For now, however, it's been easy, as I'd been planning on seeing Iron Man 2 with my friends since before I even bothered writing that post. I have a friend who basically IS Iron Man (he and some cohorts designed an iPhone app that can drive a car), and he happened to be in town this weekend, so of course we had to go see it. Before getting into the movie itself, though, I have to say that the latest trailer for The Last Airbender left my wife and me with our jaws on the floor. Ho. Ly. Crap.
I read a blog entry recently about the superhero movies of the past 22 years (I'd give you the link, but it was on IMDb's "hit list", and unfortunately it's gone now and I can't find it. Sorry). Specifically, it pointed out a general trend in superhero flicks ever since the 1978 Superman: a trend away from "world saving" and down to "self-saving". The superheroes of today increasingly no longer face a global threat (oh noes! Lex Luthor is going to destroy the world!) but one of personal strife (oh noes! My daddy doesn't like me!). After seeing Iron Man 2, I can safely say that the series isn't following this trend... so far.
A trend it MAY be following, however, is one that I mentioned in my 2010 movie preview blowout. So far, Marvel movie trilogies follow a pattern: the first movie is pretty good and shows the hero's origins as well as an appearance from some signature villain; the second movie is all out better than the first; the third royally sucks and forces Marvel to either reboot the series (Spider-Man) or resort to spin-offs (X-Men). Read on to see whether I believe that the Iron Man series follows this trend or not.
Now, the first Iron Man had some certain shortcomings to live up to with its sequel. Iron Man was good, particularly for an origin story, but a lot of people felt like the "villain" - Iron Monger - hardly had any screen time, not entirely realizing that the terrorist group of the first film (called the Ten Rings) was actually an adaptation of one of Iron Man's best - though "politically incorrect" - villains: Mandarin, who unleashes mystic powers from ten blingin' rings that he wears. Therefore, Iron Man villains as a whole got quite a bit of screentime, but oh well. I guess the reference was too subtle for most. All this to say, people have been expecting to see more of Whiplash - Iron Man 2's primary villain - than the roughly seven minutes of screentime devoted to Iron Monger.
They got their wish.
Iron Man 2 is more or less an improvement over its predecessor in every way. After a brief prologue, it kicks off six months later, and clearly Tony Stark and his Iron Man suit have become rather popular with the public. Unfortunately, not all is well with Tony. The palatium used in his handy dandy chest-mounted nightlight is slowly killing him, and somehow, he discovers that alcohol helps treat the symptoms, so as time goes on the poisoning gets worse and worse, and so does his alcoholism. The Tony Stark of the comics had a similar bout with booze, yet I don't recall it being a literal way of dealing with problems. Having the alcoholism be a way to fight his own demise (movie) vs. a way to forget his troubles (comics) creates a fundamental shift in how the audience views Tony. What if he attacked the bottle just because of the strain of being himself? Would today's audience sympathize with him as much as they apparently do with the movie version? I don't know, and apparently the filmmakers didn't want to find out, either. I thought it cheapened Tony as a character a little bit; the Tony Stark of the comics is a very deep and at times controversial character (just check out the Civil Wars series of Marvel comics and see if you still love Tony after that), but the filmmakers must not have wanted to make you doubt his heroism. Nice job, Hollywood. Way to fundamentally lighten the character's psychological makeup.
The one great thing about the alcohol issue is that it brings about the introduction of one of my favorite heroes, War Machine. When Tony becomes so involved with alcohol that he can barely stand, his buddy James Rhodes (aka "Rhodey") commandeers a suit and makes a few military adjustments, as you may have noticed from the poster above. The only strange thing, though, is that Don Cheadle plays Rhodey this time round, whereas in the first movie he was played by Terrance Howard. I don't know the reason for the switch - Terrance Howard is still alive, leaving one to assume that he and Marvel didn't see eye to eye concerning money - but I do have to say that I preferred Howard's performance to Cheadle's. The movie even felt the need to make Rhodey's entrance very, VERY obvious. By this I mean that when you first see him, the movie blasts you with obnoxious signs that "this guy walking in is supposed to be Rhodey even though he didn't look like this last time!" Oh well, Cheadle does fine when he's replaced onscreen by the War Machine suit, so I couldn't complain. As for the other actors, everyone does an admirable job for their roles, particularly Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and Sam Rockwell (I didn't even know he was IN this movie!) as Stark's business rival, Justin Hammer. I'm fairly convinced that Rockwell's one of the most underrated actors of today, at least in terms of actors who occasionally still get to star in huge, mainstream blockbusters. I guess my sentiment's a bit limited, then, but still, I always forget just how good he is.
This was one of the most comic-bookey movies that I've ever seen. The action is more over-the-top (ahem Black Widow), cheeseball lines abound (Nick Fury: "I've got my eye on you... [hold pose for five more seconds]"), and a lot of times the whole thing just feels silly (the entire sequence that leads up to War Machine's debut). I don't mean that in a bad way. It is what it is. But where The Dark Knight feels like a psychological thriller starring a billionaire who just happens to sometimes dress as a giant bat, you are always keenly aware that Iron Man 2 is, first a foremost, a comic book movie. There's a wealth of fan service (none of which I'll ruin for you, save War Machine, who's already been revealed in the trailers and posters), and there were plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, mostly involving - I'm assuming - some spectacular ad libs from Mr. Robert Downey Jr. You will be entertained in this movie, but I felt the plot a trifle forced at times and serving as little more than an excuse to introduce War Machine and Stark's alcohol problems and also set up not only a third movie but also the upcoming Avengers film. Overall this was a shallow experience, but one of which you will love every minute. Go check it out.
And stay to the end of the credits, please. If you know anything about Marvel comics, you won't be disappointed.
*UPDATE*
So, my wife was kind enough to inform me that I am mistaken on one particular count. Apparently, the dark liquid that Tony drinks for much of the movie is chlorophyll, not alcohol, rendering my argument about Hollywood cheapening the character of Tony Stark more or less useless. Sorry, Hollywood. My bad. You guys still have to work on your character development, though, if you even know what the phrase means.
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