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Iron Man 2
 Radheyan Simonpillai - AskMen.com
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May 07, 2010
| Official Site: IronManMovie.Marvel.com - Release Date: May 7, 2010
Director: Jon Favreau - Main Actors: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Mickey Rourke, Don Cheadle, Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson | |
Everyone’s favorite narcissistic tin can returns in the highly anticipated sequel Iron Man 2, but much of what made 2008’s Iron Man so much fun is left behind. Gabillionaire playboy Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is being weighted down, and not just by his suit. His glow-in-the-dark heart is polluting his blood stream.
The U.S. government wants to confiscate his weapons, and he’s just inherited his father’s beef with a Russian physicist named Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), aka, Whiplash. There’s plenty more subplots and supporting characters to introduce, but that would just saturate the synopsis in the same way that it floods Iron Man 2.
Downey reprises his typical antic bravura drawing Stark somewhere between class clown and deity. We’re never sure whether Stark dons the Iron Man suit for his own self-aggrandizing circus or for the public good, but the ambiguity is intriguing, particularly during an early Senate hearing that’s got some of the movie’s best lines. And then it all tumbles.
Iron Man 2 suffers from typical sequelitis. It bites off more than it can chew and feels drowsy as a result.
On top of his blood toxicity dilemma, politics and a severe case of Whiplash, Stark’s also dealing with daddy issues (call in Freud), his arms manufacturing nemesis Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell in fine slithery form) and his foxy new aide Natasha (Scarlett Johansson), who, as we all know, is the Black Widow in hiding. And then there’s his military comrade Rhodey (Don Cheadle proving just as dull as Terence Howard in the original), who is constantly itching to get into his War Machine getup.
This might have all worked had the writing team been up to the task, but instead the subplots and sub-characters remain undercooked and the story lumbers and detours as if they were simply plotting it down as they went along.
And if that doesn’t feel exhausting, wait until a mid-section stretch where Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) arrives ringing in a plethora of not-so-sly references to upcoming movies such as Thor and The Avengers. It feels like the Iron Man franchise must stop to pay its property tax to the Marvel Universe by whoring out coming soon ads. |
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