Iron Man 2

Starring Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Jackson, Mickey Rourke

Iron Man 2 takes place six months after the events of the first film, and not much has changed for Tony Stark. Oh, besides the fact that the palladium core in his chest is slowly killing him (who would’ve thought that having a power source implanted in your chest would be bad for you?), the U.S. government is on his ass, forcing him to share the Iron Man technology with the U.S. military, and his BFF James Rhodes is having trouble deciding whether his allegiance lies with his country or his best friend.

Considering most of you have already seen this movie, I’m just gonna skip the bullshit and get right to it: this movie was BAD. After the massive opening of the first Iron Man, Marvel Studios announced the sequel after only 3 days. The director Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. themselves admitted this was being rushed, and boy does it show. The action scenes were horribly shot, especially the ones with Black Widow. There were a lot of scenes that were unnecessary and could’ve been taken out. They try WAY too hard to set up The Avengers. I could see why they would do this, since this movie will surely have a bigger audience than the upcoming Thor and Captain America films and they want to get the Avengers name out there, but they could’ve at least been more subtle about it. That’s what made the first movie so cool for comic fans: we were able to catch all the little Easter eggs without having them shoved in our faces.

One of the biggest issues plaguing this film was the characters. There was really no reason for the Black Widow character to be in this movie other than to give teenage males another woman to drool over. Every time she does something bad ass, she’d look at the camera in slow motion and it would stay there for a few seconds. Now I know she’s a pleasure to look at, but Jesus if I wanted to look at her for that long I’d Google Image her. Mickey Rourke was also a complete waste as the underdeveloped, poorly motivated villain Whiplash. Don Cheadle was a disgrace, having replaced Terrance Howard, who at least LOOKED like James Rhodes. Most of the movie has Cheadle struggling to fit the boots left behind by Howard, but unfortunately there isn’t half as much chemistry between him and Downey as there was with Howard. As for Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury…YIKES. That wasn’t Nick Fury. That was Sam Jackson wearing an eye patch.

The only positive addition to this movie was Sam Rockwell, who plays the jealous, childish arms industrialist, and rival to Tony Stark, Justin Hammer. Seems pretty ironic considering he was originally set to play Tony Stark in the first Iron Man (I’m glad it went to Downey, though it would’ve been interesting to see what Rockwell would’ve done). He steals every scene he’s in and is able to stand toe to toe with Downey, which I’m sure is no easy feat. The inclusion of War Machine was pretty bad ass too, though he was slightly underused (seems to be the trend in this movie don’t it?).

The film seemed to have several different themes going on, none of which were appropriately tied together: legacy, alcoholism, the U.S. government and their love for weapons superiority. At the end of the day, you’re left wondering: was this movie really necessary? The answer is NO. It wasn’t.

D+