iron man 2
I was a little mystified at the devotion and love that the first Iron Man movie generated a couple of years ago, it was a fun, entertaining blockbusting romp no doubt but the claims of it being one of the best tent pole releases of recent years didn’t chime with my opinion, I mean c’mon it was no Dark Knight now was it? The inevitable sequel was released this weekend to mixed reviews and some curious readings of its cultural cache, I thought the first Star Trek re-boot was supposed to be the quintessential Obama film with all its multiculturally blazing optimistic vigour, at the risk of sounding hypocritical I think that sometimes you can read too much into things – then again the brilliant Philip French makes some interesting points here. I was in the mood for some Hollywood fluff, some pleasing eye candy and SFX to while away the bank holiday weekend, I’m therefore sad to report that with a few provisos Iron Man 2 suffers from a distinct cast of sequelitis, it is unfocused, messy and clumsily handled, much of the charm and wit that the original employed to win over its viewers is largely absent.
On the surface, things are going well for Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) and his technological titan Stark Industries as he unveils a scintillatingly prestigious World Expo in New York, an event akin to a Led 
Zeppelin reunion concert crossed with the latest corporate extravaganza from iSteve iJobs. Loved by the public and media alike Tony is seen as being personally responsible for ushering in a unrivalled period of world peace but beneath the surface things are falling apart. The introduction of the Iron Man weapon has triggered a secret arms race with North Korea and Iran working on similar prototypes. The US executive are attempting to co-opt the 
technology for its military benefits against Tony’s protestations. More seriously Stark’s health is seriously deteriorating, his blood being incrementally poisoned by the energy consumption that his advanced pacemaker requires to keep him alive. Threats of a more tangible nature are evident in the figure of Whiplash (an incomprehensible Mickey Rourke), a Russian super-villain who craves revenge on the Stark dynasty after his fathers contributions to the firm were sidelined by Tonys father twenty years ago which left him exiled in a Soviet gulag. A coup is being engineered by the pernicious Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) to seize the Iron Man technology and accelerate his career in the Pentagon, his teaming up with the spiteful Whiplash to achieve their intertwined ambitions provoking a serious threat to our heroes ambitions. Gwyneth Paltrow is back as Pepper Pots and Don Cheadle usurps Terrence Howards role as Lt. Colonel Rhodey (one improvement from the first film as Cheadle is far more interesting and amusing) and new blood is introduced to the franchise in the form of Natasha Rushman (a pneumatic Scarlett Johansson), an enigmatic lawyer in Stark Industries who may or may not be what she seems – I don’t think I’m alone in considering her as easily the films most spectacular special effect.
Yes, there’s a lot going on and that’s probably the films main failing. I saw this on a bustling Sunday night at the local flicks and the silence of the audience spoke volumes, at least until the end sequence but we’ll get to that. Robert Downey Jr’s charisma that centred the original installment is seriously lacking, he really was the charming trump card of the first film and his mumbling over humor free dialogue pales in comparison to the originals chemistry. The plot trajectory is nebulous at best, the film is plagued with mostly confused scene arrangements that map the course of the films two hour run time. The main failing for me though was what exactly you want to see from big blockbusters such as this, all I realistically want or expect from a big Hollywood franchise is for the fights and SFX to be cool and exciting – I’m easily pleased. The CGI is mostly efficient and delivers, however the set pieces with one exception are insipid and dull, the Grand Prix sequence covered in the trailers is anemic and to keep things spoiler free I won’t detail any of the other kinetic moments, suffice to say they don’t manage to achieve much in the way of interest or intoxication. Predominantly the film lurks in a zombie like paralysis, not even the presence of the usually excellent Sam Rockwell can salvage the interest vacuum that has developed over the preceding ninety minutes of screen time.
All that said I must concur that the film improves dramatically in the last twenty five minutes or so, some discerning gags materialise, some excitement is generated throughout the final showdown, we eventually see The Black Widow strut her stuff and some clever toyings with the superhero genre emerge, holistically however its all too little too late as there is no emotional investment in what’s at stake, in fact there is very little idea of anything being in jeopardy or what the consequences of defeat for our heroes would be. In full nerd mode I’ll also confess to some juvenile agitation at seeing Iron Man, The Black Widow and Sgt. Fury exchange pleasantries in a brief diner set scene, there is a nod toward another imminent superhero series in one flippant moment and for those of you so inclined be sure to stick around for a brief coda after the credits which sets up the next franchise and provides another step forward to the anticipated Avengers movie. Iron Man 2 is not a disaster of Daredevil, Elektra or Incredible Hulk proportions (the re-boot, not the Ang Lee version I hasten to add) but it does fail on a simple, visceral entertainment level, the Marvel boffins are seriously going to have to up the ante to match the Disgruntled Competitions recent big screen efforts….
Minty's Menagerie 
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