A couple of days ago, I saw Iron Man 2. While the first Iron Man was good, it was overrated. It benefited from America's craving for a good superhero movie just like the first Spider-Man. Both movies were fun, but each was unjustly hailed as something remarkable. And like Spider-Man, the sequel to Iron Man failed to improve upon or match the original. Oh yeah, there might be SPOILERS.
The first half of Iron Man 2 is like watching an episode of VH1's Fabulous Life Of... because it just goes on and on about how rich and famous Tony Stark is. If you have ever seen Fabulous Life Of... then you know that this is a bad thing. Stark's house is giant and on the ocean and he has nice cars (nice product placement, Audi) and he has lots of bodyguards and people looking for autographs and owns a racing car and ENOUGH WE GET IT ALREADY. Tony Stark is very wealthy and has a great life.
Here's the thing: I understand that establishing characters is important and necessary and I also understand that when the movie's main purpose is to make a gazillion dollars the director must make sure that everyone gets it. But a large part of the first Iron Man was dedicated to exactly the same thing: Tony Stark is rich and famous and arrogant and an alcoholic and a womanizer. Got it yet?
The action sequences are few and far between. In fact, the movie feels like a really expensive comedy. In most action movies, there are one or two characters that provide comic relief. In Iron Man 2 every character serves that purpose. Robert Downey Jr. spits out one-liners faster than Steven Wright on amphetamines. Sam Rockwell, who plays Stark's business rival Justin Hammer, is the all-to-common bumbling villain designed to garner laughs. Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle each throw in a few jokes here and there.
The most unbearable example of the excessive comedy in the film is Jon Favreau, playing the assistant to Gwyneth Paltrow. In addition to this minor part, Favreau plays the slightly larger role of DIRECTOR OF THE MOVIE. I kind of hate when directors put themselves in movies and I know he's an actor (and a decent one) but I just hate him in this movie. Every time he appears, it feels unnecessary, like he wanted more screen time for himself or something. And that fight scene where Scarlett Johansson beats up a bunch of bad guys using mostly her thighs while Favreau fights one guy. He's generally a comedic actor and I get the feeling he really wanted to be an action star for just a few minutes so he wrote that part in. Maybe it's ridiculous to think he would mess around like this, considering how much this movie cost to make, but that is the feeling I got.
To top off this comedy, was Samuel L. Jackson wearing a leather trench coat and an eye patch. Does that sound stupid? Because it looked stupid. And I understand that he was in the last Iron Man and also in The Incredible Hulk but his part in this film is much larger. What is his part, you ask? He comes in halfway through the movie and recaps the entire thing and tells Tony Stark exactly what to do to solve his problem. Talk about deus ex machina, where machina = Samuel L. Jackson wearing a leather trench coat and an eye patch. This part made me feel like when you're watching a DVD and someone comes in halfway through and asks what he missed. Samuel L. Jackson was the guy bringing him up to speed in one minute.
One of the more dramatic scenes is when Stark is drunk at a party in his mansion wearing the Iron Man suit and shooting bottles that handsome-superhero-millionaire-genius groupies (read: women) throw into the air. I'm sorry Iron Man 2, but I paid my $12(!) to see CGI men fly around and shoot at each other. You can't expect me to care if a millionaire superhero plays a drunken game with his groupies and accidentally shoots one of them, William S. Burroughs style. The tension builds and builds until Don Cheadle puts on an Iron Man suit and fights Robert Downey Jr. to a mix by DJ AM, who is in the movie (more comedic relief).
It probably sounds like I hated the movie, but that's not true. It is pretty to look at and the actors do a pretty good job. Mickey Rourke is definitely a good villain and he is very scary, although I think mostly that was because his face is literally made out of rotting roast beef and is just frightening to look at. The fact is, Iron Man 2 cost more money than my mind can even conceive of and is going to make even more than that. Therefore, I have high expectations and they were not met. It's a moderately fun movie, but it just felt off. As an action movie, I found it very unsatisfying. But who knows? Perhaps it will win the Oscar for Best Comedy (That's a category, right)?
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