Iron Man 2
Mon, May 3, 2010 
When it was first announced back in 2005, that Marvel was developing a live action incarnation of Iron Man, the billionaire playboy /arms dealer turned super hero. I think it’s safe to say, the general audience had no idea who he was, and had no interest in the character. Then came the casting of Robert Downey Jr. , both the fan boys and the general audience’ interest was dramatically spiked. Iron Man was released in May of 2008, it opened with 98.6 million, and went on to earn over 585 million worldwide. A sequel was inevitable.
Iron Man 2 takes place six months after Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) announces to the world, he is Iron Man.
It starts off in Russia, where we’re first introduced to Ivan Vanko aka Whiplash (Mickey Rourke), he’s watching the news broadcast as Stark declares to the world “I am Iron Man”. Then jump to New York, where Tony/ Iron Man is hosting the newly revived Stark Expo, extravagant entrance and all. Stark declares to the audience “If feels good to be back”, and goes on to talk about creating world peace. As he’s leaving the expo, he’s served with a subpoena to appear in front of the senate of arms comity.
It’s at the comity hearing, where we’re first introduced to Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) of Hammer Industries, he is the Department of Defence primary arms contractor, and he’s at the hearing on belhalf of the military which would like Stark to hand over his Iron Man technology, in order for Hammer to put it into mass production for them. Both in attendance for the military as well as Stark, comes in James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) , he sticks his neck out on the line for Stark, but Tony interrupts him anyways, wins over the senate, and refuses to hand over the armour saying “you want my property, you can’t have it, I’ve successfully privatize world peace, you’re welcome”, to which the senator replies “F*** you Mr. Stark, F*** you buddy”. This basically sets up the tone of the movie, He has changed the world, and the US military is not happy with just that, they intend to stop at nothing to obtain his technology.
Tony realizes his technology that happens to be keeping him alive, and powering his suit, is also killing him, so he appoints his assistant Pepper Pots (Gwyneth Paltrow) as CEO and chairman of Stark Industries.
Six months later, back in Russia, Ivan is creating his own version of the arc reactor originally designed by Howard Stark, from blue prints he just happens to have laying around. Once he has reactor constructed, he purchases a passport and ticket to the Monaco Grand Prix, where Tony Stark is set to appear.
The pace really jumps all over the place like this for the first half of the movie, from Russia they head back to Tony’s house in Maibu, where happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) and Tony are boxing, in comes undercover Russian super spy Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), who happens to also be Starks new assistant and replacement for Pepper Pots. She gets in the boxing ring with Hogan, and essentially twists his arm around and throws him on his ass, I think this was meant to hint at the fact that there is obviously something more to her, but as most everyone going in will already know, she also a SHEILD agent by the name of Black Widow.
The Monaco Grand Prix, one of only a select few action sequences through out the film, is done amazingly. Tony unexpectedly last second decides to drive the race car he’s sponsoring, himself. Whiplash aka Ivan Vanko walks right out onto the race track and starts cutting cars in half with his whips. Lucky for Tony though, Hogan comes to his rescue racing down the track in his Bentley with Potts, they deliver Tony the Iron Man armour suitcase, very cool. The only problem is, after this he quickly defeats whiplash and that’s it for the action until almost the end of the film. Stark visits Vanko in his Monaco prison cell, where he learns a little bit more about Vanko, and what exactly he knows.
Justin Hammer cleverly breaks Vanko out of prison in Monaco, in order to have him build the technology of Tony’s, that he’s not able to perfect himself, at the same time he’s able to set it up for everyone to believe that Vanko is dead. Hammer tells Vanko “ I want to go to the Stark Expo this year, and take a big dump in Tony’s front yard”. Clever I know, this is how extremely rich geniuses talk.
Bounce back to Stark’s birthday, where we get a small cameo from the now deceased Dj AM, who actually plays part in a small comedic moment between Iron Man and War Machine as he’s first introduced, sort of.
The entrance of Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) is where things start to get interesting. Natasha, Stark’s new assistant, is revealed as Black Widow, but does next to nothing until closer to the end. Fury knows that Stark is dying from the very thing keeping him alive, so he injects him with lithium dioxide to help, I have no idea what that is. He further explains Vanko’s “story” and his motive behind trying to kill him, it’s Fury that pushes Stark to develop the more perfected version of the arc reactor.
The second half of the film really tries to help set up the next few Marvel projects leading into the Avengers in 2012. SHEILD agent Coulson is reassigned from watching Stark, to New Mexico, which ties into the bonus scene after the end credits. The Captain America shield also makes a cameo, in the form of a table wedge of sorts, for Tony’s gigantic arc reactor, he shoves it underneath one side to help level it out.
Hammer finally clues into the fact that Vanko is only using him and his resources to help further his own personal vendetta with Stark, so he attempts to “muscle” him into doing what he wants. Great idea, you’re going to intimidate a huge crazy tattooed Russian genius, that happened to also spend 15 years in a Siberian prison, good luck.
The final battle lacks in comparison to what the Monaco grand Prix scene could have been, it still serves the general purpose of the story, but comes with a few small plot holes.
Fury’s last scene with Stark really sums up what Iron Man’s involvement with the Avengers will be, which was somewhat surprising.
Iron Man 2 is very successful at being a sequel, but it is not however the mind blowing experience you’ve been promised. I’ve heard some people say it's the Dark knight to it’s Batman Begins, not true. It came in about the same as what the first one did, maybe slightly better, it was not by any means worse, but also not a huge improvement either.
Biggest problem for me, was favreau beefing up his part as Happy Hogan for no real reason, and the lack of screen time for Whiplash, which Rourke did an amazing job bringing to life.
I'm giving Iron Man 2 an overall 6.5/10
Reader Comments (35)
sweet review. Im gonna see this on friday, I really wanna know about his involvement with the avengers now i have no idea what you meant by that
I've heard there wasn't enough action from other reviews too, I'm not going in with my expectations too high for this. I have a feeling this will be the last time we see Iron Man for some time, that is except for the Avengers.
Why was it such a problem that Favreau beefed up his role? He's a good actor, and he's the director, he can do whatever he wants really.
I have want to know like Dave said what you mean by Iron Mans involvement with the Avengers is?? He doesn't want to take orders from cap? thats my guess
we're going to the midnight show tomorrow, this looks amazing! nice review, I'll let you know what I thought on Friday
from the trailers it looks like theres nothing but action, thats funny. I'm seeing it on Friday, give you my opinion then,
I figured this would have been better than the first one. Maybe they rushed it out too quick
going to it tonight, I really hope this is better then the first one. I loved the first one, but I keep hearing mixed reviews.
They made favreau put it out too fast, it shoulld have been this christmas or next spring....I haven't seen it yet but I'm starting to think I don't want to from all the reviews. Yeah everyone says its fun, but is fun worth 60 bucks for me and the wife to see it in the theatre once, or do i wait and buy it for 20 bucks on blu ray and own it forever.
couldn't wait, we went the midnight show. This was wayyy better than the first one, IronMan2 was fuckin awesome
RDJ was great but there wasn't enough Iron Man in it...they should have called in Tony Stark 2 featuring a lil Iron Man too
its hard to call this anything more then fun, it wasn't amazing. but It was fun to watch. They could have made it 20 min longer though and included a little more action.
SPOILER***
why would they say he's only a conultant?? I don't get that, does this mean there will be no Iron Man3 and he"s only going to have a bit part in avengers??
That's my guess...
@ Dave
That's what I got from it. Once the right go over to Disney Iron Man is done on film, at least for a while. I'm guessing we'll only really get Iron Man in the suit in Avengers and it will be closer to the end, he saves the day in the final battle, seeing as he's created world peace it shouldn't be a problem for him lol
I'm surpised you gave it as much as you did 7.5?? I'd say it was a 6.5 at best
thx for the review though
I somehwhat disagree with you, I thought it pretty damn awesome.
its not TDK awesome, but definitely better then the first one.
This movie was awful, not enough action, too much talking. RDJ came off as a real douche...the one thing I agree with is Favreau cameo was fuckin stupid. I won't even bother to buy this on video, not worth it at all, I'm happy with just the first one
Wicked fucking movie. I'll be going to this again, at least once. RDJ as usual was amazing, and Rourke as whiplash was ridiculously cool, sam rockwell reminded me of jim carrey, he was a good opposite for Stark
not nearly enough Iron Man...too much talking. the talk was funny, but there was way too much of it, it gets old fast. I don't think the characters were developed very well at all, Rourke's first scense screaming like a retard? wtf was that all about? and iron man will only be consulting the avengers??? thats fuckin stupid, i get that cap is the leader, is that the porblem, stark aka rdj has too big of an egp to be lead by chris evans aka new cap??
I don't get some peoples complaints for this, not enough iron man, too much talking etc...if they had all action and no dialogue then you'd bitch it was just mindless action and no story.
I thnk they were able to blend the perfect amount of action and story, it was a great movie. I don't get why everyone keeps comparing it to tha dark knight either...I loved dark knight, but it wasn't perfect either, the fairy seen was retarded. Anyways iron man2 was good I'd say 8.5/10, thanks for the review :)
@Greg
I think it has more to do with RDJ and Favreau not wanting to work with DIsney. Once Avnegers is done or maybe even before that, they'll be taking everything back in house.
"don't even get me started about The Dark Knight."
I guess it's redundant at this point to compare any other comic film to The Dark Knight. We all know it's the Citizen Kane of superhero movies, so we should just move on.
You've just sort of summed up my feelings about the film. But i thought the action sequences except for the Whiplash on the race car track were quite poor. Scarlett Johansson's fight scene just looked horrendous with its terrible CGI and weird choreography.
This movie kicked ass! It should do well until Toy Story 3 comes out next month.
@ Tony
really? You don't think Shrek will take it down from the top spot?