Spaceship Broken
Iron Man 2, the follow up to 2008’s surprise blockbuster hit ticks all the right boxes yet left me feeling unfulfilled. The chemistry between Robert Downy Jr’s billionaire hero Tony Stark and Gwyneth Paltrow’s whinny assistant/love interest is still interesting, the action is still a lot of fun, and this time we have Sam Jackson, Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson and Don Cheadle added into the mix, four actors I always enjoy watching. The overall film though turns out a bit of a mess, Marvel seems determined to promote a film several years ahead of its release (The Avengers) to the detriment of the pacing, cramming Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson’s characters into an already full film. That film already involves Tony Stark facing up to the possibility of his own demise due to poisoning from his home-made heart, the potential loss of the Iron Man suit to the American government, and a conflict with Mickey Rourke’s Russian villain who worked with Stark’s father on an original Iron Manprototype. That the story of a billionaire super hero with concerns over the legacy of his father was already done, and very well for that matter, in Christopher Nolan’s Batman films doesn’t seem to bother Marvel and Paramount either. All-in-all Iron Man 2 is fine if you like silly action movies aimed at teenage boys, but in the wake of Kick Ass, which wove an excellent super-hero story into an affectionate comedy set in a recognisable teen universe, Iron Man’s mix-and-match storytelling comes across a little shallow.

Iron Man 2, the follow up to 2008’s surprise blockbuster hit ticks all the right boxes yet left me feeling unfulfilled.

The chemistry between Robert Downy Jr’s billionaire hero Tony Stark and Gwyneth Paltrow’s whinny assistant/love interest is still interesting, the action is still a lot of fun, and this time we have Sam Jackson, Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson and Don Cheadle added into the mix, four actors I always enjoy watching.

The overall film though turns out a bit of a mess, Marvel seems determined to promote a film several years ahead of its release (The Avengers) to the detriment of the pacing, cramming Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson’s characters into an already full film. That film already involves Tony Stark facing up to the possibility of his own demise due to poisoning from his home-made heart, the potential loss of the Iron Man suit to the American government, and a conflict with Mickey Rourke’s Russian villain who worked with Stark’s father on an original Iron Manprototype. That the story of a billionaire super hero with concerns over the legacy of his father was already done, and very well for that matter, in Christopher Nolan’s Batman films doesn’t seem to bother Marvel and Paramount either.

All-in-all Iron Man 2 is fine if you like silly action movies aimed at teenage boys, but in the wake of Kick Ass, which wove an excellent super-hero story into an affectionate comedy set in a recognisable teen universe, Iron Man’s mix-and-match storytelling comes across a little shallow.

Posted 2 years ago