AVENGERS RECAP: IRON MAN 2

The inherent danger of Marvel's plan to link up its cinematic adventures is that the set-ups for the other films would overshadow the film being shown. The first Iron Man film had little to do in this regard and handled it's synergistic duties deftly. The Incredible Hulk, despite its crushing mediocrity, also managed to keep playing up the links between the films while keeping focused on the story at hand. But it is in this regard that Iron Man 2 falters and becomes somewhat of a mess.

There's about 40 minutes of a good Iron Man movie in Iron Man 2. That 40 minutes set's up the one man war Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) wants to wage on Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) all on account of his father's honor. Tony is concerned about his legacy too, he's in the middle of running a giant tech convention as a sort of tribute to his father. He might also be dying because of the Iron Man suit that had been protected him up till now. If that weren't enough he has to defend his suit technology from the government and rival tech guru Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell).

This is more than enough for a movie. Threre's a great central mystery around Vanko, and Rourke clearly came to set ready to play (never a guarantee). There's lots of great stakes, tension and even some interesting ideas to play around with. Returning director John Favreau's action scenes still lack pizazz but that didn't hurt the last entry too badly. But sadly these element's aren't allowed to cook and build and everything the film sets up in the first 40 minutes is swept under the rug. Instead the film becomes an extended trailer for The Avengers. We get a lot more of Sam Jackson's Nick Fury (who was introduced in the first films post credit stinger), the shadowy head of S.H.I.E.L.D. and are introduced to his covert agent Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson). They exist to set Tony on track and determine if he is stable enough to join the Avengers team.

But it's just too many balls in the air at once and as a result everything feels truncated. All the ambition that the film wants to have is undercut by the films obligation to the franchise. A lot of potentially great plot elements get short changed. The screwball humor that made the first Iron Man feel so fresh now feels canned. But the greatest waste is Mickey Rourke, who has nothing to do for most of the film, he has a great introduction and his first confrontation with Tony is fun despite making no sense, but the film forgets about him. For nearly an hour he has nothing to do but slowly prepare for his next fight. Rourke does what he can, but a villain can only be so bad if your not willing to put him in a room with the hero.

Let's look at this from a screenwriting perspective by looking at one of the great villains of all time. In Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, you never see Khan thinking about getting revenge or getting ready to get revenge. Every time you see that character he is actively working to get revenge on Captain Kirk. A more pertinent example would be The Dark Knight where The Joker's presence is always felt even in scenes he's not in. In Iron Man 2 Stark thinks that Vanko is dead for most of the movie, and Vanko has nothing to do but build drones for use in the film's climax. I know I'm harping on this a lot, but a film is only as good as its antagonist and that goes triple for action movies. This could have been a great popcorn sequel, but at the end of the day Iron Man 2 is too busy spouting exposition for another film to tell it's own story right.

Grade: B-

Previous installments in this series:
Iron Man
The Hulk and The Incredible Hulk

Future installments:

Thor

Captain America

The Avengers