Comics To Film: Iron Man 2 (2010)

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Mickey Rourke, Gwyneth Paltrow
Director: Jon Favreau
Country: USA
Genre: Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi
Official Trailer: Here

Editor’s Note: The following review of Iron Man 2 is apart of Umar’s ongoing series entitled Comics to Film.

After watching Iron Man 2, one cannot help but feel that the fame of the first film has gone to director Jon Favreau’s head. While still a good film and enjoyable overall, Iron Man 2 has none of its predecessor’s originality, subtlety or modesty.

The film begins where the previous installment left off, with Stark proclaiming himself Iron Man and the world’s reaction to it. At the same time, the main villain, Whiplash (played by Mickey Rourke), is introduced as having lost his father and blaming the Starks for it. He creates his own power source, like the one Stark made in the first film, and attacks Stark but ultimately loses. In the meantime, Iron Man has brought peace to the world by going around in the Iron Man suit and stopping all conflict. However, the American government is not convinced that Iron Man, nor Stark himself, is a sufficient deterrent to world conflicts and believe they should have the technology behind Iron Man in case anything should happen to Stark. Stark refuses to turn the technology to anyone, but secretly discovers that the device that is keeping his heart running is slowly poisoning him and begins to set his affairs in order.

After watching Iron Man 2, one cannot help but feel that the fame of the first film has gone to director Jon Favreau’s head. While still a good film and enjoyable overall, Iron Man 2 has none of its predecessor’s originality, subtlety or modesty.

After his failed attack attempt on Stark, Whiplash is helped by Stark’s business rival, Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), who wants him to make better suits than the Iron Man’s. Instead, Whiplash creates an army of drones that he plans on unleashing on the Stark Expo hoping to take down Iron Man and his company all at once. At the same time, Stark discovers his father’s unfinished work, assisted by Nick Fury (a cameo by Samuel L. Jackson), and is on the road to discovering a new element that will be able to power a new suit while also run his heart without poisoning him. All this culminates in an intense battle at the Stark Expo, with Iron Man and his friend War Machine (played by Don Cheadle) against Whiplash and his drone army.

Overall, Iron Man 2 is an enjoyable and engaging film with great visual spectacles, good acting and engaging battles. Downey is still a delight to watch, as are all his interactions with the rest of the cast. However, the problems with the film stems from Favreau’s attempts to make everything bigger and more visually stirring, and focusing the story more on the growing Avenger’s series than make an actual Iron Man centered story. Iron Man 2 has lost a great deal of the novelty that made the first film such a success. Favreau is not making a concise or character-centric story anymore, he is trying to make a bigger universe for the series and also trying to ‘one-up’ himself from the first movie. This is evident when you see that there are more fights, more flying, lots more suits and tons more destruction than before, with Favreau placing himself in actions scenes. All of this was not bad, just slightly more loud and flashy rather than smart and intricate. It is the job of the director to make the film better than the first, so as to draw the audience in again by delving deeper into the action and effects, but ultimately it all seemed more self-indulgent on the director’s side than anything else. There was a lot going on in the story without any real clear understanding why, with many aspects stretched so that certain moments or visual effects could be showcased. The story had taken a back seat to all the visuals and action, and that is never good because you tend to lose the connection with the audience.

…the problems with the film stems from Favreau’s attempts to make everything bigger and more visually stirring, and focusing the story more on the growing Avenger’s series than make an actual Iron Man centered story.

The other negative aspect of the film is that it no longer focused on Stark/Iron Man, and it introduced a lot of elements that were not explained nor really explored. For instance, Johannson integrated well with the cast, and her character was interesting as well, but it seemed that she and Jackson’s Nick Fury were banking more on people knowing who their characters were from the comics to really come alive. People who are not fans of the comics probably would not enjoy their appearances as much since they do not have background knowledge of the characters, or understand their places in the story, and the film did not give much attention to that aspect either. Along with the Stark’s conflicted relationship with his father, which appeared out of nowhere, there were several nods to Captain America and Thor that will be seen in future movies but were not very meaningful in the film and that left their appearances unnecessary. The film felt more like a prequel to the Avenger’s movie than an actual Iron Man film.

In terms of acting and characterization, the film still delivers solid performances and wonderful comedic interactions and ad-libbed lines. Downey, Paltrow and Cheadle all do a wonderful job together and they are thoroughly enjoyable to watch. Cheadle’s version of ‘Rhodey’ is a welcomed change to Howard’s as he is much more suited for the ensemble and, more importantly, able to perform on par with Downey in terms of improvisation, humour and confidence. The downside was the villains in the film; Rourke was interesting but far too silent in his role and rarely was able to really expand his character. Whiplash was left very much a physical obstacle, rather than an actual nemesis to overcome. As for Rockwell’s character, while he portrayed the character he was meant to well, the character itself was annoying, but probably not in the way Favreau intended. His smugness and comedic incompetence made his character irritating to watch rather than funny, and this was only highlighted with his terrible fake tan. In an age where villains are looked at more closely than even the heroes, Whiplash and Hammer were rather forgettable.

Ultimately, Iron Man 2 is a good action film, but it does not build on its foundation. It does not have much character development, nor is it even focused on its title character, but it is funny and enjoyable and will have some good robotic battles that will keep you watching.

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Umar Shameem

When I was 6 years old, my mother showed me the 1978 Superman movie. I watched that maybe 1000 times by the time I was 7. Ever since I have loved movies, and comic books. Fast forward 20 years, a couple film courses, several thousand comic books and over 2000 movies, and you get me. I continue to watch films of all genres and read comics. It is apart of my identity and it is something I love and hope to be able to continue loving and enjoying until the end of my days.

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