REVIEW: Iron Man 2

STARRING: Robert Downey Jr., Mickey Rourke View Trailer DATE SCREENED: 05/04/09 RELEASE DATE: 05/07/09 The Verdict GOOD - See it in the theater

The summer movie season of 2010 kicks off with Iron Man 2! I was never an avid reader of the Iron Man comic book, but the first film was my 2nd favorite movie of 2008. Although this is the 2nd Iron Man film it’s the 3rd film in the “Marvel Cinematic Universe” (Incredible Hulk was the 2nd). This is an exciting time for comic book film fans, as all the heroes, villains, and other characters in the “universe” know about each other and are free to appear in each other’s films. For this dream to be fully realized, Marvel needs to continue to produce good movies that make lots of money.

Robert Downey Jr. reprises his role as Tony Stark/Iron Man. The film picks up with Tony Stark enjoying his newfound celebrity at the opening of Stark Enterprises’ technology expo. It seems that Iron Man has brought about world peace, which has made him hugely popular with the people but not so popular with the government. Tony receives a subpoena to testify before a government committee. The government doesn’t believe an individual should have so much power. They unsuccessfully attempt to pressure Tony to turn over his Iron Man suit to the U.S. military. Tony refuses, claiming that even in the worst case scenario another country would be 5 years away from building an Iron Man type of suit to attack our country.

It turns out Tony is wrong about the 5 years. While Tony’s corporate rival Justin Hammer’s (Sam Rockwell) weapons company is nowhere near perfecting their own military iron man suits, our main villain Ivan (Mickey Rourke) is in Russia with his own crude suit he built in order to settle a long standing personal grudge with Tony’s dad. Ivan soon shows up at a car race in Monaco, as Whiplash, for a showdown with Iron Man. Iron Man emerges victorious and Whiplash is captured. He doesn’t stay in prison for long, as Justin Hammer breaks him out of prison in order to have him fix his nonworking army of iron man suits.

While Whiplash is working on modifying suits into unmanned drones, Tony Stark deals with his personal issues. It seems the device used to power his Iron Man suit is also causing damage to his heart. As Tony works to find a new power source that won’t kill him he is contacted by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) of the government agency S.H.I.E.L.D. They want him to be a part of their “Avengers Initiative” and can help him find a new safe power source.

The subplots don’t end there. At the end of a drunken birthday party, Tony’s good friend Rhodey (Don Cheadle) steals one of the older Iron Man suits and delivers it to the military and Justin Hammer. They outfit the suit with new software and weapons. Tony also attempts to rekindle his romance with Pepper Potts, who is now CEO of Stark Enterprises, while at the same time flirting with his new assistant Natalie (Scarlett Johansson) who turns out to be S.H.I.E.L.D. agent The Black Widow.

All of these plotlines lead to a huge showdown in Flushing Meadow NY between Iron Man & Rhodey, now dubbed War Machine in his suit, against an army of remote controlled iron man like drones & Whiplash.

Although I don’t think Iron Man 2 is as good as its predecessor, it should be good enough to satisfy the audience and generate enough money to keep the series going. There is too much plot and not enough action to be a great movie. I understand they had to set up S.H.I.E.L.D., as it will be a big part of the overall cinematic universe. But once you add that plotline into the movie, you have to cut out some of the other characters and subplots in order to deliver more action set pieces. On the positive side, the two main action sequences are great. And Robert Downey once again does a great job as Tony Stark. He’s extremely arrogant and funny, just as in the first one. The entire cast is good and the special effects are top notch.

A great comic book movie also needs a great villain. You can see that Whiplash had the potential to be that great villain, but we don’t see enough of him being a badass in the movie. There just isn’t enough time to build him up thanks to all the subplots. He’s a good villain, but not great.

All the elements are there for Iron Man 2 to be a great film, but in the end we only get a good movie. It is good enough to keep my excitement level up for all the upcoming films in the Marvel Universe (Thor, Captain America, & Avengers). I can’t wait to see how it all unfolds. Make sure you see this in the theater and wait for the final scene after the credits.