I Am “Iron Man 2”

Hello folks. Before you read my review, I have a little disclaimer. First, there are some mild spoilers, but nothing huge. Secondly, THERE IS AN AFTER CREDITS SCENE, SO STAY IN THE THEATER. Just like the last one, there is a huge teaser after the credits.

Making a sequel to “Iron Man” is a daunting task. The first one was the rare origin story that didn’t bore us after the first 20 minutes and made us wanting more by the end. “Iron Man 2” is not only is better, but will be remembered with “The Dark Knight” and “Spider-Man 2” as one of the best comic book sequels.

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) told the world he was Iron Man six months ago. In those six months, world peace was achieved and Stark Industries has grown. Tony has a problem though, the arc reactor in his chest is killing him while also keeping him alive.

Seeing as the end is near, his behavior becomes quite erratic, much to the chagrin of Pepper Pots (Gwyneth Paltrow), Rhody (Don Cheadle), and Tony’s new assistant Natalie Rushman (Scarlett Johansson), who is really the Black Widow in disguise. While all this is going on, the US decides they want the Iron Man. Due to some clever tech work and smooth talking, Tony keeps the armor.

On the other side of the world is Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke). His father helped Tony’s father build the arc reactor, but had Vanko’s father deported when all he wanted was money. This ruined Vanko’s father’s life, and like any son he wants revenge.

Ivan then builds his own miniature reactor, but makes whips out of the power instead of a suit of armor, and attacks Tony while he is driving in a race. Even though Ivan losses, he believes he has won. “When you make God bleed, people stop believing in him.” Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) sees this man as the way to finally beat Tony in the financial world, as he runs the main competitor of Stark Industries, called Hammer Industries. Ivan uses Hammer’s resources as his means to his end.

There is a lot going on in this movie. As Iron Man’s last movie before the big Avengers film in 2012, “Iron Man 2” has a lot to cover. Let’s look at the checklist:

1) Prove further that Tony is a hero.

2) Establish Nick Fury, the Black Widow and War Machine as characters/heroes for future movies.

3) Drop more nuggets about “Thor,” “The First Avenger: Captain America,” “The Avengers,” and a possible sequel staring the Hulk.

Thankfully, it covers it all without losing steam. While there are a lot of people and plot threads in this movie, it is very Tony centric. Tony is the grenade and everyone reacts to his explosion. With all the characters involved, it would have been easy for the plot to forget about a character or two, but it gives every character plenty of time to be developed and have the audience care for them.

Downey is still amazing, perfectly showing how Stark is having trouble being a hero. Alcohol is his main vice and the movie acts like his moment of clarity for an alcoholic. Paltrow gives Pots some much needed depth, not just being the damsel in distress this time around. I wasn’t a big fan of Terrence Howard as Rhody, so I was happy to see Don Cheadle as War Machine (although not called this in the movie directly) this time around. He is a perfect War Machine, personifying War Machine’s personality from the comics to a fault.

Johansson does a great job as the Black Widow (although not called that in the movie), with the little time she is given. The same goes for Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. Those two are really just on loaned from “The Avengers,” and are really here to connect the movie version of the Marvel Universe. Even with the little time given, Jackson shows how he will be portraying Fury in future movies. He seems to be a mostly Fury from the main Marvel Universe, with some hints of the Ultimate Universe. Sam Rockwell is hilarious as Justin Hammer, and is somewhat of a malicious version of Stark.

The biggest alteration from the comics is Ivan Vanko. Vanko isn’t really one villain, more Whiplash and Crimson Dynamo meshed into one. While fanboys might cry foul, it really works. Vanko is more the puppet master who plays a chess game with Stark from the back round. While very different, it works very well and Rourke isn’t the average mustache twirling villain. Even in defeat, he sees victory.

There is a lot more action this time around, which is much more welcomed when the main character can blow stuff up with such ease. The teasers make perfect sense and a second viewing is needed to fully catch every little hint that was dropped.

Overall, “Iron Man 2” gets a 5 out of 5.