If you were going to cast someone to play a damaged but cocky hero, you couldn’t make a better choice than Robert Downey Jr. Given his history playing similar roles (Sherlock Holmes, Zodiac, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, etc.) and his own well publicized tribulations, Downey was born to play the egotistical, eccentric Tony Stark. Like the 2008 original, Downey’s lighthearted, eclectic performance as the titular armored Super Hero is the heart and soul of the film.
Possibly the most anticipated film of the year, the bar is set pretty high for Iron Man 2, and for the most part, it lives up to expectations. Although not quite equal to the terrific original, director Jon Favreau’s follow-up is still a fun superhero adventure, full of action, effects and well developed characters. And the cast is top notch. We have such talented thespians as Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler), Don Cheadle, (Hotel Rwanda, Crash), Gwyneth Paltrow, (Shakespeare in Love), Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction) and Sam Rockwell (Frost/Nixon, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind) all supporting Downey’s excellent leading man turn.
Picking up where Iron Man (2008) left off, we find Tony stark seemingly reverted to his narcissistic, party-animal self. Tony’s philosophy is to live until he dies, whether it’s hosting his own version of the World’s Fair (called Stark Expo) or getting drunk and dancing in his Iron Man armor while surrounded by a bunch of adoring lovelies. However, our hedonistic hero is not quite what he seems. When no one is looking, he monitors his blood with a little device that reads his blood toxicity level. It turns out that he is being contaminated by the very mechanical chest core that keeps him alive. Talk about a no-win situation.
Unlike other masked heroes including Spider-Man, Batman and Wolverine, Tony isn’t the brooding type. The idea of self pity never occurs to him. He continues his trademark bravado, even while everything is falling apart around him. The government, led by a belligerent Senator (played by the oddly cast Gary Shandling) wants to take the Iron Man armor away from Stark, and Stark’s absenteeism is hurting his company, so he turns the reigns over to his assistant/love interest Pepper Potts (Paltrow). Pepper tries to run the corporation and attend to the even more difficult task of keeping the undisciplined Tony in line. The poor girl has her hands full.
And, of course, every good superhero needs a good villain or two to put him through his paces. Iron Man 2 delivers two villains, although only one is meant to be taken seriously. Ivan Vanko (Rourke) is a former Soviet scientist who’s recently been released from jail after 20 arduous years of imprisonment. He has a deep grudge against Tony Stark, so he builds his own exo-skeleton, equipped with two lethal electric whips and tracks down our hard partying hero. In the film’s best action sequence, Vanko (a.k.a. “Whiplash”) storms into the races at Monaco and starts whipping cars in half, including the one belonging to Tony, who has impulsively decided to drive his own vehicle in the race. (Although how Vanko knew Stark would do this is anybody’s guess.)
The other villain is Stark’s industrial rival, billionaire Justin Hammer (Rockwell) who wants the secret to Stark’s armor and recruits Vanko to build him his own army of robotic Iron Man drones. Hammer is an ineffective wannabe, basically Stark-like. Rockwell plays Hammer as a comedy relief goof, with more money than brains. He’s like a jealous Drago Malfoy stuck in the shadow of Harry Potter.
Stark gets some much needed aid from his best friend, Col. “Rhodey” Rhodes (Cheadle) who gets so tired of trying to get Tony to act like a grown up that he purloins one of Stark’s many suits of armor and goes into action as the War Machine. Cheadle replaces Terrance Howard, and the role of Rhodey is given a lot more meat for Cheadle to chew on than Howard had.
Another new wrinkle in the sequel is the addition of gorgeous Scarlett Johansson as Natalie Rushman, the efficient member of Stark’s legal department. But Natalie, a.k.a. Natasha Romanoff, is actually a trained super-spy called the Black Widow who’s been sent by the enigmatic Nick Fury (Samuel Jackson), the head of a top secret government organization. Fury has plans for Stark that lay the groundwork for the upcoming Avengers film. Johansson may not be the world’s greatest actress but no one looks better in a skin-tight body suit than she does. Martial arts never looked so good.
The most unique thing about the Iron Man franchise is that the hero is actually more fun out of his super suit than in it. More so than Bruce Wayne or Peter Parker, Tony Stark is the real star of his franchise, even without a costume. Downey is so engrossingly magnetic as the narcissistic Tony Stark that the film is more fun when Stark is bantering with Pepper than when armies of Iron Men are dueling to the death. The plot is fairly standard and some characters (like Johansson) don’t get enough screen time. The action sequences are merely adequate, but despite all that, the talented Downey carries the day.
"Iron Man 2" opens May 7, 2010 and is rated PG13. Sci-Fi. Directed by Jon Favreau. Written by Justin Theroux. Starring Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow, Mickey Rourke, Robert Downey Jr, Sam Rockwell.
