THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Iron Man kickstarted the MCU and became a bigger box office success than originally anticipated in 2008, only making it a matter of time to continue the franchise with a sequel for the titular superhero. And in my opinion, I didn't really feel disappointed of the Final Cut.
PLOT
Taking place six months after publicly revealing his identity of fighting with metal armor, Iron Man 2 shows Tony Stark goes through a lot: The palladium in his arc reactor is poisoning him slowly, which makes him recklessly live life to the fullest, the government wants to take his Iron Man suits while Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) is considering him to be part of the Avengers Initiative, and gives his close friend Pepper Potts the position of CEO at Stark Industries. SHIELD agent Natasha Romanoff watches over him as an assistant, which is oblivious to him until catching up with Fury. When attending the Monaco Grand Prix, he is attacked by a Russian named Ivan Vanko who uses electrical whips with his own arc reactor. Before defeating him with his Mark V suit, bodyguard Happy Hogan intervenes and crashed into the antagonist, attempting to save his boss’ life. Despite stopping a bad guy, his image is at risk as he now knows his technology could be dangerous in the wrong hands. He does do research that Ivan is the son of Anton Vanko, who originally made arc reactor blueprints with Howard Stark, his father. Anton originally got deported when Howard discovered his attempt of espionage. Fury would later tell him that after Russia discovered he couldn’t deliver, he got shipped to Siberia. All of this would motivate his son Ivan to ruin the Stark name. Ivan is later broken out of prison, faking his death in the process to align with Justin Hammer of Hammer Industries to upstage Stark. Despite accepting allegiance, he is mainly concerned with killing him. When he chooses to keep secret of his new whips and doesn’t design drones to be suits, Hammer intends to be rid of him after unveiling them at Stark Expo. James Rhodes takes the Mark 2 suit from Tony after he gets drunk and embarrasses himself at his own birthday party. He upgrades the suit to create the War Machine design, becoming part of Hammer’s unveiling. When getting a call from Vanko, Tony uses a new element he created by placing it in his arc reactor, quickly healing from the poison. He goes to the Expo to warn Rhodey that Vanko’s alive. Back at Hammer’s facility, Vanko quickly controls Rhodes’ suit and the drones he redesigned to attack. When Romanoff gets Hammer to spill the beans on Vanko’s whereabouts, she goes there with Happy, Tony’s bodyguard. Hammer would later be arrested for his complicity. After getting through the guards, she gains access to Vanko’s computer to return control to Rhodey’s suit. With that assistance, he is able to help Stark fight off the remaining drones. After that, they fight Vanko together who created his own metal armor along with bigger whips than before. He does get overpowered by both heroes, but attempts to get the last laugh by committing suicide from its self destruct mode. Tony acts quickly and rescues Pepper from the blast and the drones were all over the Expo. They finally embrace each other’s feelings as they share a kiss. Based on Romanoff’s assessment, Stark barely qualifies as a consultant for the Avengers rather than a field member than expected. The film ends with him and Rhodes receiving medals for their heroism.
THOUGHTS
I’ve been seeing this film since 2011 but after years of watching, I don’t exactly love it like I thought it did. I don’t want to sound like I hate it, but it just wasn’t better than it was hyped up to be. I can enjoy this movie for what it is but it has many flaws I can’t ignore. First off, Tony wears two different suits during the opening expo scene and I can’t get it out of my head because he doesn’t look to be sweating a bit. There were even multiple takes of Ivan having a zipped and unzipped jacket when talking to Hammer in one scene and it drove me crazy. Pick a lane man, either wear the jacket or take it off. It is cool for Tony to drive his own race car but I don’t think track officials would allow him to do it even if bribed. And him suiting up the Mark V is cool but Vanko should’ve killed him just as broke free from Happy’s car. It’s awesome that Black Widow was able return control to Rhodey’s suit but if she can do that, how come she wasn’t able to disarm Vanko’s suit or the drones or their self destruct modes? If those weren’t options, they could’ve implied it. If you can ignore all of that than hopefully, you’re still enjoying it as I’d be. Back to the goods, I believe that this film remains watchable is the standard visual effects and character driven ensemble. Robert Downey Jr. doesn’t fail to impress me with playing Iron Man in this second outing as we see the character’s expected growth. We know that his heart is in the right place, but not his head because of everything that is coming his way, that is his enemies and his responsibilities. It is here where we understand that his original selfishness came from not having a relationship with his father Howard. John Slattery was an interesting choice to play him, presenting him just as Tony remembered: Arrogant due to intellect. Despite that, he still loved his son and his message to him is highly heartwarming. I am glad that he and Pepper finally made their relationship official as it was foreshadowed in the first film. Now that that’s happened, she seems to accept the risks of dating a superhero. Speaking of who, I admit that I enjoyed Gwyneth Paltrow in the first movie but I can’t the same here. Sadly, I was a bit annoyed on how she would overreact to Tony’s actions. Thankfully, this isn’t repeated in her various appearances afterwards. Don Cheadle is a good replacement to Terrence Howard as the character Rhodes and it was great to see him become War Machine. I liked the actor’s first outing because he gave a realistic depiction of a friend who had enough of another’s irresponsibility. He took the suit because he couldn’t stand him choosing to embarrass himself, making the birthday party his last straw. While he gave his interpretation of tough love, we appreciate that amends are made when the stakes are acknowledged. Ivan Vanko aka Whiplash’s origin is based off of another character named Crimson Dynamo, and knowing this makes it a bit confusing since Whiplash has zero relation to Dynamo in the comics. When you put that aside, Mickey Rourke provides a good performance as the vengeful character. His scene where he talks to Tony in prison is so well acted and intense because we know he can try to kill him if he wanted to but chooses not to yet. Sam Rockwell is hilariously entertaining as Justin Hammer because he is self centered and overconfident person, which is the point of the role. I do think Rockwell and Rourke have good chemistry but prepare for them arguing over a bird. That almost pulled me out of the movie more than the other flaws I’ve just said. The cameo by Gary Shandling in the beginning is so goddamn hilarious considering how unexpected it was to see him in this kind of movie. His presence in the MCU is funnier when he is revealed to be a HYDRA agent in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, having his negativity to Stark makes some kind of sense. Last but not least, the debut of the Black Widow delivers because Scarlett Johansson easily embodies the look in her first rodeo as the iconic spy. We fall in love with her here because she seems to have a smaller ego compared to Stark. Her only fight scene is so damn awesome because it shows off how dangerous she can be. She may not have powers, but not every hero needs them to be fierce. I’ll rewatch that scene more than the whole movie, reminding me how upsetting it was to wait more than a decade for her own film to be released. The after credits to build up Thor is so damn clever because at this point, there was no turning back that the Avengers was happening and the hype was growing. To sum it up, Jon Favreau succeeds in making an entertaining sequel that is not great, but doesn’t need to be. If you love Iron Man, don’t skip this sequel.
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