The success of the first Iron Man film in 2008 took a lot of people by surprise, being as it was a relatively low budget action movie, featuring a superhero most people hadn’t heard of before and starring an actor who was better known for his run-ins with the law than any of his film work, however audiences enjoyed the unpretentious breezy fun of the original, and fell for Robert Downey Jr’s rakish charms as playboy arms manufacturer Tony Stark. And so, the question now is what Marvel Studios will offer in this inevitable sequel, now that they have audience expectations to deal with?
The answer is pretty much more of the same, with just a bit more on top – more money, more action, more romance and more characters – with mixed results. The first Iron Man was a rather curious action film in that the dialogue scenes were more entertaining than the action ones, as the former had wit and Downey’s great screen presence, whereas the latter were all CGI robot punch-ups, and so the promise of more action in this film isn’t a particularly enticing one. That being said, director Jon Favreau has clearly realised where the previous film’s strengths were, and he manages to include some action scenes where Downey is kept out of the costume for as long as possible, such as in an early run-in with Mickey Rourke’s vengeful Russian character, Ivan Vanko at the Monaco grand prix.
Like all comic book sequels, Iron Man 2 tries to add to its hero’s peril by including more villains scheming against him, and as usual, this means that they aren’t that well developed. Both Rourke, and Sam Rockwell (who plays rival arms manufacturer Justin Hammer) have proved in the past that they have great screen presence and can take on unusual and unsympathetic roles, but neither have much to work with here – Hammer is just too obnoxious to be of much interest, and Vanko’s back story is muddled and more than a bit tedious. Which is a rather similar situation to the first Iron Man film, where an interesting choice of actor (Jeff Bridges) was given a not particularly challenging villainous role, although none of which mattered by the climax anyway as it all just ended up with the actors being replaced by CGI metal suits.
With Marvel Studios trying to get audiences hyped up for their superhero team-up movie The Avengers in 2012 there are also more characters added on Stark’s side as well, also with mixed results. Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury popped up in a post-credits cameo in the first Iron Man film, so his sudden promotion to major character status in this film might cause some audience confusion and Scarlett Johansson turns in her strongest performance in a long while, but sadly it’s in a part that’s essentially only eye candy. Out of the returning characters Gwyneth Paltrow’s assistant Pepper Pots, is given marginally more to do in this film, and remains rather likeable, but again is really only there for romantic interest, and Stark’s army buddy Lt Col Rhodes is again a spirited side kick, even though the replacement of Terrence Howard by Don Cheadle in the part doesn’t really add anything to the film.
All that being said, all that’s important is that the humour (much of which was provided by Robert Downey Jr’s performance) makes it over intact from the first film, and it’s a pleasure to say that it does. Downey is just as likeable as ever, and there are plenty of enjoyably witty little details to enjoy, such as the film’s alternate reality being one in which arms dealers are celebrities and physicists are hulking action men, the neat little references thrown in to other Marvel superheroes and a rather apt cameo from Mad Men’s John Slattery as Stark’s father. So, despite the lack of surprises offered, Iron Man 2 manages to be just as good (and bad) as its predecessor.
