Iron Man 2 Review

I must admit, I was pretty hyped up for this one. Growing up, Iron Man had always been one of my favourite Superheroes. I’ve never been a hardcore comic collector, only having a few flirting dalliances, but I always liked the anti hero character and was excited to see the second film adaptation. This made my disappointment all the more hard to swallow. First let me say, in no way is Iron Man 2 a bad film. It's just that the sum of its great parts don't add up to a great film.

Robert Downey Jr is excellent as Tony Stark, full of cockiness and cool headed confidence as he should be, but I think part of the problem lies in the character. Because of his innate 'Starkness', the constant 'I'm above it all' attitude, I never really took any of the threats seriously (neither it seems does Tony Stark), I just didn't ever believe there was any peril. This makes it hard to get invested in any of the big action scenes, especially when you're basically looking at two robotic suits kick the tin shit out of each other, rarely with any consequence. The lack of danger is blatantly highlighted when a drunk Iron Man has the Marvel equivalent of a pub brawl with his pal Rhodey suited up as an early War Machine. These are supposed to be the most advanced weapon suits in the world, yet absolutely no harm comes to anyone when the two of them have a pissing contest. Maybe it's the PG rating, but I'd at least expect there to be some casualties.

The other issue I have is the pacing. After a snappy start and the excellent court room scene, there a real steep drop off in the pace. We had the whole of the first film to build Tony's character, we know who he is, no need to slap us with unwarranted development. Seriously, a good 30 minutes could be cut out of the second act, where characters seem to have needless and exposition heavy conversations. The film spices up with the Monaco Grand Prix battle, and the effects really shine here, when we see Whiplash slashing racing cars in half like they were made from tin foil, but it regresses again to the same lagging pace as before.

The rest of the cast produce some good moments, especially any time Scarlett Johansson is on screen (some serious nerdgasms going on when she dons her skin tight get-up). Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell (who was an early casting fave for Stark) deliver two nuanced and polar opposite villains, but the lumbering script does them no favours.

The final act is balls to the wall ballistic, with Iron Man and War Machine's showdown with the droids being a high point, but again, there's no real danger for any of our heroes. After an extended flight n' fight sequence, the big battle is all over in a matter of minutes, with Rourke's Whiplash / Crimson Dynamo amalgamation being taken down with ease. There are the requisite story tie ups, a happy ending and yet more AC/DC to finish us of, but I'm left feeling like I've just watched a Saturday morning cartoon.

Iron Man 2 was definitely entertaining, which I guess is it's main aim, and it was thoroughly enjoyable - just not satisfying enough. It's light entertainment, which is great while you're in the cinema, but quickly forgotten once you leave that darkened room. There are no discussion points for afterwards other than 'wow, that weapon he used at the end was cool', no moral issues or ambiguities to dissect. Maybe I'm just expecting too much out of a Marvel blockbuster, but given the track records of all involved, I think I was justified in being optimistic. It's just missing that extra depth, something to give it some pathos and really make us care about the characters and the story's outcome. I guess I just like my films a little darker than this.