We now reach perhaps the MCU movie I liked least initially. I was disappointed after watching Iron Man 2, as I had loved the first one so much. I remember telling people this had too much plot and that sucked the fun out of it.
I did give it another chance now though and realized I had let my expectations get in the way the first time. Iron Man did have a fun simple plot- brilliant, obnoxious, charming Tony makes a fortune selling hi-tech weapons, rethinks his priorities after being taken prisoner, decides he wants to use his resources to help others, and fights his associate who still pursues war profiteering.
However, I wasn’t being fair to the second one. A sequel shouldn’t just copy the first one, as too many do – it needs to advance the story. This time around we see Tony struggling mightily with the effect being Iron Man has on his health, his relationship with Pepper getting incredibly strained before he learns to open his damaged (in more ways than one) heart to her, his best friend (now played by Don Cheadle) getting tired of Tony’s impetuousness and taking matters into his own hands by becoming a superhero too, a rival weapon manufacturer stopping at nothing to gain power for himself, and SHIELD officially becoming a part of Tony’s life in the form of Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury and Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow. All of it is compelling and the last part deserves props for getting woven into the story reasonably well instead of putting the whole thing on halt in order to establish an extended cinematic universe (cough*Batman V. Superman*cough*it was stupid essentially having trailers for future movies in the middle of the film*cough).
The movie’s only flaw is a big one-Mickey Rourke’s villain comes across as a poorly written Russian cliché. I’m not faulting Rourke’s performance, but it is what it is. A better part might have kept his comeback going longer.
Still, although the first movie set the bar very high, this sequel came close enough to be proud and was rewarded for its efforts with 73% approval on the Tomatometer and a worldwide gross over triple its $200 million budget!
Time for the game: This movie has two Oscar winners (Paltrow, Sam Rockwell) and four nominees (Downey, Cheadle, Rourke, Jackson).
Up next: A brand new hero for the silver screen.
Bottom line: Watch it!
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