Iron Man 2 - Review

Iron Man 2 - ***

Y'know, I'm really starting to sense a pattern with Marvel superhero movies. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a formula, but hear me out. Most, if not all, of these current superhero movies are usually following into the pattern of a trilogy; that's fine enough. I mean, most of our fiction (not just film) follows a traditional three-act structure for the simple reason that it's recognizable and it works with the human psyche: a beginning, middle and end. The first movie establishes the hero and their powers, problems and world. Of course, since we all need to start somewhere. The bad guy in the first movie is someone the hero has known for almost their whole lives: with Spider-Man, it was Norman Osborn; with the X-Men, it was Magneto and the later-named Brotherhood of Mutants; and with Iron Man, it was Obadiah Stane. In the sequel it's someone who pops up out of nowhere... you can see the rest from here.

But I'll bet you're saying, "Ok, so what about Iron Man 2?" I'm getting to that.

Iron Man 2 follows the tradition of what I've mentioned before with giving Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) an enemy distantly-related to him: that's Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke). Vanko is the son of a former Russian partner of Tony's father (John Slattery, present in old films suspiciously similar to Walt Disney. Or is that just me?) who passed his vast engineering knowledge to his son and makes him swear revenge on the Stark name and empire. He fashions a chest piece similar to Iron Man's that allows him to hold two powerful electrical whips in each hand (and how he controls them, I will never know). He encounters Stark in a Formula One racing strip where Stark is racing one of his own racers. Why? Because he's dying. The arc reactor -- the one that's keeping him alive, though you'd think that the shrapnel near his heart would've stopped by now -- is killing him: palladium poisoning. So he's taking a bit more of a reckless streak, including giving a very public verbal middle finger to a senator that wants to capture the Iron Man technology for the United States "and her interests." And it's in this meeting that we're introduced to a less-than-impressive Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), one of Stark's biggest competitors, whose products aren't exactly up to Stark Industries' standards. Which is why he strikes up a partnership with Vanko, after his stunt on Iron Man.

I know there's a lot to take in. In fact, there's a few more subplots. This sequel is certainly not light on plot. In fact, I'd say it's more well-paced than the first Iron Man. But what is missing is any semblance of characterization. In the first Iron Man, we got a sense of what kind of man Tony Stark was, including the long and painful change from being the arrogant-yet-brilliant billionaire playboy arms dealer to world-on-his-shoulders Iron Man. But now there are so many plot strands that the relationships and character progressions are side-lined in favour of plot and action sequences.

Don't get me wrong, the action scenes are top-notch, especially when there's a mix of CG and live action and miniatures, and things like that. And it was fun to see them. Especially a drunk Iron Man (that's not a metaphor for "Tony Stark is Iron Man" in much the same way that "Bruce Wayne is Batman"). And it is really obvious that they are setting up a larger Marvel universe world in film (especially with continuous mentions of S.H.I.E.L.D., the Avengers, and an expanded role for Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury). But I can't help but think that the palladium poisoning from Stark's chest reactor is a metaphor for the story at large.