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Into the MCU: "Iron Man 2" (2010)


It's Wednesday again, and you know what that means, right?

Right!  It's time for another sojourn into the Marvel Cinematic Universe!  This week's trip takes us to 2010's "Iron Man 2"...

Tony Stark discovers that the miniature arc reactor that's keeping him alive is actually slowly killing him.  Growing reckless and more morose as he contemplates dying, he searches for an alternative.

 Meanwhile, a ghost from his father's past comes forth with the intention of getting revenge for the sins of the father...

While I wouldn't say that "Iron Man 2" is as good as the first one, it is still a fairly solid movie for the franchise.  You can see that the actual building blocks of the MCU are starting to be put in place before the big team-up movie, "The Avengers".  I loved that the story is much more character based than action based than many comic book movies- and deals with some pretty serious themes, such as facing our inevitable deaths, how our actions affect the lives of those around us... and those that come after us.

Tony Stark- as usual, is a great character, and really gets developed in this instalment.  He grows and gains depth, while still maintaining some flaws to make him still human.  Sadly, the rest of the characters don't get as much development in this one.  Pepper, Natasha, and Happy are not integral parts of the story, and at times felt like set dressing.  Rhodey, however does get some more development in this one.  The villain, Vanko, was interesting- but lacked real development to be a worthy, and engaging bad guy to put up against Stark.

The acting- despite the general lack of character develop was good- with Robert Downey, Jr and Don Cheadle stealing the show.  While I like Terrence Howard's acting in general, I felt that Cheadle brought a more comic book feel to the character.  Gwyneth Paltrow, and Scarlett Johansson were good, but didn't get that much to work with.  I have always been a fan of Mickey Rourke, and felt that he was wasted in this movie.  He brought energy to the role of Vanko- and made him interesting... but ultimately, the villain fell a little short of being great.  I did enjoy Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer.  He brought a nice sort of fun vibe to his unscrupulous role.

The visual effects in "Iron Man 2" are much smoother and better than the first one.  There are still some parts that can be noticed as being a bit "off"- but overall, still quite effective and nice to look at.

When all is said and done, I enjoyed "Iron Man 2".  I probably wouldn't watch it more than once, so I'm going to have to give it a "Bad".
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