Director(s)	Jon Favreau
Principal Cast	Robert Downey Jr.as Tony Stark Don Cheadle as James “Rhodey” Rhodes Gwyneth Paltrow as Virginia “Pepper” Potts Mickey Rourke as Ivan Vanko Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer
Release Date	2010
Language(s)	English
Running Time	125 minutes
Report Card	Click to go to Review TLDR/Summary

Note: This review contains spoilers for: Iron Man.

• 

• 

• 

• 

The film opens in Russia. Tony’s (Robert Downey Jr.) speech from the end of Iron Man proclaiming his identity as the titular “Iron Man” plays from a television in a shoddy apartment unit. A disheveled, dying man, Anton (Costa Ronin), looks disgusted at the news celebrating Stark and tells his son, Ivan (Mickey Rourke), that the prodigal superhero’s fame is undeserved; he suggests that if the Starks had not wronged him in the past, it would be Ivan’s name being chanted instead of Tony’s. He apologizes to Ivan before passing away. Mourning becomes motivation as Ivan begins a 6-month journey towards avenging his father and ruining the Stark name, working on high-tech machinery including an arc reactor not unlike Tony’s.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Meanwhile, it seems that the time passed has only allowed Tony’s new-found stardom to get to his head. He drops down from a jet in the skies, dives downwards towards a stadium, and makes a spectacular landing on a stage in front of thousands of people. A group of cheerleaders clad in “Iron Man”-styled uniforms pretend to blast Tony with their blasters as a finale to his performance. It’s apparent that Iron Man’s status as a cultural symbol has grown exponentially since we’ve last seen him.

Tony gets out of his suit and welcomes the audience to the newly re-instated Stark Expo, an celebration of technology from around the world. To commemorate the re-inauguration, Tony plays a video recorded by his late father, Howard (John Slattery), wherein the latter explains the unlimited potentials of technology. While the video plays, Tony steps off to the side and takes a sampling of his blood which indicates that he is suffering from blood toxicity of some kind.

He leaves the expo and is served a subpoena calling him to testify before the Senate the next day regarding his private ownership of the Iron Man suit. Senator Stern (Garry Shandling), one of the committee members, tries to argue that the technology is a weapon and as such belongs to the people aka the military. Evidence is shown demonstrating the existence of other “Iron Man”- like technologies; other countries have begun to emulate Tony’s suit in an effort to advance their own military might. However, Tony quickly demonstrates that all other mimicries are pathetic clones unable to do any meaningful harm. He argues that the peace the public enjoys now is due to his efforts as both hero and “nuclear deterrent” and quickly gets the majority on his side, effectively ending the session.

• 

• 

• 

But Tony’s boasts travel further than he would have imagined. The camera cuts and reveals that Ivan has not only been listening to the court proceedings but is more than ready to prove Tony’s statement wrong. He picks up an electrical whip from his work-place and gets ready to bring the battle to Stark, now as “Whiplash”.

While this unknown and unseen enemy makes his way to Tony, the prodigal boy wonder is dealing with another equally deadly issue in the form of palladium poisoning from the arc-reactor technology implanted in his chest, the same technology keeping him alive. His AI assistant explains that Tony’ usage of the Iron Man suit is exacerbating the rate of his poisoning. The more he plays deterrent qua superhero, the more he pushes himself to an early grave. Thus, the newfound symbol of peace finds himself at a crossroads with death staring at him from every direction.

However, this seemingly apparent fresh plot is mostly nothing more than a neat re-threading of the previous films themes and story beats. Whereas Iron Man sees Tony start as an ignorant arms dealer who learns that corrupt organizations use his weaponry and seeks to be more mindful of his tech’s reach, Iron Man 2 sees Tony start as an ignorant weaponized suit user who learns that other individual use his suit technology and seeks to be more mindful of its reach. Even the poisoned arc-reactor core plotline matches up with the original story’s thread involving Tony updating and changing out his cores.

Therein lies the primary issue. There’s no “real” reason to watch Iron Man 2 because it has very little new to say. The primary story scratches the same itches the original does but does it in a less succinct and thorough manner. The few additions it tries to append to the narrative do very little outside of pad the run-time. Where the film tries to mark its point of difference and stake its claim is in its CGI-intensive action sequences, but these are lacking both the color contrast and polish necessary to have them be as engaging as needed. While the CGI isn’t terribly outdated, it ends up looking worse because the battle sequences feature little color variation and an abundance of digital clutter; the problems never become as egregious as they do in The Incredible Hulk, but when the film stakes so much of its identity on the spectacle and doesn’t deliver an awe-inspiring one, it feels like a wasted opportunity.

To make matters worse, the first film utilizes its CGI far more efficiently, blending in graphics with practical effects and sets which help ground the more grandiose moments. The spectacles deliver because there’s a vitality coursing through them that the second film never manages to reach with its focus on extravagant mechanized battle; the absence of the human element can be felt and robs otherwise sensational moments of the palpable tension that defines the previous film. Does this render them unwatchable or headache inducing? Not at all. By and large, the direction of the action and basic reincorporation of techniques through the fights makes them engaging in the moment. However, it’s the presence of that competency that makes the wasted potential all the more disappointing.

That being said there are worse fates than being a semi-decent Iron Man clone. The primary cast is as charming as ever, Downey Jr. in particular, and seem even more comfortable with their roles than before, even with the replacement in casting regarding Rhodey (Don Cheadle). The story, despite being a reformulation of the original, is still compelling enough to watch, especially if one is in the mood for more Iron Man content.

REPORT CARD

TLDR	Iron Man 2 feels like it took its plot about people emulating “Iron Man” to heart and decided to go ahead and implement that same strategy at the level of the film, doing very little to the original Iron Man besides re-skinning it with a less than stellar CGI covering. While the strategy satisfies in a basic sense, it feels disappointing in comparison, especially now that the action sequences have started to slowly show their age.
Rating	6.7/10
Grade	C

Go to Page 2 for the for the spoiler discussion and more in-depth analysis.
Go to Page 3 to view this review’s progress report .