IRON MAN 2 - FILM REVIEW

Beginning within moments of the previous film’s ending, this carries on the story of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) as he now must battle the US government who want the Iron Man armour, or ‘weapon’ as they refer to it for themselves, a rival arms manufacturer Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), deal with the Russian criminal Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) who has it in for him and deal with the fact that the Arc reactor in his chest is slowly killing him through blood poisoning and he can not find a replacement element to save him. Plus there is the continuing relationship with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and a certain Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) is keeping him in mind for The Avengers programme.

Iron Man on its release back in 2008 was a bit of a sleeper hit. It was a comic book movie staring a rehabilitated alcoholic and drug addict, who had always squandered his talents due to his love of drugs and trouble. It was based on a lesser known comic book character than say Superman, Batman, Spider-man etc and was directed by a guy who’d never really done a comic book ‘actioner’ before. Plus there was the small thing that it was coming out the same year as a certain movie called The Dark Knight. All in all for me this was probably the best, and certainly the most fun, comic book movie that was released that year.

Iron Man 2 pretty much follows the same style as the first. The film is far more character and plot based that a lot of other comic book movies which means that although, like the first, this is fair action-lite, the non-action scenes are just as entertaining. Mainly this is because of a truly tremendous cast with Downey Jr being his usual tour-de-force with able support from Rockwell, who is one of the most underrated actors currently on film, new addition Don Cheadle replacing the originals Trevor Howard as Stark’s military friend James Rhodes, and topping it all off with an awesome performance by Mickey Rourke, one of my favourite actors (and I still think he was robbed of his Oscar for The Wrestler, so there).

There are only two action scenes in this movie as opposed to three in the previous film but don’t let this fool you into thinking that this means we are being skimped and cheated out of our Iron Man action. We’re not. Yes there may only be two but for me these completely eclipsed the first films scenes. These are much bigger and bolder.

The first at a Monaco grand prix style race is terrific. Coming about 40 minutes into the film where by this stage we have seen Stark battling the US senate and although we know he is slowly dying and has therefore become reckless he seems untouchable. Mickey Rourke’s baddie has been building something but we don’t know what but surely some poor Russian criminal can’t do anything, can he? In a perfectly judged scene we get total carnage on the street circuit and the first of the new Iron Man suits, this one, quite literally a suitcase suit.

The second scene coming at the climax is just a big shoot ‘em up free for all which is much better than the first film’s climax, bringing the new and improved Iron Man armour up against a horde of metal baddies alongside the War Machine armour. I won’t spoil it but woo-hoo it’s a fun and entertaining climax.

Thankfully the rest of the story is so busy that you really don’t notice the ‘lack of action’. There are new characters, plus this film is also furthering the multi-movie plot line that started in Iron Man, was continued in The Incredible Hulk, carries on in this film and will be continued in Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger and coming to ahead in The Avengers. Plus you have two great actors (Downey Jr and Rourke) who are giving performances that are way above what you would normally expect in films of this ilk. Rourke invests his character with a lot of depth, crafting a man who we can in part feel some sympathy for and with much of his dialogue in Russian he is very convincing. Downey Jr is just awesome, never putting a foot wrong, if only all the comic book superhero movies could have a lead actor as strong and so far flawless as this.

There are a few downsides to this movie. Scarlett Johansson and Gwyneth Paltrow struggle to get a look in, Don Cheadle as cool an actor as he is doesn’t really bring anything new to the role and Rourke is so immense that you do wish he’d been onscreen far longer than he actually is.

The film is handled so well by Favreau who has really proven himself as a big budget director that any negatives can be forgiven as the film is just so damn watchable and entertaining. This film is just great fun and as long as they don’t make any mis-steps with the other films inbetween Iron Man 3 will be even better and we could find this franchise lasting many more movies. I for one can’t wait.