Movie Review: Iron Man 2 (2010)
Better than the first even though it does sag in the middle
The first Iron Man caught a lot of people off guard. It was as if they had never heard of Robert Downey Jr. and his ability to take over a film with his attention grabbing charisma and personality. Perhaps it would have been less of a surprise had they seen the excellent Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang a few years earlier. Fast forward two years later and Downey is now a two-time Oscar nominee and a household name. With that he's returned to the role that started his rise, in a sequel that's better than the first in terms of overall entertainment, but really could have used a jolt of energy midway through as things begin to sag before ramping up for the explosively loud conclusion.
Iron Man 2 essentially picks up where the first film left off. Tony Stark (Downey Jr.) has announced he is indeed Iron Man and the worldwide televised press conference is being watched in Russia by the ailing Anton Vanko, an engineering wizard and one-time partner to Stark's father. He's now disgraced and living out his final days as his equally intelligent son, Ivan (Mickey Rourke), watches his father's slow decay and places all the blame on the Stark family. With his dying breath, Anton points at the television and whispers, "That should have been you," setting Ivan off and immediately creating a villain for the film's duration.
The cast includes Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Jon Favreau, Sam Rockwell, Samuel L. Jackson, Mickey Rourke, Scarlett Johansson, Garry Shandling, Kate Mara, Clark Gregg, Leslie Bibb and Helena Mattsson. For more information on this film including pictures, trailers and a detailed synopsis choose from the following menu.
Review
"Iron Man 2" is a Paramount Pictures release, directed by Jon Favreau and is rated PG-13 for sequences of intense sci-fi action and violence, and some language. The running time is 2 hours 5 minutes.
Fighting battles on all sides, something has to break and after ensuring the United States government the Iron Man technology is too complex for anyone else to duplicate, a sudden attack by Ivan using the same tech creates a world of hurt for Tony and offers the edge those that would prefer to see him fall needed.
The first 45 minutes or so of Iron Man 2 move at a quick clip. So quick you aren't concerned with the convenience of the script and story. Things are happening and you'll love the witty narcissism of Tony Stark and the added bonus of having Sam Rockwell as part of the cast. However, after the opening onslaught and as the story begins to settle down, there is a long drought in the action and the second act turns into a long-winded plot device that, for a moment, had me thinking Iron Man 2 was nothing more than a catalyst for an Iron Man 3 and the two-years-off Avengers feature.
Fortunately, the story comes around unlike the original, which set itself up excellently as an origin story only to devolve into a bash 'em, smash 'em robot brawl in the end. However, while the story may be complete it's not without fault as it is rather clunky, lacks surprises and the second act is overly ponderous. Where the film excels is in its lack of concern for reality, and the owning of its comic book roots. Plot developments seem to happen out of thin air leaving audiences to think, "Oh, well that's convenient." But does that really matter in a comic book movie? It's just too bad that convenience didn't move the plot along a little quicker, such as a late scene between Stark and Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), which is destined to end as it does, though it takes forever to get there.
Some audience members may get a bit peeved at the number of sight gags and in-jokes for the comic crowd, but each is treated with a straight face and is short-lived. Not to mention it's simply an attempt to make you smile, and it does so effectively without a complaint from me. Additionally, each character is supplied with a generous amount of witty comebacks. Almost all of them have at least one or two one-liners of their own, which means it's not only Downey and Rockwell getting the juiciest lines.
Don Cheadle does a satisfactory job stepping into the vacated shoes of Terrence Howard as James 'Rhodey' Rhodes and Scarlett Johansson plays the eye candy with a secret, although the secret isn't very well disguised and basically given away merely by her existence in the story. Jon Favreau gets a bit more screen time as Stark's chauffeur Happy Hogan and Paltrow isn't nearly as annoying as she was in the first film. As for Mickey Rourke as Ivan Vanko, he works, but he isn't given much to do to really make much of an acting evaluation.
There are a lot of pluses to Iron Man 2 and the only glaring minus is the unsatisfying pacing of the story that seems to carry two giant weights on each end with not a whole lot in the middle. Nevertheless, it's a fun film. Even while I am not the ardent supporter of the first one, as so many others are, I still return to it on occasion and expect I will do the same with this one once it is released on DVD and Blu-ray.
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On-point with my opinion. We have a lot in common. Except In The Loop.
I agree it was better then the first.
The only thing I didn't like was how they introduced War Machine. He gets in the suit and automatically knows how to use it, right… So is Jarvis equiped inside all of those suits or what? I mean no explanation on that. On the top side, the action was awesome and the fact that S.H.I.E.L.D. was a little bit more involved. B+ for me.
how was Mickey Rourke in the film ?
I thought he was ruthless, and his accent was awesome. They could've used him a bit more in the movie though.
Have to disagree. I've already written a long comment in "What I Watched…" about it, so to keep it short, I thought Downey, Paltrow, Rockwell, Jackson, humor and action scenes were all great, but the plot unnecessarily convoluted, with underdeveloped Vanko and War Machine and unneeded Natasha & Happy. Add in a couple of unneeded subplots, some illogical moments and Don Cheadle who's horribly miscast, then remove all the charm of the first film, and IM2 is an enjoyable action movie, but nothing more. I enjoyed the original s much more.
Agreed.
Plus points:
Better action sequences; Justin Hammer – he's like Tony Stark before he grew a conscience; Mickey Rourke looks suitably unhinged; SLJ.
Minuses:
Scarlett Johansson is just window-dressing; Gwynnie P is whinier than ever; the home-made supercollider(!); Don Cheadle is too "nice" to play Rhodes – they should have hired someone like, ermm… Terence Howard; It's less an Ironman film than a 2-hour trailer for The Avengers.
Still a solid evening's entertainment, though, and worth a watch.
agreed with you(serious miscat and underused actors) but it's really flat after 30 min:very bored!
did you happen to see the Super 8 trailer with it?
No Super 8 trailer at my showing.
Terrence Howard was one of the worst parts of the first. He is a horrible actor. Glad they replaced him w/ some real talent.
Did anybody catch the awesome teaser after the credits?!?! It was O_O
What grade did you give 'Iron Man', Brad?
…and i don't know if you guys caught this, but was that captain america"s sheild that stark put under the super collider to support it?
i meant shield
Yes that was obvious. The shield was on the first movie too. It was on the table behind him when he was having trouble taking the suit off. When he says to Pepper, "Face it, this isn't the worst thing you caught me doing."
No records shattered. Iron Man 2 opens $55M friday.
I really don't see why Brad thought this was better than the first one. Iron Man 2 was missing a lot of action. It was not good or bad. In my opinion, it was just………enjoyable. I didn't really like the ending. I mean c'mon! We waited so long just to see a 1.5 minute long fight between Iron Man, War Machine, and Whiplash. Whiplash died waaaaaaaaaaay too easy. I was thinking. Maybe it was all a setup. When everything exploded Whiplash still had his EXTREMELY powerful suit on. Maybe he'll come back in Iron Man 3? Anyway I did catch the trailers for Grown Ups, Shrek, Super 8, The Last Airbender. At the end I just walked away a little……………..disappointed.
Grade B-
I didn't think it was better than the original. But it was still an entertaining movie. I just wish a movie called Iron Man 2 would have, I don't know, a little more Iron Man in it. Maybe show why he's "privatized peace" or something. That said, I did enjoy Downey in it, as well as Rourke who was an awesome villain. The characters are fun, and Stark is a delight. Also, the ending was great, which helped since the entire movie was just build up to that ending. So, I'd give it a B. Not great but pretty good.
And is it just me or did Garry Shandling look like someone wearing a really bad Garry Shandling Halloween mask?
i watched this movie a couple hours ago it was very good it was just as good as number 1 but when iron man was dancing it was really awkward
Definitely not as good as the first one, sorry, but it was a lot of fun. Downey is just a superstar right now.
OKAY HERE GOES…
IRON MAN 2 was only OKAY. It was bigger brighter etc… but that doesn't make a better movie.. Scralet's acting was horrible (horrible).. Robert Downey Jr. was good and so was samuel L Jackson (What there was of him) but none the less made you look forward to more with him. Many Many missed action possibilities and not near as interesting as the first. This won't break any opening weekend records for sure & WILL BE LUCKY if it can match Transformers:Revenge of the Fallen's 400 million take. It won't do it. What is different about Transformers is no one went for the storyline at all (hence the 400 million u.s. take alone) that was claiming just to be a fun, over the top visual feast of eyecandy.. period (What most summer movies are). This movie tried too hard and fell short where they should have shined. This puts Robin Hood in a much better spot now that this has been released and word of mouth is only going to be so-so.. Everyone was saying can Robin Hood beat Iron Man 2 even though it's IM2's second weekend. Well, right now I'm gonna say it could be very very possible and if it doesn't win the weekend it will be so much closer than previously thought….much much closer. you know you can smell a close call next weekend..
Actually, Robin Hood beating Iron Man 2 is not likely. First of all, estimates are now calling Iron Man 2's first weekend as about 130-140 m. Another reason is, it won't fall much next week. I expect it to land in the 80-95 m. range. Most experts agree that Robin Hood will only get 30-40 m.
Yeah, I really can't see Robin Hood beating Iron Man 2.
I expect Robin Hood to do around Gladiator numbers adjusted for inflation. I think Gladiator did around $35m, so I expect Robin Hood to get around $40-45m. Iron Man 2 is expected to open $130m, and won't fall by more than 50%. So it's quite concievable that Iron Man 2 will double Robin Hood next weekend.
Should I go see this on an IMAX screen or just a regular one?