When your first foray into films is a huge success, why not make a sequel? It worked well for fellow well-received (and also now owned by Disney) studio Pixar with Toy Story, who followed up their big hit with an equally successful second instalment. Surely Marvel Studios could do the same with Iron Man? Whilst a trilogy was already in the works, the sequel was only announced after the release of the first, with only a story prepared ahead of the 2010, leaving little under two years to produce the picture. The sequel was a bigger hit than expected, as the highest grossing film of Phase 1 bar Marvel's Avengers Assemble, but when looked back it isn't quite the 'marvel' Marvel are known for these days.
Iron Man 2 is set six months later from the events of the first, in a world where world peace is nearly achieved thanks to the development of the Iron Man suit. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) is adored all over the world, as evident during the annual Stark Expo, but keeps secret the fact that the arc reactor keeping him alive is also slowly poisoning him. As such, he hands over the reigns of CEO of Stark Industries to long-time companion Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and hires Natalie Rushman (Scarlett Johansson) to take on her role of personal assistant instead. Meanwhile, the US government want control of the Iron Man suit for the Air Force as a precaution for when the enemy create their own weapons of mass destruction. Despite scoffing at it initially, Stark inevitably comes across Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) who creates his own arc reactor using the blueprints left by his father - who helped Tony's father develop the reactor in the first place. So just to clarify: Tony is dying, being threatened by the government the competition (Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer) and a villain with some family history, and is still being confronted by S.H.I.E.L.D's Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg). That's a lot for a two hour film that was made as a filler before Avengers Assemble. And the film certainly fills overfilled, and that's not even mentioning the role Johansson's Rushman plays in the whole affair and the mini plot revolving around Jon Favreau's Happy Hogan...let's say 'breaking into the athletic field'.
Despite how crowded the film appears to be, it's a surprisingly dull affair. You do have the odd action scene - three in total which feature Iron Man, and a fourth involving Favreau and Johansson - but the rest is pure padding. For each storyline is a dissatisfying conclusion, leaving a sour taste in the mouth of viewers. The main villain storyline - where Rourke's whip-bearing antagonist sets out to prove that Stark isn't the god he is - is turned into an alliance with Rockwell's Hammer which inevitably falters as Hammer wants the financial gains rather than the upper hand, and as such is an alliance only enjoyable for the constant mentions of Vanko's cockatoo (which I can never think of without thinking of the Muppets. Thanks Disney), and it's unfortunate that Marvel's new flagship hero is still lacking in the enemy division. Sure, Rockwell is very charismatic as Justin Hammer, but Rourke is laughable as Vanko with his interchangeable dialect.
Other storylines are also disinteresting. The poisoning, which leads to a swift retelling of the infamous "Demon in a Bottle" storyline from the comics, has huge focus - arguably larger than that of the actual villain story - before being forced into the limelight by the S.H.I.E.L.D crew and getting the answer from the ghost of Howard Stark (here played by John Slattery acting as though he was auditioning for a child-friendly Mad Men) makes for a waste of time outside of reintroducing the S.H.I.E.L.D team for Avengers Assemble. The government story on the side is more of a scenario to bring in Rhodey (now played by Don Cheadle) and the War Machine. It is nice to see more of their relationship, seeing as a good proportion of the first film gave the idea that these two were friends but never expressed how good friends they are here. In this case, there is legitimate chemistry, especially during the final battle, although the best is still to come from these two. A quick thing to point out whilst discussing the government side-plot - Gary Shandling is weird casting. His voice distracts from the actual conflict. As for the rest, there's isn't anything noteworthy to mention. It's all too much in such a short time frame.
With all that, you'd expect the film to be considered bad, but that's not entirely true. The cast, bar Rourke and Shandling, do a great job as they expand upon their characters or - in the case of Scarlett Johansson - introduce their characters with ease. Cheadle in particular improves over his predecessor by having actual presence and acting chops in comparison to Terrace Howard, and Downey Jr is still great to watch as Tony Stark. The film is a little funnier too, likely due to the addition of Tropic Thunder screenwriter Justin Theroux, although not every joke works as well as expected. It's clear that the cast are having a lot of fun (especially Rockwell and Downey Jr) so it is commendable. It's just a pity that the film overall is rather dull.
Iron Man 2 is not better than the first. It's not the textbook definition for a bad sequel, but there's plenty of room for it to improve. Despite being one of the more financially successful Marvel films of the pre-Disney ruling, it's easily the weakest out of the entire Universe to date. Not the worst, just a few rewrites away from good. 5/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment