THE EPIC FILM JOURNAL - DAY FIFTEEN

Film Number 18 – Iron Man 2

Well I managed to restrain myself from going on the tremendously successful opening weekend because I had promised friends I would wait to see it with them, all week long I had to hear about the mediocre reviews and tepid audience reaction. Due to the unanimous anti buzz and the fact that the internet fandom hadn’t already voted this into the IMDB top 250, my mindset going in was ready to be pleasantly disappointed. Over two hours later I left the theater enjoyably surprised, yeah not the greatest film but damn entertaining.

Now this is the first sequel that I have watched so far in this journey, and it would be difficult to begin without my thoughts on the first Iron Man. It came, it happened and it conquered as all Iron Men should do. Iron Man was probably one of the best over rated films that I have ever seen, and notice I say one of “the best.” The first was a great movie, fun stupid popcorn goodness; it was not the extravaganza blockbuster that it was embraced as. It’s one saving grace - Robert Downey Jr, this guy absolutely carried the first film, this is not a bad thing, and I’m not criticizing this I’m just saying what everyone knows. The plot was really quite bare but it was an extremely entertaining film, plot holes everywhere but who cares because he could fly, and his computer thing at home was awesome. Yes Iron Man was also another important superhero origin film; back story is of course vital, but we have seen so many of these films now and we are at the point where an origin is just a bloated and sluggish requirement to get to see some great stuff later on. Nothing new he gets from point a to point b in the same way as all of his MARVELous predecessors. Iron Man benefited from having enough explosions and humor to hide its faults. In terms of box office it did better in America than the rest of the word, this is a rare occurrence and also shows that Iron Man was the perfect American film, full of women, money, muscle, cars, explosions, guns, and everything else that you would expect to see.

To think about Iron Man again I would give it a strong 7 out of 10, even with the after credit teaser of the Avengers initiative.

Anyway preface out of the way, let’s get into this film.
The thing that I really like is the way it gets right into the meat of it, Mickey Rourke’s evil villain is introduced very quickly and very artificially. You want to know how to take a bit of power or mystique away from your villain really fast in a movie? Show us the character’s motivation in the first five minutes. There is always this huge issue of motivation about the characters, and it is important but not essential; the impetus for characters actions can be shown in many ways and one of these is to not show it at all. Look at Heath Ledgers Joker in the Dark Knight, a tired example I know but here is a villain who is absolutely insane, there is never a reason shown in the film for his life of crime. He has Harvey Dent’s moral switch happening at the same time to counteract this but it was still a very unique character for us to see. No criticism of Rourke, he is one of the best things about this film and completely jumps into the role giving it his absolute best. We don’t see enough but he steals almost every scene that he is in. I was worried that he might throw away his comeback after being robbed of the Oscar but he displays the same amount of commitment and passion that he put into his role in The Wrestler. The sad thing is how poorly written his character arc is, just uninspiring all the way, he is seeking vengeance for his father’s death or wrong doing or something; I can’t remember to be honest because it wasn’t very interesting. So before the title even shows we see Rourke’s big plans hatching and he creates the long electrified whips that become his main weapon. The whips are pretty incredible and impractical at the same time, you wonder how is able to hurt Iron Man when we know that Stark could kill whiplash from miles away using his extensive artillery but this issue is never addressed and Iron Man gets far closer then he has to.

The plot quickly builds on the first film, the world knows Stark is Iron Man, the army want the suit for reasons we don’t know, Terrance Howard morphed into Don Cheadle to keep the film on budget, Stark is slowly dying, Gwenyth Paltrow is the new head of the company, Scarlet Johanson is the new secretary. Sam Rockwell is a rival weapons manufacturer. All these things slowly cross over and lead us to a giant action scene involving the Monaco Grand Prix, Stark goes and hijacks a car for almost no reason and gets ambushed by Rourke, this is our first glimpse of action and it really needed to happen. Whiplash makes a giant impact splitting cars into pieces and fucking up everything in his path, all the regular slow motion flips and explosions happen but this scene just kicks ass and is very thrilling to watch. The suitcase suit is awesome and would have probably been the apex of the movie and the thing that everyone talks about if it had been left out of the trailer. Unfortunately any pre knowledge that you have of the Iron Man or Avengers characters and story lines pretty much deny you enjoyment from every intended surprise, hell the trailer ruined most of the good ones anyway.

So Samuel L. Jackson and the rest of the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. show up and tell us all about the Avengers initiative, then in walks secretary Johansson in one of the tightest leather catsuits known to man, we knew she was the Black Widow from the start and we played along with the ruse because we knew it would lead to this, and I have absolutely no complaints. Samuel L. Jackson finally shows more of the role that was written for him and I don’t know if it was his acting or simply the poor dialogue he had to deliver but his scenes are very underwhelming and he has little impact. It is hard to believe how uncharismatic he is in this role and hopefully he will be able to bring it up to scratch for the next film.

Don Cheadle does an ok job at replacing Howard, it would probably be far better if the character was actually well written; he has lost most of the naivety and humor from the first film. Nothing he does makes any sense what so ever, there is no reason for him to steal the suit, or for them to have the big fight destroying Stark Manor. There aren’t any moments in the film where the two best friends can have a nice rapport, the comradery is absent; if we didn’t have the prior knowledge of the friendship we wouldn’t know or care. Sam Rockwell plays Justin Hammer and runs Stark Industries main rival company, Hammer industries. The character is very inconsistent; one moment full of confidence and charisma, the next shy and weird, he’s meant to be a wormy snake in the grass kind of character but it doesn’t work and again I don’t think it’s Rockwell’s fault I just think the script needed more work then the rushed production would’ve allowed.

The plotting is pretty incomprehensible; at one point Stark actually creates a brand new element to stay alive! There are weird scientific blunders at every corner the only one that is incredible is Starks uber versatile and helpful home computer system. This giant interface thing is amazing, completely bogus but entirely awesome.

Downey does his usual shtick, going into this film I was dreading having to watch another two hours of him doing his shit, Christmas’ Sherlock Holmes was a very traumatizing experience and I was un sure if my wounds had healed. Luckily Downy was back on form and displayed a nice amount of venerability that was reminiscent of his comeback role in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. He is entertaining and a lot of fun, constantly able to make this larger than life character believable. Paltrow is just so beautiful, I found myself completely forgetting the character or what the hell was going on because I was too busy trying to think of the other films that I could watch her in. She is great in the role again and finally has something to do other than just being Stark’s maid all the time, entirely believable and charming. Johansson is just as good looking but is also bad ass, she actually has the best fight scene in the entire film; it lasts all of two minutes but is excellently staged and perfectly choreographed, it is ironic that this simple and cost effective scene was more thrilling and awe inspiring than every giant explosion and expensive CGI effect. After seeing that scene and her in the suit I think giving the Black Widow her own film would be one of the best ideas for Marvel. This probably will never happen but I certainly hope that we get to see her again as she was probably the best surprise of the film.

The end fight scene with Iron Man, War Machine and the droids is good and thrilling, a great sense of scale is utilized and the scene involves hundreds of screaming people and giant explosions changing from one setting to the other. Very exciting action until Rourke shows up after the storm in a promise of what might be another huge battle but actually is just a giant anti climax even more un-fulfilling the final fight from the first installment. Obviously they want to bring this character o a close but it would have been more effective to have never seen Rourke and let him get away. The film and Rourke’s strong character deserve a much better departure. Then the film ends and everyone is finally clued up on the after credit sequence that will surely follow – SPOLIER ALERT – a big fucking hammer! Big fucking deal. The first glimpse of Mjolner is about as exciting as the first signs of old age.

The AC/DC music throughout the film is pretty awesome and adds a nice crunch and resonance to a lot of the action, when they use Shoot to Thrill near the beginning as Stark is hurtling down the sky down flips and barrel rolls I don’t understand why they didn’t crank up the sound full and get some blood pumping straight away.

The film is rushed and botched entirely, it needs rewriting about as much as Stark needs that reactor in his chest to live but for all the short comings I still found the film to be a giant blast. It didn’t feel like two hours at all and was very entertaining, never dwelled for too long, and moved at a fun pace.

A decent follow up and I find it ironic that all the most of the first films strengths are this films flaws and vice versa.

Another solid 7 out of 10