Iron Man 2

Iron Man 2 - Directed by Jon Favreau

The first Iron Man film was the surprise smash hit of the summer of 2008. Before it, Tony Stark was little more than a fringe Marvel superhero and known only to the geekiest of comic book fans. Sure he’d been around a while, but he’d permanently lived in the shadow of the likes of fellow Avengers like Spiderman, Wolverine and even The Hulk.

However, the special ingredient of the original was the casting of Robert Downey Jr in the lead role. Most superheroes do not ooze charisma, but RDJ brought it effortlessly in his portrayal of Tony Stark and in bucket loads. Add to this a strong support cast with the likes of Jeff Bridges and Gwyneth Paltrow and the perfect soundtrack in Black Sabbath’s cunningly-named Iron Man and you have a serious winner on your hands.

Scarlett Johansson as The Black Widow

Mickey Rourke as Ivan Vanko

So two years on, what has changed for the sequel? Well AC-DC have taken over on the soundtracking duties and Terrence Howard has been inexplicably bumped for Don Cheadle in the role of Rhodey. Paltrow is back as Pepper Potts and her on-off romance with Stark is still… erm on-off and Jeff Bridges’s megalomaniac Obadiah Stone has been replaced by Mickey Rourke’s plain psychotic Ivan Vanko. And a few totally new characters have been thrown into the mix too - the uber-beautiful Scarlett Johansson comes in as Natasha Romanoff (a.k.a The Black Widow) and Sam Rockwell is in as Justin Hammer, a rival weapon manufacturer to Stark Industries.

The plot is the usual superhero stuff – Vanko holds a grudge against the Stark family after watching his father, a former Stark colleague, die in poverty. So he vows to avenge his death and makes a good start by causing carnage with his homemade weaponry during a day out at the races – which Stark is participating in. From here he is rescued from prison by Hammer and ordered to create new superweapons to rival Stark Industries. Vanko, however, has other non-business priorities.

The sub-plots deal with Stark’s continuing alcoholism and his need to build yet another new heart to keep him alive. Again Stark has plenty of boyish fights with his best mate Rhodey – enough to justify Mr Rhodes getting his very own suit and being christened War Machine. Oh and Tony resigns as the CEO of Stark Industries and appoints Pepper Potts (Paltrow) in his place – not a band step up that, from PA to CEO in one promotion.

There’s a lot of dialogue in this film, and perhaps not enough of a balance between that and the action for the all-out smash-em-up fans. Most of the middle of the film is more concerned with human relationships than blowing stuff up – and the final fight scenes may seem a bit lacklustre if your expectations are high.

Robert Downey-Junior, Jon Favreau and Don Cheadle in Iron Man 2

Having said all this, it’s still good fun to watch. Just don’t expect much more than the fairly standard, albeit entertaining Hollywood superhero fodder. Other critics have complained that it suffers from Spiderman 3 syndrome (too many characters, too little time) – but trust me, it’s not that bad. Congratulations must also go out to Director Jon Favreau. Perhaps better known as an actor (Friends, Swingers) he remains entertaining both on and off screen and his character Happy Hogan is one of the joys of this film franchise.

Oh and those who bothered to wait around until the final credits had finished for the first film, just to get a quick glimpse of Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury should do so again. You might just get sneaky peak at the next member of the Avengers set to be on screen. 

Iron Man 2 official website

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