 |
|
|
IRON MAN 2
(**½)
|
|
|
Movie Review by:
Jim "Good Old JR" Rutkowski
|
Directed by:
Jon Favreau |
Written by:
Justin Theroux |
Starring:
Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, |
Running time:
125 minutes
|
Released:
05/07/10 |
|
Rated PG-13
for for sequences of
intense sci-fi action and violence, and some language. |
|
|
" ...a virtual retread of the original that ends up accentuating its flaws
while failing to invoke the freshness that people responded to in the first
place."
|
|
|
When “Iron Man” film was released a couple of years
ago, the risks taken by the filmmakers were far greater than on the typical
superhero extravaganza. After all, it was based on a comic book property that,
while beloved by fan boys, was not necessarily that well known to the general
public, it was directed by someone who had never made anything close to its size
and scope and the lead role of Tony Stark, the brilliant and hedonistic
industrialist-turned-superhero, was filled by Robert Downey Jr., a terrific
actor whose mercurial talents had never really translated into box-office
dollars. In other words, this was a rare example of a studio blockbuster that
strayed away from the formulas instead of adhering to them and the public, in a
rare bout of good taste, responded favorably to its willingness to do things
differently--especially in regards to the casting of Downey--and turned it into
a worldwide smash hit. Having hit the jackpot the first time around by going
against the grain and being further emboldened by the fact that a follow-up
would be about as close as one could get in Hollywood to a sure thing these
days, you might expect that the people in charge of “Iron Man 2” would take the
opportunity to build on what they had achieved and make a film that further
messed with both genre and audience expectations. Instead, they have
inexplicably chosen to play it safe this time around by offering up a virtual
retread of the original that ends up accentuating its flaws while failing to
invoke the freshness that people responded to in the first place.
Set six months after the events in the first film, the story opens with Tony
Stark, now known to the world as Iron Man, literally on the top of the world (or
at least an aircraft hovering over it), basking in the knowledge that he has, as
he puts it, “successfully privatized world peace” as the result of his efforts
and attempting to further solidify his legacy by reviving the Stark Expo, an
amusement park/think tank that comes across like a combination of EPCOT and an
Apple store on the day of a new product rollout. Alas, Stark’s world is not as
perfect as he likes to let on. The rare energy source used to power the machine
in his chest that both keeps him alive and powers the Iron Man suit is slowly
but surely poisoning his blood (he even has a little gadget to measure its
toxicity), a fact that he has yet to confess to Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow),
his faithful colleague, potential romantic interest and the newly installed CEO
of Stark Industries. At the same time, he is being pressured by the government,
in the form of an especially fatuous senator (Garry Shandling. . .yes, Garry
Shandling) to turn over the suit and its secrets to the military on the grounds
that no lone individual should possess something that powerful. Inevitably, Tony
spurns this demand--partly because he doesn’t like the idea of its secrets
getting out and, though he won’t admit it, partly because the idea of being a
lone wolf superhero playing by his own rules is a great way of feeding his
already pronounced ego. This decision puts him in a difficult position in
regards with both his best friend, Lt. Col. James Rhodes (Don Cheadle stepping
into the infamously vacated shoes of Terrence Howard) and the mysterious Nick
Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), who is trying to recruit him for a shadowy superhero
collective known as the Avengers.
Meanwhile, over in Russia, Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), a brilliant-but-crazy
physicist whose father may have helped collaborate with Stark’s father on
creating a possible new energy source before being deported and left to rot in
prison. Enraged by Stark’s apparent appropriation of the technology his father
helped develop and his efforts to try to wipe the Stark family slate clean of
its checkered past, Vanko devises his own version of the suit, complete with
giant electrified bullwhips, and tries to kill him in the middle of the Monaco
Gran Prix by walking out onto the track in the middle of the race and attempting
to cut him and his car down. Although he fails to actually do away with Stark
for good, Vanko does smack him around pretty good and his efforts attract the
attention of Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), a rival industrialist and war
profiteer who has been unsuccessfully attempting to devise his own version of
the Iron Man outfit to sell to the governments of the world and to knock Stark
out of business. Hammer secretly busts Vanko out of jail and brings him to
America to have him help create new suits that will help bring Stark down both
personally and professionally, though he doesn’t quite grasp Vanko’s desire for
revenge against Stark and the lengths he will go to achieve it. There is another
new and potentially sinister presence in the form of Natalie Rushman (Scarlett
Johansson), a sexy new Stark Industries employee who may be too good to be
true--luckily for her, if she is an industrial spy (or worse), she can look
people in the eye and say whatever she wants without fear of being caught in a
lie because the vast majority of them will be aiming their gazes roughly 14
inches below her eyeline, if you know what I mean and I think you do.
The first “Iron Man” was, of course, an origin story that necessarily needed to
spend a good chunk of its running time introducing the characters and setting up
the basic premise before getting around to introducing such elements as a plot
and a villain. With all that now out of the way, one might have hoped for a
fuller and more consistent plot this time around but if anything, the screenplay
by Justin Theroux is even more scattershot here than it was in the original.
There are plenty of ideas that could have been developed into interesting
stories--including such potential conflicts as Stark vs. Vanko, Stark vs.
Hammer, Stark vs. the military and Stark vs. his own cavalier attitude towards
his work as a superhero and how his behavior shift over the course of the first
film seems to have fallen by the wayside (although he never quite says it, his
motto could be “With great power comes great irresponsibility”)--but instead of
simply focusing on one, it tries flitting back and forth between all of them and
as a result, all of these potentially good idea wind up getting the short
shrift. The screenplay also makes the classic superhero sequel mistake of
throwing too many villains into the mix--instead of one big and compelling
baddie, the story splits between the obvious threats posed by Vanko and Hammer
and the potential one posed by Natalie and as a result, none of them manage to
take center stage in the way that the story needs in order to have an adversary
worthy of our hero. The story is also surprisingly bald on the kind of big
action set-pieces might expect to find--the Gran Prix sequence doesn’t arrive
until about a half-hour in and once it ends, that is pretty much it from an
action standpoint until the big finale. Instead, we are treated to endless
scenes in which Tony either acts like a selfish jerk or is upbraided by his
friends for acting like a selfish jerk, too many sequences in which it is
obvious that director Jon Favreau simply turned on his camera and told the
actors to make it up as we go along and in-jokes designed to delight the fanboys
in the audience without doing much of anything for the other audience members.
(As with the original, there is a scene after the end credits that helps further
cement the “Avengers” plotline and at the showing that I attended, half the
viewers broke out into cheers at what it revealed while the other half had no
idea what it was supposed to depict at first.)
Although the sheer surprising effectiveness of his performance the first time
around is obviously lost, Robert Downey Jr’s turn as Tony Stark is once again
the best thing here--he has that rare gift of being able shift from the lightly
ironic to the deadly serious in an instant and to be able to walk around in a
giant robot suit as if it were the most natural thing in the world to do.
However, this is the latest of a string a films where he has managed to jazz up
a substandard script by the sheer force of his considerable talents and while he
does it again here, it is getting to the point where he is going to have to
start picking above-standard scripts to use them on or run the risk of wearing
out his welcome. Perhaps the additions of Mickey Rourke, Sam Rockwell and
Scarlett Johansson, three excellent actors not exactly known for appearing in
genre films of this type, were intended to strike the same kind of unexpected
sparks that Downey did the first time around but lightning does not strike twice
here. In his first major role since solidifying his professional comeback with
“The Wrestler,” Rourke is pretty much wasted on a nothing role that grants him
only a few minutes of screen time and maybe one extended scenes opposite Downey
that doesn’t involve the two of them pounding the crap out of each other while
encased in robot outfits. Rockwell and Johansson are similarly wasted
throughout--though the latter does get one nice showcase in which she decimates
a hallway full of foes while clad in an exceptionally fetching catsuit--as are
Paltrow and Cheadle. In fact, beyond Downey and Johansson when she slips into
ass-kicking mode, the only performer here who really makes an impression is
Garry Shandling and that is only because once you see it, you will spend the
rest of the film wondering to yourself “What the hell happened to Garry
Shandling?”
“Iron Man 2” isn’t a disaster by any means--as previously mentioned, Downey is a
hoot throughout, Favreau keeps things humming along in a slick and competent
manner (even if he still has yet to develop the kind of distinct visual approach
that might give an added lift to the action scenes) and the film as a whole
never hits the depths of such disasters as “Spider Man 3” or “Kick-Ass”--and to
judge by the reaction of the audience that I saw it with, it does deliver the
goods to those who want nothing more than two hours of eye candy. The trouble
is, the first “Iron Man” proved that a film could work as eye candy while still
demonstrating a certain amount of intelligence and originality and that is why
it stuck with viewers as well as it did. This one, on the other hand, may
provide some temporary thrills but they are empty ones that will largely be
forgotten within a couple of days. |
|
|
|
IRON MAN 2
© 2010 Paramount Pictures
All Rights Reserved
Review © 2010 Alternate Reality, Inc.
|
|
|
|
RELATED REVIEWS...
|
|
KICK ASS |
|
 |
|
"...a distractingly frenzied
picture lacking true satiric aim, making the oncoming mess of ultra-violence
more troubling than rousing." (JR) |
|
|
|
IRON MAN |
|
 |
|
"This
is what a superhero movie should be: an exciting, quick-witted adventure built
to entertain." (JR) |
|
|
|
the LOSERS |
|
 |
|
""It's a textbook example of
diverting, forgettable, been-there-done-that, middle-of-the-road mediocrity."
(JR) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
