidante “Pepper” Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). He has achieved the American dream, and he doesn’t mind showing off by hosting a year-long “Stark Expo” and opening with a show consisting of rock and roll and some good old American T and A.

Stark is an example of American entrepreneurship and inventiveness, who has apparently put an end to all wars on planet earth, simply because of the threat he poses in his suit. This is like nuclear deterrence times a hundred, and there’s only one man with his finger on the button. Understandably, the US government wants Stark to give them the suit. In turn, you don’t want them or anyone else to get it. If the suit was perceived to be able to guarantee world peace for years to come, as seems to be the case, Stark would apparently need a lot of armored protection for all those times when he’s not in his suit. Also, the four or five suit models he has as “extras” would be a little better protected than they are. In any case, how exactly could he stop Israel and Palestine from launching attacks on each other? Or ethnic/tribal wars in Africa and South Asia? Or the war on drugs? Or Islamist terrorism? Iron Man’s effect on world peace seems far more measured than the hyperbolic statements in this film (“I have successfully privatized world peace!”) indicate.

Mickey Rourke’s Ivan Vanko, the son of an inventor who blames Stark for his misfortunes due to a dark generational feud, and Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer, a rival inventor overshadowed by the success of Stark Industries, both want to get their hands on the game. suit and man. in it (although, again, providing personal reasons for making Iron Man a target seems redundant to me, as anyone should see the value in getting their hands on one of those suits). Don Cheadle replaces Terrence Howard to play James Rhodes, Stark’s supposed best friend who, for some unexplained reason, throws his friend under the bus in front of a Senate committee, then steals one of Stark’s suits and wears it. leads into the hands of the US military, who, again for some unexplained reason, is contracting the entire operation out to Justin Hammer. What operation is that? The operation to kill Tony Stark, I guess. Finally, there is also a secret organization called SHIELD headed by eyepatch-wearing Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) who is also in league with the government, has a mole at Stark Industries (Scarlett Johansson) and somehow knows how to save the city. Starks life. by inventing a new item, which is also somehow related to some revelations in some old film reels from his father’s infomercials.

Not much of it makes any sense, and it’s all mind-bogglingly overloaded with what appears to be filler. Not only does the film fail to explain the motivations of many of its characters, it also fails to convey exactly what is supposed to be happening. Quickly spoken one-liners amid rapid transitions are supposed to carry the weight of significant story elements. The film has terrible pacing; either it’s dragging on with unnecessary length and convolution, or it’s speeding through the dialogue too much, which could be useful, at least to keep our facts correct. Everything is too busy, with too many characters. Vanko gets lost in the mix.

Another problem, also true for the original, is that we don’t really have anything invested in the inevitable climactic battle. The men are encased in robotic suits, fully protected. Not only is this uninteresting to watch, it removes the human element from battles. It ends up being a competition between who’s the most powerful blasters (or who’s the heaviest metal, eh?). Who cares? We know the answer anyway.

One of the main flaws with the first movie was that it didn’t give Gwyneth Paltrow enough to do. The second movie sees her role much broader than her, and she plays Downey wonderfully. Constantly womanizing and maniacally optimistic, Stark exchanges pleasantries with Pepper, an attractive, strong and independent woman. Favreau directs by layering the dialogue and keeping everything moving fast. I liked these scenes. In a way, they were reminiscent of old Hollywood, like in Cary Grant movies.

I like Jon Favreau. It’s good to see him succeed, but this is not the movie he should be directing. Perhaps this convoluted plot was more clearly and dramatically conveyed in comic book form, but film is a different medium, involving a set time parameter. Filmmakers should be free to adapt the plot to make it work better as a movie. Often they are not, as seems to be the case here. Thinking back, my favorite scenes were between Stark and his bumbling robotic personal assistant, voiced by Paul Bettany. There was a quiet vulnerability to Stark in these scenes that contrasted nicely with all the narcissism in the rest of the movie. Favreau needs to stay small, not beholden to the needs of blockbuster fantasies.