In the lead-up to Avengers: Infinity War (in cinemas 25 April), Liam Maguren re-watches the third Marvel Cinematic Universe film and the second Iron Man film.
It’d be easy and mean-spirited to simply slam Jon Favreau’s follow-up to the great Iron Man for all the things it doesn’t live up to. It’s a decent-sized list and you can understand why this is no-one’s favourite Marvel film. However, it still works well enough as entertainment and is the first film to work other MCU properties into its core narrative (something it was criticised for at the time but is now commonplace).
The main issue with Iron Man 2 is that it attempts too much in two hours. The US military is trying to out Tony Stark as an irresponsible weapon. Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) makes his own arc reactor suit in the name of vengeance. Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) gets a promotion, which comes with its own Shit Creek paddle. Competitive war tech tycoon Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) is trying to sleaze his way out of Stark’s shadow with his own (crappy) Men of Iron. Rhodey (Don Cheadle) is edging further away from Team Tony and more towards Team Do What You’re Bloody Told, Soldier. Stark has to make peace with some daddy issues and a brief stint of alcoholism. Nick Fury and Natasha ‘Black Widow’ Romanoff are monitoring him to make sure he doesn’t mess everything up too royally. To top it all off, Tony’s kind of dying.
Yeah, it’s a lot of stuff to get across the line, and to the film’s credit, it manages to wrap up all these threads at a cracking pace to make for a decent summer blockbuster. Unfortunately, while the first film dives in deep with its central character arc, this one goes shallow with its numerous subplots. It’s like seeing someone who juggled three chainsaws do the same routine with seven throw cushions.
The film opens strong with an expo celebrating the glory of Tony Stark with fireworks and can-can girls dressed as Iron Man (because six months as a successful superhero was not going to make this guy humble). His court hearing with Senator Stern (later revealed as a Hydra scumbag in The Winter Soldier) delivers more wisecracking Robert Downey Jr, bragging about being the only one who can make an Iron Man suit and how he’s “privatised World Peace” (a stance he grows out of in Civil War).
In the same scene, Cheadle makes his first appearance as the new Rhodey with a line directed straight at the Terrence Howard fan club.
Rockwell’s Hammer also makes his first appearance, establishing himself as the Bizarro World version of Tony’s ego. Stark’s other personality, Iron Man, has its own parallel in Rourke’s relentless Vanko (AKA Whiplash). They’re both great in the roles, but the roles feel like two halves of one complete villain. Hammer doesn’t feel menacing enough and Vanko doesn’t get to be much more than a menace.
It’s unfortunate because Vanko looks bloody cool in his first confrontation with Stark.
Most of what happens from there is very slight. Tony has the saddest birthday ever, under the impression he’s going to die from his old arc reactors poisoning his blood. He gets drunk in his Iron Man suit, which is like giving a baby a bazooka, and is the excuse Rhodey needs to test drive his Iron Patriot persona (and punch Tony in the face).
It’s a good confrontation that unfortunately holds few consequences or revelations. What’s Tony’s punishment for endangering so many lives? Some tsk tsks and a stern finger wag.
Tony’s looming death and resentment for the father who supposedly never loved him are both resolved in one convenient film reel that features Howard Stark revealing The Cure™ followed by a swift “Yeah, I love you.” It’s unfortunate because, given how often the character pops up in the MCU, more could have been done with this relationship.
Meanwhile, Vanko manipulates Hammer and his company, turning the Men of Iron into RC robots. This setup could have made a great statement on the very real issue of drone warfare, but it’s only used to give Iron Man and War Machine things to blow up. But hey, it’s really fun to watch.
No matter how much I criticise this film, it’s still bad to the ass seeing Iron Man and War Machine taking out an army of drones. It’s also satisfying as hell to see Black Widow effortlessly annihilate a bunch of guards while Favreau’s Happy barely gets past one.
Unfortunately, the final showdown with Vanko is as exciting as a tug-of-war battle. It’s also somewhat disturbing seeing Stark and Potts make out while the flames of a terrorist attack casually linger in the background.
I’ve been using ‘unfortunately’ a lot because it’s the word that best describes Iron Man 2. There’s so much in here that could have led to fortunes that are rendered merely passable. While ‘passable’ doesn’t mean bad, it also doesn’t describe the first Iron Man. And it sure as hell isn’t how Tony Stark would describe Tony Stark.
So it’s somewhat fortuitous that, near the end of the film, Stark gets rejected from The Avengers initiative. He simply isn’t of THAT standard. This film wasn’t of that standard. However, as we soon learned, they both would be.
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