A Fresh Perspective on Iron Man 2

So, I’m continuing my journey into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and I’m nearly halfway there. I’ve done Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, so it’s time to return to Tony Stark, who’s in a bit of a bad situation. Third stop, Iron Man 2.

Despite IM2 making a huge amount at the box office (still the record for the MCU at the time of writing), everyone hated it. Yes, I’m exaggerating, but not by much. People really do not like this movie. Which is fair enough, but to be honest, I liked it a lot. Yes, the first one was better. And yes, the film is consumed by setting up sequels.

But I reckon that Iron Man 2 is not as bad as people make out. Look at the positives. Robert Downey Jr. is on fine form. Nick Fury gets more screen-time (this is kind of a negative too). The villain is better than in the first one (nope, Jeff Bridges in the Mark I suit is not a good villain in my opinion). There’s plenty of great one-liners. And the action’s good.

And onto the negatives. The final final battle (the one with Whiplash) lasts about 2 minutes and it’s a MASSIVE anti-climax. The story’s not as good as the first one. Half the film is Marvel shouting ‘LOOK! The Avengers is coming!’ in your face in a pretty unsubtle way. Nick Fury gets too much screen-time. It’s less character-driven than the first one. It’s more concerned about money than any other Marvel film ever released ever.

Acting wise, I’ve mentioned Downey Jr. above, but just to say again: he really is very good. Gwyneth Paltrow is decent. The recasting of Rhodes was a good idea, as Don Cheadle is great. Sam Rockwell is strangely camp. And Mickey Rourke’s Russian accent is a bit off putting, considering he’s American. I dunno, it just kind of distracted me.

I’m not  familiar with the comics, but I know enough about Demon in a Bottle, and it was a pretty interesting and different plot-line from the usual superhero movie. Considering that the Iron Man movies seem to be taking a similar pattern to that of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy (e.g second film, start with hero in bad position, end with hero in good position), I won’t be surprised to see more of that in Iron Man 3.

And finally, I ought to mention the post-credits scene, since I’m writing this in the run-up to Marvel Avengers Assemble. The hammer in the desert crater is a great tease for Thor, and apparently it really is a scene from Thor. Which is pretty neat. Speaking of ol’ Goldilocks, the Thunder God is up next up…

Next stop, ‘A Fresh Perspective on Thor’ coming next Wednesday. Also, check out the previous reviews of the MCU below:

A Fresh Perspective on Iron Man

A Fresh Perspective on The Incredible Hulk