IM2 picks up where IM left off, with super wealthy playboy Tony Stark revealing to the world that he is in fact Iron Man. This revelation is the final straw for the Russian Anton Vanko, who worked with Tony's dad before being deported and left penniless. Before he dies, Anton tells his son Ivan, played by Mickey Rourke, that he has the blueprints for an amazing technology that Ivan can harness - the arc reactor, which is the source of Iron Man's power. Ivan decides to take the next several months and build his own weapon of sorts - whips that look like limp lightsabres from the Star Wars universe (I've been told they are liberally inspired by said lightsabres).
Meanwhile, Tony is having some personal problems of his own. The U.S. government is trying to force him to turn over his suit technology to them for defense purposes; this effort is led by a slimey US Senator played by Gary Shandling, and the head of a company that is Stark's biggest competition, Justin Hammer, played with equal used-car-salesmanship by Sam Rockwell. His exploits as Iron Man have taken away his attention from his defense company, so he turns the company over to his right hand gal, Pepper Potts, and hires a new personal assistant, the vampy and athletic Scarlett Johansson. And most importantly, his own blood is poisoning him thanks to the palladium that is supposed to keep his heart going.
But you'd never know it from Tony. Just like in IM, Robert Downey Jr. easily slips into the skin of a billionaire playboy who lives life to the fullest. Much was made about his genius as Stark in IM; he is equally great at playing this carefree, nothing-can-bring-me-down attitude in IM2. When I revisited IM, I felt that Downey was able to shine because he played his role brilliantly and had a wonderful ensemble around him that made his star shine a little brighter. In IM2, he just plain outshines everyone else, and I'm not sure if that is a good or bad thing.
That's not to say the rest of the cast is not solid; Gwyneth Paltrow was just as good in IM2 as IM, Johansson, Rockwell, and Rourke (especially) are welcome additions, and Samuel L. Jackson steals the few scenes he's in as Marvel continues to setup its Avengers project. I mentioned in my IM Revisited post that I was interested to see how Don Cheadle would do in taking over the role of Rhodey. I think that he was great, but for me he wasn't a noticeable upgrade from Terrance Howard. It's really too bad that Terrance couldn't work it out with Marvel and the filmmakers, because I would've preferred to see them keep that continuity. But that is a minor gripe.
My favorite part of the movie is when Ivan shows up in Monaco and first attacks Tony. He just did it so cool - no words, no fanfare, no fluff, just came out, put on his weapons and started whipping stuff. He and Iron Man have a pretty good mini-duel (which Iron Man wins, naturally), and then Downey and Rourke have a phenomenal scene together after that when Stark visits Vanko in jail. For me, this scene illustrates that when done properly, less really can be more in a great action sequence. It got me pumped for the final showdown that they would inevitably have.
It's at this point (about 1/3 to halfway through) that for me the film starts to breakdown some. Whereas IM had a pretty focused plot with an interesting and somewhat thought provoking message underlying it (see my IM Revisited post for my thoughts), this one just meanders and doesn't really do anything from Monaco to the part where Tony discovers how to cure his body's toxicity (which if you're paying attention is probably something you'll see coming). And unfortunately, this film's climax is as loud and brainless as pretty much any other major action movie you've seen in the last 5 years.
Downey specifically asked for Justin Theroux, his writer on Tropic Thunder, to be the writer on this film to play up the whimsical nature of the movie. Unfortunately, I feel like doing that made the filmmakers sacrifice one of the key elements that made the first movie so successful: a level of grounding that made IM feel like it could occupy the real world, something that never happens in this film. It's not that I didn't enjoy it, but I didn't enjoy it as much as IM 2 because IM stimulated my mind as well as my eyes, which is always the right recipe for best success.
In the end, while I thought IM was better than this sequel, I didn't think it was a major fall-off between the films. Hopefully for the 3rd installment the filmmakers realize that having a film more like IM than IM2 will give Iron Man his best suit to show off.
No comments:
Post a Comment