Review of Iron Man 2

Iron Man was a surprise to me. It was a fun romp which was well-directed by Jon Favreau and has a Tony Stark that was beautifully acted by Robert Downey Jr. It made a ton of money and a sequel was always on the card. It’s here now.

Taking place 6 months after revealing his identity as Iron Man, Iron Man 2 starts with the world now at peace as no country has weapons that can match the Iron Man Suit. As the man who created world peace, Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr) ego goes on the warpath as he opened the year-long Stark Expo. Unhappy that such powerful technology is not in the hands of the United State Army, a Senate United State committee, led by Senator Stern (Gary Shandling), demands that Stark release the Iron Man suit for military application. Stark refused, humiliated the committee and publicly said that no one will match the Iron Man technology for 10 to 20 years.

Unknown to all, Tony Stark is dying. Stark has discovered that the palladium powering the arc reactor that is keeping him alive is also slowly poisoning him. Never the most stable of men to begin with, he goes off the rails drinking and partying like there is no tomorrow. At the same time, he also arranged for his impending death naming his former personal assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) CEO of Stark Industries.

While participating in a race in Monaco, Stark is attacked by Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), who has an arc reactor of his own. With the Iron Man armor, Stark defeated Vanko but the victory was bittersweet as Vanko had proved that the technology can be built now, not in 10-20 years as Stark had believed. From there everything kicked into high gear as everyone tried to get their hands on the Iron Man suit.

One of the best things about the orginal Iron Man was how good Robert Downey Jr was as Tony Stark. Robert Downey Jr proved again in Iron Man 2 that he was born to play Tony Stark. His chemistry with Gwyneth Paltrow was again a delight, however there just wasn’t enough screentime between the 2 in Iron man 2. (Note to Favreau: Have more scenes between the two, too little of it in this movie!)

I also enjoy the fact that Ivan has a genuine grievance against Stark. Stark’s father was the business partner of Ivan’s father, a Russian physicist named Anton Vanko (Yevgeni Lazarev). The two were the first ones who designed the arc reactor but Stark’s father had Anton deported after they had a dispute on what the arc reactor should be used for. I’m not a fan of Mickey Rourke but his underplayed Ivan Vanko was great.

As good as the acting was, I would not say Iron Man 2 is better than the original. The big problem was the feeling I had that everything was crammed together. Between Tony Stark, Pepper Potts, Ivan Vanko, Don Cheadle’s War Machine, Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer, Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury, there was so much happening in the movie that it was too much of a good thing.

There is also one notable exception to the good acting in the movie. I always found Scarlett Johansson to be a good actress but I just couldn’t buy her Black Widow. It wasn't that she did a bad job but Johansson is just too striking to play a secret agent. I just can’t see her going undercover, I mean look at any picture of her and tell me you won’t remember that face! It’s like asking me to act as a model…and I’m overweight.

Lastly I found the final fight to be anti-climatic. Vanko’s drones were just no match to Iron Man and War Machine and Vanko himself was defeated far too easily for my liking. The final battle was long but it was mostly because Stark was worried about civilian casualties. At no point did I felt that Stark’s back was to the wall and that’s something you need.

Personally I found Iron Man 2 to be just an okay movie, not bad but at the same time not great. If you enjoyed Iron Man, you will like Iron Man 2. Luckily for me, I enjoyed Iron Man so Iron Man 2 was okay. By the way, stayed to the end as there is an easter egg for “Thor” after the credits.