Friday, May 14, 2010

This movie has TWO Iron Mans!

The season of summer blockbusters has officially started, and what better way to kick it off than with a super hero movie! I loved the first Iron Man (3 stars) and have been eagerly replaying Iron Man 2 trailers to intentionally stoke the fires of my enthusiasm. After seeing the movie on opening night, I am happy to report that it didn't disappoint...for the most part. The movie begins very soon after the first Iron Man ended with Tony Stark (played by my new man crush, Robert Downey Jr) riding the tide of his increased fame as a super hero while trying to hide from his friends and the world the fact that his arc reactor is slowly poisoning him. Add to the mix the government threatening to take his armored suit technology, his company in chaos, a mad Russian (Mickey Rourke) trying to kill him with a knock off of his own technology, a greedy rival with an inferiority complex, and a falling out with his best friend, and you have Tony Stark's very complicated life and the plot for Iron Man 2. That sounds like a lot to fit into two hours, but director Jon Favreau manages to make it work. Still, while Iron Man 2 doesn't lack for substance, it ironically is slow getting started and stingily doles out the action scenes - the last fight with "Robo-Ivan" is disappointingly short. This and a flimsy resolution for solving Stark's palladium core poisoning problem make the movie slightly inferior to the original. However, even in spite of its flaws, Iron Man 2 delivers enough thrills, intrigue, and impressive visuals (that includes Scarlett Johansson) to qualify as a worthy sequel. 3 stars for the satisfying, but not glorifying, Iron Man 2.