Iron Man 2 Review

Alright, so like any decent person should have, I went and saw Iron Man 2 last night (deciding against going to see the Midnight showing on Thursday) and I have to say, I liked it but I wasn't blown away like I hoped I would.  I apologize if this review is a bit short and thrown together but I'm writing this when I should be getting stuff together to visit my mom this weekend for Mother's Day.  


For starters, let's look at how the cast holds up:

Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man - Just as great as he was in the first.  If I were to find any fault with his performance, it would be that I didn't feel like "Oh my God, I want to be Tony Stark!" like I did with the first movie.  But he's still as witty and charming as ever.  No homo. 

Gwenyth Paltrow as Pepper Potts - Ok, so here's where my negativity is going to come out.  I don't like Gwenyth Paltrow and never really have.  She's too much of the "quirky indie romantic movie"-type that just irritates me.  But the thing is I thought she was GREAT in Iron Man.  She was able to strike a balance between independent headstrong female and damsel in distress.  However, in this movie, she pretty much throws that away and spends most of the movie either screaming or nagging Tony Stark at every opportunity.  Even so, despite this, the chemistry between her and Downey is still great, even if a little too fast-paced (as in there were dialogue scenes that were so fast-paced that I couldn't understand what they were saying at a point).

Don Cheadle as James "Rhodey" Rhodes - I'm sure this is going to be a point of contention as to who is the better Rhodey but honestly, I like them both the same.  I'm not sure if its due to the simple character of Rhodey or a credit to his acting ability, but Cheadle played Terrence Howard so well that, other than physical appearance, they might as well be the same person.  But while Rhodey does have a bigger role in this movie, I'm still kinda disappointed that they didn't do even more with him.

Mickey Rourke as Ivan Vanko/Whiplash - Like I said before, I like Mickey Rourke but I wasn't really expecting him to blow me away as the new villain.  And I was right...though that's not Rourke's fault.  Mickey played a convincing foil to Iron Man, but I felt that they didn't really do much with his character (which I'll touch upon more later).

Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer - If it weren't for Downey's all-around stellar performance, Rockwell could have easily one-upped him.  Playing a rival weapons manufacturer, Hammer is competing with Stark and wants to beat him at his own game, yet wants to BE him so badly.  Sam Rockwell is never not awesome and he shines once again in Iron Man 2 (and hopefully 3 if his final threats come true).

Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow - I've never really gotten the hype for Scarlett.  I've never seen many movies with her in it so I don't know if she's a great actress.  Plus, while everyone else thinks she's gorgeous, she's kinda hit and miss with me.  But I believe it now.  The jury's still out with me over her acting talent as she plays her character rather cold and calculating, so I couldn't really tell, but DAMN was she smokin'!  And I'm not even talking about the skin-tight Black Widow costume but when she was in her regular business attire as the new assistant to Stark Industries.  Of course, Black Widow does get to show her moves in a fight scene, though not quite surpassing the awesomeness of Hit-Girl from Kick Ass.  But regardless, I will be looking forward to seeing Black Widow again by the time The Avengers rolls around.

Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury - After the post-credits cameo of the first movie, Nick Fury gets a slightly bigger role in the sequel.  But even though I enjoy Samuel L. Jackson, I'm not sure if I like him as Nick Fury yet because he plays it a little too close to regular-Samuel L. Jackson-style.  I half-expected to hear him end a line or two with a good hearty "Motherfucker!"

Ok, with that out of the way, let's get my main issue with Iron Man 2 (besides Gwenyth Paltrow) out of the way: it's very formulaic.  I don't necessarily mean that as an insult as superhero movies should follow some sort of easy formula, but Iron Man 2 almost feels like Iron Man 1.  Let me draw this parallel.  In the first movie, most of the focus was on building up Iron Man and Tony Stark's conscience over trying to make up for his past of creating weapons that have now found their way to the enemy.  And with most of the movie focusing on that, the final confrontation between Stark and Obediah Stane/Iron Monger didn't really get enough time as it should have. 

In Iron Man 2, Stark's enemies aren't necessarily Whiplash and Justin Hammer but instead the US Government, his best friend Rhodey and even himself.  Even though Iron Man has brought peace to the world, the Government still sees him as a weapon and wants him to surrender the suit, especially when Ivan Vanko appears and proves that the technology can be duplicated.  But while Whiplash and Hammer do team up and get a good chunk of screen-time, most of their union happens "behind the scenes" while Stark has to deal with the Government and the fact that the Arc Reactor that runs his suit is slowly killing him.  In fact, while Stark's lowest point isn't caused by either Whiplash or Hammer, but instead himself, which causes Rhodey to take the suit and surrender it to the Army and Nick Fury to step in and help Stark fix everything.

That's where I think the Whiplash character suffers most.  He has the fight at the racetrack with Iron Man, which we've all seen in the trailers and the ads.  Then he spends the rest of the movie tinkering with robots and is really at his most threatening behind a keyboard.  So when he finally gets his epic confrontation with Iron Man at the end of the movie, not only do we not care all that much, but the fight only lasts a good 5 minutes.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking the whole thing about Stark fighting his inner demons or his tiff with Rhodey (which results in a great fight between the two).  I'm just getting sick of this whole trend of supervillains not doing jack shit that started with Spider-Man 3. 

All told, even with me complaining about this more than I should, Iron Man 2 is a great movie.  Compared to all the other superhero movies in recent memory, it holds its own with the original and if I were to grade it, I'd give it probably an A-.  But as much as it pains me to do this, I have to admit that I liked Kick Ass more.  I was really hoping that Iron Man 2 would step up after its predecessor being stuck in the shadow of The Dark Knight.  But as good as Iron Man 2 was, I personally enjoyed Kick Ass that much more.  Of course, I tend to drift towards the darker and more violent superhero stories, so I'm sure we probably won't share the same opinion. 

I really wish I didn't spend most of this review complaining about Iron Man 2 but really, all of the positives of the sequel can be found in the original.  Robert Downey Jr. is still awesome, the storytelling is still solid and there's tons of explosions and such.  If for whatever reason you're unsure of seeing this or not, by all means go see it!  It's what a superhero movie should be.  I just wish they gave the villains more to do so that we could give a crap about them and the end result wouldn't seem so one-sided and inevitable.

In other movie news, the trailer for Inception played before Iron Man 2 and it looks pretty damn good.  Not sure if I'll run out to see it in theaters (unlike perhaps The A-Team) but it does look like it'll be worth a shot.  Also, I've been hearing around the grapevine that The Human Centipede, despite sounding horrible and reprehensible, isn't as bad as it sounds.  Apparently, the whole "sewing people's mouths to other people's asses to create a human centipede" thing is mostly left to the imagination...thank God.  Even though I love me some gory horror movies, that's a little too much for me.  I was kinda on the fence, thinking that it sounds like a cool concept but not something I actually want to see in great detail.  Now, I'll definitely give it a shot, I just don't know when since it's not playing anywhere around me.