Review: Iron Man 2

[angelophile]

Was working this morning, but found time this afternoon to go and catch Iron Man 2. Now, I'm not a worshiper of the original, although I think, as superhero movies go, it's up there. Reviews of the sequel haven't been kind, so my expectations weren't high. I will, say, however, that the movie was a lot more fun than my moderate expectations would have led me to believe.

First things first - the movie has two great advantages for me - namely Robert Downey Jr. and Sam Rockwell, who I'd happily watch acting the phone book. The fact that Garry Shandling, Mickey Rourke, Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson popped up as well, no bad thing. (Don Cheadle, less so, since he's done less to impress me and this movie is no exception.)

Let's get one thing out of the way, though - Scarlett Johansson is not a good Black Widow. She's not a bad one either. She's just nothing, really, with the character becoming background for most of the movie, except for one two minute stunt-double sequence. With the best will in the world, she and Samuel L. Jackson could have been cut from the movie entirely and it would be no worse off for it. In fact, it'd probably be better, since the main fault of the movie is that it tries to do too much, juggle too many characters and loses some ground in doing so.

That said, that's a common flaw of sequels and this movie juggles subplots more effectively than a lot of sequels do - I'm particularly thinking of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, for example. Or the lamentable Transformers: ROTFL. But this preocupation with giving audiences more for their buck instead of focusing on repeating the tightness of the original does damage the movie, undoubtedly.

However, it's not as bad as many reviewers are stating and, while the story telling is untidy, I wouldn't go as far as to call it messy. But trying to pack a lot in means that the movie's left with no clear villain, with both Rourke and Rockwell fighting for the title and neither getting enough meat to chew on to really stand out as being a truly despicable bastard - in fact, it's not impossible to sympathize with either of them.

To balance that up, a lot of the dialogue is witty and fun, aided by the feel of improvisation from a cast that make if feel naturalistic rather than forced and the movie benefits from at least one really memorable set piece, if not a number.

So, the dialogue sparks, the special effects pop and the onscreen action and witty banter never flags, but it's not all good. Downey, Rockwell and Rourke are obviously all enjoying themselves enormously, but the same can’t be said for Don Cheadle, who looks alternately bored and out of his depth rubbing up against them. And there does seem to be a certain sense of smugness about the movie, with the in-jokes appearing more self-reverential, Downey Jr encouraged to be more... Downey Jr., it almost feels like the makers are high-fiving themselves in parts and there's a danger of the movie tipping over into being more for them than the audience. (Though nothing like as bad as Ocean's Twelve.)

However, a lot of the time the enthusiasm does wear off and ultimately Iron Man 2 is a lot of fun: it’s shiny, loud, likeable and never boring.