Review – Iron Man 2

Where do I start with a review of the sequel to one of the best super hero movies ever?  In my opinion the origin story is generally always the better movie when compared to the sequels.  I put this down to time.  Time is afforded in huge amounts to very small details of an origin story, whereas the sequels always jump straight in from where we left our hero.  They quickly introduce the new characters and head straight to the action, skipping the minute details so that we can just get on with seeing how things pan out.  Is there any other way of doing it?  Do I factor this in when reviewing Iron Man 2?  Do I allow for the fact that it is accepted it will be inferior to Iron Man 1 and bump up the score accordingly? 

Fortunately for Iron Man 2, it doesn’t need me to apply any such handicap to my score.  The story picks up right where it left off.  Tony Stark has just announced to the world that he IS Iron Man and he has spent some time making public appearances and battling with the government over who should possess the suit.  In the meantime, a Russian physicist has designed a suit for himself that gives him hugely powerful whips as extensions to his arms, which as will be clearly demonstrated, can cut straight through a car.  With an informative yet fearsome title, “Whiplash” plans to topple Stark Industries by going straight for Tony Stark/Iron Man.

On top of that Tony Stark is having to deal with Justin Hammer, his closest but very distant rival in the weapons arena, a rather annoyed Nick Fury, a somewhat disappointed Pepper Potts, and a strikingly beautiful new assistant, Natalia Romanova, who could prove deadly.

Did I mention War Machine?

As would be expected from the sequel in any series, the level of action has been ramped up a notch, and as I mentioned above, less time is afforded to the little things.  There is no need to explain the workshop of Tony’s home, or his relationship with Pepper, or his cavalier attitude to most subjects, or even the Arc Reactors or his good friend James “Rhodey” Rhodes.  This leaves Jon Favreau plenty of time to show us some fantastic action sequences.  Whiplash at Monaco is a sight to behold as is a fight between Iron Man and a rather evenly matched opponent.  They certainly drew some rather impressed noises from me, like I was watching a fireworks display. 

In terms of the new characters, Mickey Rourke is just fantastic as Whiplash and whilst present quite frequently throughout the film, I could have done with a bit more destruction on his part.  Just a few more things cut in half with his whips would have satisfied me but other than that he plays the angry Russian muscle-bound physicist with an agenda very well.

Sam Rockwell is yet again perfectly cast as the charismatic, but knowingly inferior weapons manufacturer, Justin Hammer.  Hammer is tormented by the success of Stark and sees himself in Tony’s shadow but will never admit it and it will never stop him striving to eliminate the competition despite knowing it is unlikely he’d be able to do so.  Rockwell conveys this inner thought process brilliantly in every facial expression. 

As for Scarlett Johansson as Natalia Romanova AKA “Black Widow”, well she’s pretty much a non-entity.  I didn’t think much of her apart from her outfit towards the end of the movie.  Whilst she has an important part to play, I wasn’t very impressed by the character and overall I thought she was quite dull. Also, her fight scenes were possibly the clumsiest choreographed fights I have ever seen.  I don’t know whether Favreau did it deliberately or not but I didn’t like them or her.

Whilst not a new character, James “Rhodey” Rhodes has been recast and is now played by Don Cheadle, who actually makes a very smooth transition and I forgot it wasn’t Cheadle in Iron Man 1 to be honest.  My positive view of Cheadle is somewhat assisted I fear by the fact that he plays War Machine, who I feel was awesome but under-used.  Though technically this movie, whilst a sequel to Iron Man, is in fact the origin story of War Machine so the next movie should be packed full with a grey-coloured Iron Man covered in weaponry shooting the hell out of everything, and this time with more effective weaponry!

The movie doesn’t deviate from my expectations that it would be a bigger, more expensive version of Iron Man 1 with less time afforded to the little things, but that’s not a bad thing.  It means we get extra doses of destruction and mayhem and modifications to existing elements that we already know and love.  You like his armour?  How about if it took the shape of a briefcase?!  Also, how could any relationships develop if we had to reiterate their dynamics or how they started?

I loved Iron Man 2, not as much as number one, but it was still brilliant and once released will be joining my Blu-Ray collection.  It gets 4 Arc Reactors our of 5 from me.