Iron Man 2 – Film Review

With the world now aware that he is Iron Man, billionaire inventor Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) faces pressure from all sides to share his technology with the military. He is reluctant to divulge the secrets of his armored suit, fearing the information will fall into the wrong hands. With Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and “Rhodey” Rhodes (Don Cheadle) by his side, Tony must forge new alliances and confront a powerful new enemy.

By the time Jon Favreau’s Iron Man 2 was released in theatres, I had already grown to be quite the big Iron Man fan. I remember having a couple of tee-shirts with the character on them, and I even had toy arc reactors and toy helmets. Ever since I was a little kid, I was a massive fan of the Marvel comics and spent countless hours reading the new issues and playing the tie-in video games (I still think the Iron Man video games are a blast, by the way).

When this movie came out, I was nine years old and was hyped out of my mind to see it. So on opening day, my mother took me to our nearest theatre (which has since been closed, sadly) to see it and it lived up to all my wildest expectations. But now with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) being as massive as it is, there are so many movies out there in the franchise that are better and it made me wonder – does Iron Man 2 still hold up? For the most part, the answer is yes.

It doesn’t necessarily have that thrill and intrigue that the first movie had, but this sequel still finds fun and exciting ways to inject fun into the hearts of comic book fans all over the world. It feels relatively small-scale compared to the later MCU entries, but that’s not a bad thing. I appreciate the fact that this movie is really just a display of Iron Man’s humanity and his mission to become a better person not only to the ones he loves but to the country he is trying to protect.

Robert Downey Jr. is once again absolutely masterful in the titular role and manages to be the most lovable superhero jerk of all time. I love how the character of Tony Stark / Iron Man evolves to become a better person with each movie, but here, he is still that arrogant billionaire and it’s a ton of fun to see. Downey Jr. is simply made for this role.

Ivan Vanko / Whiplash (Mickey Rourke) is a decent enough villain that works for what this movie is trying to do, but he certainly isn’t one of the best villains in the MCU. Thankfully, we do understand his motivations and why he feels the way he does, but he also doesn’t feel like an imposing villain. He kind of feels like a side character in this movie which is strange seeing as how he is kind of the main villain. And I say kind of because one of this movie’s biggest faults is that it never sticks to one villain.

Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) is thrown into the mix here and he is easily one of the worst “villains” in the entire franchise to date. He feels completely useless and almost like a puppet on strings being controlled by Ivan Vanko. Rockwell surely gave it his all in the role but unfortunately, this character just did not work at all.

One thing this movie did give us is Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow, aka one of the best superhero casting decisions of all time. She is an incredibly fun character to watch in this movie and it was interesting going back and rewatching this to see how her character began in the MCU. Romanoff gets so much depth throughout this franchise and I’m glad because she is one of the best superhero characters of all time in my opinion. I just wish she got her own trilogy of films. Almost every other Avengers character did, so… why not Natasha?

This film is for the most part fairly action-packed and comes complete with a good helping of jokes as well, but even still, this is early Marvel and you can tell. As the MCU went on, they really found their footing and made each film feel unique to that certain character. For example, the Ant-Man movie feels nothing like the Captain America movies do. But to be honest, for some odd reason, The Incredible Hulk had that same stylistic tone of Iron Man even though it was focused on an entirely different character.

The Iron Man trilogy is definitely not my favorite trilogy in the MCU but it is still an amazing one to be sure. This movie certainly has its flaws – the villains, the pacing, and repetitive nature – but it is nevertheless a solid Marvel flick all things considered. Definitely not the best of the best, but not the worst of the worst either.

Overall Grade: B

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sequences of intense sci-fi action and violence, and some language

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Mickey Rourke, Samuel L. Jackson

Directed by: Jon Favreau

Written by: Justin Theroux

Distributed by: Paramount Pictures

Release Date: May 7, 2010

Running Time: 125 minutes