Review of "Iron Man 2"
The Detroit News
There are too many new characters, too many crossing story lines, not enough romance and our hero's a smug jerk for the first half hour.
Who cares? "Iron Man 2" still rocks.
Where the first "Iron Man" film started strong and ended weak, its sequel starts out a bit shaky and ends strong, certainly the better way to go. Along the way, it indulges in a bit too much iron-on-iron fetishism and gadget worship, but it also features Mickey Rourke covered in tattoos and Scarlet Johansson in a gasp-worthy skin-tight suit, two factors that make it easy to forgive minor sins.
Also along for the ride is Sam Rockwell as a weaselly arms dealer out to build his own Iron Army, Garry Shandling as an overbearing senator who covets Tony Stark's Iron Man suit and Don Cheadle, taking over the much-expanded role of Stark's friend, Col. James Rhodes.
Add those faces to the returning Gwyneth Paltrow as Stark's right-hand woman and low-buzz love interest, Samuel L. Jackson's mysterious Nick Fury and director Jon Favreau as chauffeur Happy Hogan -- plus, of course, Robert Downey Jr. as Stark -- and you do have a bundle of bodies to balance.
Happily, Favreau and screenwriter Justin Theroux manage to juggle all these personalities while keeping Iron Man the central attraction -- somehow avoiding the dreaded "Spider-Man 3" curse of too many uninteresting distractions.
And no one shines brighter than Rourke, giving "Iron Man 2" that most essential ingredient for a comic book movie: a great and somewhat sympathetic villain, the most notable ingredient lacking from the first film.
The movie begins a year after the first ended, in a world where Iron Man has become an integral part of the geopolitical landscape. His existence has tipped the balance of power heavily toward the United States as he's become a deterrent against unjust aggression around the globe.
This has given the already narcissistic Tony Stark an even more swollen head. It has also created a great deal of Iron Man envy. The Pentagon, led by Senator Stern, wants the plans for an Iron Man suit so it can field an indestructible army. Arms dealer Justin Hammer wants to be the one to build that army.
But Stark declines to share his design, pointing out that no one else is near equaling his creation and the secret's safe with him.
Unbeknownst to Stark, Ivan Vanko, the Russian prison-toughened son of one of Stark's father's collaborators, is very near equaling the power of Iron Man.
Also unbeknownst to anyone, Stark is dying from the very power source that keeps him alive, his blood poisoned by an enemy element, which explains his increasingly erratic behavior.
Wielding some sort of electrical whip contraption, Vanko attacks Stark while he's out of his Iron Man suit and competing in a high-gloss car race. Stark survives and Vanko is jailed, but the snaky Hammer breaks him out and puts the brilliant thug to work building an army to defeat Iron Man.
And where does Scarlett Johansson fit in? She doesn't really; she sort of runs alongside the story as Natalie Rushman / Natasha Romanoff, Stark's new assistant and a secret ally of Nick Fury, who's trying to recruit Iron Man into the upcoming Avengers movie.
At the center of all this, obviously, is Downey, whose Stark is something of an American composite -- capitalist, inventor, irresponsible self-absorbed egoist, lone cowboy, Hugh Hefner quip machine and spoiled brat. Oh, and good-at-heart hero. It's hard to imagine any other actor pulling off a character of such cartoon complexity so casually.
Ultimately, director Favreau manages off the same trick. "Iron Man 2" never seems to strain for your attention. It starts slowly, gets a good run going and then jumps for the sky. Fly with it.
There are too many new characters, too many crossing story lines, not enough romance and our hero's a smug jerk for the first half hour.
Who cares? "Iron Man 2" still rocks.
Where the first "Iron Man" film started strong and ended weak, its sequel starts out a bit shaky and ends strong, certainly the better way to go. Along the way, it indulges in a bit too much iron-on-iron fetishism and gadget worship, but it also features Mickey Rourke covered in tattoos and Scarlet Johansson in a gasp-worthy skin-tight suit, two factors that make it easy to forgive minor sins.
Also along for the ride is Sam Rockwell as a weaselly arms dealer out to build his own Iron Army, Garry Shandling as an overbearing senator who covets Tony Stark's Iron Man suit and Don Cheadle, taking over the much-expanded role of Stark's friend, Col. James Rhodes.
Add those faces to the returning Gwyneth Paltrow as Stark's right-hand woman and low-buzz love interest, Samuel L. Jackson's mysterious Nick Fury and director Jon Favreau as chauffeur Happy Hogan -- plus, of course, Robert Downey Jr. as Stark -- and you do have a bundle of bodies to balance.
Happily, Favreau and screenwriter Justin Theroux manage to juggle all these personalities while keeping Iron Man the central attraction -- somehow avoiding the dreaded "Spider-Man 3" curse of too many uninteresting distractions.
And no one shines brighter than Rourke, giving "Iron Man 2" that most essential ingredient for a comic book movie: a great and somewhat sympathetic villain, the most notable ingredient lacking from the first film.
The movie begins a year after the first ended, in a world where Iron Man has become an integral part of the geopolitical landscape. His existence has tipped the balance of power heavily toward the United States as he's become a deterrent against unjust aggression around the globe.
This has given the already narcissistic Tony Stark an even more swollen head. It has also created a great deal of Iron Man envy. The Pentagon, led by Senator Stern, wants the plans for an Iron Man suit so it can field an indestructible army. Arms dealer Justin Hammer wants to be the one to build that army.
But Stark declines to share his design, pointing out that no one else is near equaling his creation and the secret's safe with him.
Unbeknownst to Stark, Ivan Vanko, the Russian prison-toughened son of one of Stark's father's collaborators, is very near equaling the power of Iron Man.
Also unbeknownst to anyone, Stark is dying from the very power source that keeps him alive, his blood poisoned by an enemy element, which explains his increasingly erratic behavior.
Wielding some sort of electrical whip contraption, Vanko attacks Stark while he's out of his Iron Man suit and competing in a high-gloss car race. Stark survives and Vanko is jailed, but the snaky Hammer breaks him out and puts the brilliant thug to work building an army to defeat Iron Man.
And where does Scarlett Johansson fit in? She doesn't really; she sort of runs alongside the story as Natalie Rushman / Natasha Romanoff, Stark's new assistant and a secret ally of Nick Fury, who's trying to recruit Iron Man into the upcoming Avengers movie.
At the center of all this, obviously, is Downey, whose Stark is something of an American composite -- capitalist, inventor, irresponsible self-absorbed egoist, lone cowboy, Hugh Hefner quip machine and spoiled brat. Oh, and good-at-heart hero. It's hard to imagine any other actor pulling off a character of such cartoon complexity so casually.
Ultimately, director Favreau manages off the same trick. "Iron Man 2" never seems to strain for your attention. It starts slowly, gets a good run going and then jumps for the sky. Fly with it.
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