COMICS ON SCREEN: IRON MAN 2 REVIEW

Iron Man 2 (2010) Review by Jeff Williams

 

Editor: Jeremias de Leon

With this month being Avengers month, todays review is on a sequel that feels more of a reminder of what's the shape of things to come, rather than a continuation of the original's plot. Distributed by Marvel Studios and Paramount Pictures, it's the 2010 film, Iron Man 2.

I personally feel conflicted when it comes to this particular sequel. While the director of 2008's Iron Man, Jon Favreau returns to helm the sequel and the cast from Iron Man return to their respective roles (excluding Terrance Howard as Lt. Rhodes and Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane not returning because of Howard's salary and Stane perishing at the end of Iron Man.) for the sequel.

The new additions to the cast, Mickey Rourke as Ivan Vanko "Whiplash" and Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff "Black Widow" are great additions to this already perfect cast. As mentioned earlier, due to Mr. Howard not reprising his role as Rhodey. His replacement is Don Cheadle. Cheadle is known from the Acadamy-award winning 2004 film "Hotel Rwanda".  From a personal view, I prefer Cheadle's portrayal as the character than I did with Howard's take on Rhodey.

The main problem that I have with this movie is, there's a good story in there but it wasn't fully developed. I like the idea of Stark slowly dying from his own creation and that showing his mortality, the different view points of Stark and Rhodes when it comes to the Iron Man suits and their use in the world, a villain that's sympathetic and understudying his actions and expanding the universe with the inclusion of Nick Fury and the Live-Action debut of Black Widow.

That main problem I mentioned earlier in this review starts to rear its ugly head. While I do like that they started to expand and connect this universe more, its the BIGGEST problem with this film. I feel that they [Marvel/Paramount] wanted to use this more as a visual marketing tool (i.e. "Watch Out WB! The Avengers Cometh!) than using it to expand the character of Tony/Iron Man, his conflicts and his relationships with the already existing characters, and that in turn hurt the character of Black Widow and her portrayal from Ms. Johansson.

If their is one thing that I've got to commend Favreau's directing in this, compared to the first film is that the fight scenes feel more fluid. While he did a great job with bring the character/world of Iron Man to the big screen, the fight scenes in Iron Man felt out of place and it somewhat shows in that film's third act.

In closing, while this sequel ins't on the same level as the first film. It's still an enjoyable time to have with friends.

Rating: 3.5/5

I would like to add, that while I did enjoy Sam Rockwell's performance as Justin Hammer; the characterization of Hammer was played over the top as joke rather then how he's portrayed in the comics, a rival to Stark and Stark Industries.

Also, I do acknowledge that the story itself was adapted from the "Armor Wars" arc from the comic, but if that was the route they wanted to take with this film they should have stuck with it.