Iron Man 2

So I think my plan was to sit down and watch all of the Avengers films leading up to Age of Ultron. I started with Iron Man, then The Incredible Hulk, and I was actually doing a really good job. I definitely thought I was going to make it through all the films and give some kind of insight into the Marvel films leading up to Age of Ultron.

Honestly though, I think I was dreading watching this film and that's why I didn't watch it and that's why I probably won't make it through all the films before I see Age of Ultron. I mean it is only four films as I have watched and reviewed a lot of the phase 2 movies. We will see.

Anyways, let's talk about Iron Man 2. Just a disclaimer, you may find it that I can't exactly describe the actual plot of Iron Man 2 because to be honest, this movie is all over the place.

Its a little bit after the first film and Tony Stark (played again by Robert Downey Jr.) is preparing for the Stark Expo, a conference for inventors and innovators to release their new technology. It was an event set up by Tony's father and Tony wants to add it to his legacy. Furthermore, Iron Man has been fighting bad guys for a while now and things are going pretty well. I won't comment on "longest peace in US history" as I'm not totally sure what that means but whatever.

Tony is however subpoenaed by the US government and asked to turn over his Iron Man suits. Tony quickly tells them to shove off and that there won't be anything that can match his Iron Man suit for another ten to fifteen years.

Behind the scenes, though Tony is probably flying higher than he ever has before, there is a down side as the power cell in Tony's chest that is keeping him alive is actually poisoning him. Tony is dying.

At this same time, a Russian... physicist? named Ivan Vanko's (played by Mickey Rouke) father dies and Vanko constructs a power cell very similar to the one in Tony Stark's chest, keeping him alive. Apparently it was technology that Ivan's father actually developed with Howard Stark, Tony's father.

Vanko finds Stark at Monacco and... well I'm not totally sure what he tries to do in this scene honestly.

I mean I get that Vanko feels like Tony stole his father's technology and shit like that but is he trying to kill Tony? Is he trying to show off his whips? What is Vanko doing in this scene? Was this his end game? Cause if it was, it was a pretty shitty end game.

Tony quickly defeats him and he goes away for a while. First in prison, then has his death faked and goes to work for a rival of Tony's Justin Hammer (played by Sam Rockwell).

Now before I talk about Hammer, and my god, there is a lot to talk about with Hammer. I do want to talk about Mickey Rouke as Ivan Vanko.

Apparently, the final product of Iron Man 2 was much different that what was actually suppose to happen. Jon Favreau actually had a plan for Iron Man to be a trilogy that was a lot more connected then these films actually ended up being. Ivan Vanko was going to be a much more developed character. Mickey Rourke put his heart and soul into this character, getting the accent down, doing a lot of work and it just kind of got hacked to pieces by the end of the production. The result has made Rourke talk smack of Marvel ever since. There's a couple examples of this like this interview of Seth Meyers and this interview here.

I don't doubt that Mickey Rourke had something that was really good at one point, but unfortunately, whether it was his performance, or the creative team at Marvel and their editing of the final product, Whiplash unfortunately is really one of the worst Marvel villains, and that is saying something because Marvel has never been good with villains.

I mean at the end of the film, what is Vanko doing? Is he just trying to kill Stark? Is he trying to create terror in the city? Like what is his goal here with all his drones? I mean you look at Abomination from The Incredible Hulk.

Shitty villain yeah. In comparison with a lot of the villains from other films, he's not that good.

But at least his rampage at the end of The Incredible Hulk kind of made sense. At least he was driven mad by the Hulk serum and he "wanted a proper fight" or something to that manner. At least I had an idea of what Abomination was doing in this film, even if it was not a very interesting or compelling reason and more of just a way to get the Hulk fighting something his own size at the end of the film.

What is Vanko's motivation? Why does he create an Iron Man suit with whips? Why does he create drones for Hammer at the end of the day? Whats his goal? Maybe its to kill Tony, but that's never made clear because this movie chose not to give a shit about Ivan Vanko. That is why he's probably lower on the list of Marvel villains (no matter how low the standards for that list are).

And then there's Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer.

My god, Sam Rockwell was awful in this film.

I'm not sure if they were trying to make him the poor man's Tony Stark or just an asshole but what they got was just a weird pathetic attempt to give something for Tony to fight.

In everything that I've read on Iron Man 2, Justin Hammer is suppose to be the rival to Tony Stark and Stark industries, but in this movie he's more like a loser that can't quite be as good as Stark. He's always being overshadowed by him. Which would work if it ever seemed like that, if Rockwell wasn't acting like a dumbass the entire film.

Also, between Rockwell and Rourke, I'm not even sure who the main villain of Iron Man 2 was suppose to be. If it was Rockwell, well that sucks cause he's just a corporate loser who can't quite compete with Tony Stark, and if its Rourke, why did he spend half the movie just dicking around until the end?

Again, horribly written.

So overall you have Vanko trying to get revenge on Tony, Hammer trying to outdo Tony, Tony dying, this expo, and then on top of it all, you have the government trying to get their hands on the Iron Man suit... which they do. I suppose the compelling part about all this was that its suppose to put tension in Tony and James Rhodes "Rhodey's" (played now by Don Cheadle) relationship, but I was never convinced these two were great friends, even in Iron Man one, this movie didn't change that perception.

And then on top of all of that, what was this scene all about?

Like why was Nick Fury even in this film? Personally, I think this movie ruined Nick Fury. I actually think I'm going to write a separate post on that.

And then you've got Scarlett Johansson hanging around just to look hot. And then you've got Coulson in this this film for ABSOLUTELY no reason. Like he only has two scenes, doesn't do shit, and then leaves right away. Why was he in this film at all?

Oh yeah... right... The Avengers

For some reason, at this point in time, Marvel thought that we had forgotten that itty bitty scene at the end of Iron Man 1 where Nick Fury shows up and says I want to talk to you about the Avengers initiative. Marvel thought we forgot about that post credit scene where Tony Stark is talking to the General from The Incredible Hulk. 

Marvel thought we forgot The Avengers were coming. 

In the last Iron Man film, Coulson was in the movie for a reason, he actually contributed and wasn't just there to be a teaser for the Avengers, even though he did a good job at doing that either way with the nod to SHIELD. 

All the hints at the Avengers so far had been at the end of films or very subtle hints. 

Its like Iron Man 2 was just a huge teaser trailer for this new connected universe that was coming and after Nick Fury shows up, after Black Widow reveals herself, after Coulson refers to "some stuff" meaning going to do Thor, and after he raises an obvious Captain America shield this is my reaction. 

It would be one thing if these tie ins made sense. Like there was a reason Tony would have an unfinished Captain America Shield, or it made sense for Nick Fury to be the one to talk sense into Tony after he goes on a collision course for almost no reason. And further more, I wouldn't mind these tie ins if the story wasn't an all around mess.

I kind of mentioned it before but you've got Tony dying, you've got Vanko, you've got Hammer, you've got Black Widow showing up, you've got the military trying to get their hands on the Iron Man suit, you've got all this stuff coming together and it just doesn't come together.

This movie is suppose to be about Legacy. When Tony knows that he is going to die, he actually goes on a self destructive course. He does this despite the fact that when Whiplash shows up, the US immediately starts to question his ability to keep them safe and whether or not he's a person worth trusting such immense power like that of the Iron Man suit to.

Whereas the Tony from the end of Iron Man 1 would have probably gone out and done everything he could to settle accounts, right wrongs, protect his family, all while keeping the arrogant attitude we know of Tony Stark, this movie has him peeing in his Iron Man suit, putting people's lives at risk by fighting at his birthday party, and driving in a race in Monaco. Does it make sense? No. At no point is Tony thinking about Legacy until it comes to the point where it doesn't matter anymore. Instead of progressing in this film from the change he had in the last film, Tony regresses back.

Are there good thing about this film? Sure. The action can be pretty good sometimes, the corporate warfare and the development of drone Iron Man suits, while confusing, is kind of cool. And on top of it all... I mean Scarlett Johansson is pretty hot.

But this movie is so bloated with hints at The Avengers, that it sacrifices actual story and development with the theme to focus on okay action, okay effects, and a horribly structured story.

I would like to think that Marvel has learned from its mistakes made in Iron Man 2... maybe. The critical responses to Iron Man 2 were actually really good. Maybe its just the retrospect, looking at what has come out since that makes me scratch my head when somebody could say this this movie was good, but I know that I really didn't like it.

This is something I wanted to explore as I started looking at Marvel films leading up to where we are now, less than a month away from the second Avengers movie.

The franchise is at an all time high, more and more characters are being introduced. I would say its being done pretty well so far and I'm really optimistic about the plans going forward. But was the path to movies like Captain America: The Winter Soldier as great as we remember it? I would argue no, its not.

Now would I say that Iron Man 2 was better than Daredevil. Oh god yes. I think while I don't think this movie is as good as Marvel movies I have been accustom to recently, I think this, Incredible Hulk, and the original Iron Man are leaps and bounds from where superhero films used to be.

But that's something that I will probably assess as we come closer to the end of Phase 1. Only two more movies, two movies I actually think are my favorites of phase 1, at least how I remember them.

But those are my thoughts on Iron Man 2. Hopefully it all made sense. Give me your thoughts in the comments below. Does this movie hold up five years later? Leave a comment or shoot me a tweet @cmhaugen24 and follow me on Twitter to get updates on movie news and more reviews.

I'll leave you with this. A new trailer for Ant-man came out. If you've been keeping up with my blog, you know I wasn't wild about the last Ant-man trailer, I'm still out on this one, maybe I'll do a post on it, maybe not. Here's the trailer, give me your thoughts. Enjoy!