Quick Review: Iron Man 2

The first Iron Man movie was an almost perfect example of how to do a superhero origin movie should be done. It is easily one of the top 3 comic book movies off all time. Robert Downey, Jr. returns as Tony Stark. No the whole world knows that he’s Tony Stark, and as he says in the trailer, “He has privatized world peace.” He has two villains this time around. Mickey Rourke plays Ivan Vanko, a Russian scientist who’s plotting his revenge, and Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer, a business rival of Stark’s. Scarlett Johansson plays Natasha Romanoff, and Don Cheadle has replaced Terrence Howard as Jim Rhodes. Samuel L. Jackson returns as Nick Fury and Gwyneth Paltrow is back as Pepper Potts.

The movie is not as good as the first. It’s more action packed and has a bit more drama. But to me it lacked a clear direction in the plot. The movie does tighten up in towards the end. I think the problem is that in the first movie, Tony Stark had purpose. In this movie, there is no real clear purpose in Tony Stark’s actions. I’m not saying the movie doesn’t have a plot. It’s just that the movie had scenes that were maybe a little longer than they should have been.

The effects were excellent. My only problem was that most of the climatic battle was reduced to points of light zig zagging across the screen.

Overall, the acting was good. Sam Rockwell’s characterization of Justin Hammer was the weakest of the performances. I know he was going for a little comic relief but he played it over the top in the wrong direction. He wasn’t smarmy enough and he was way too goofy/silly. I like Terrance Howard, but he isn’t even in the same acting category as Don Cheadle. In my opinion Cheadle played Jim Rhodes closer to the comic book than Howard did. I would have liked to have seen more scenes between Rourke and Downey. I think not having together a lot more was a waste of talent. I think one more confrontation between the two of them without suits would have done it for me.
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