Ironman 2 (2010) has two openings: The Mother Russia and the Apollo Creed. Mickey Rourke plays Ivan Vanko the super-duper Russian villain. What’s more Russian than taking a swig of vodka from the bottle while both tears and vodka run down your face as you howl over your father’s corpse? Then, Tony Stark enters the film by flying in from above and landing into a huge fireworks and chorus line celebration of the Stark Expo. He gives a huge speech about how awesome he is and then is whisked off to a court hearing where he meets the New Rhodey, Don Cheadle. There is some clever line about “I’m here. It’s me. Get over it.” Don Cheadle gives Rhodey some confidence and his relationship with Tony Stark is fun to watch. He is no longer bullied by Tony. He stands up over and over even though Tony is his dear friend.
The film also introduces Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow. Scarlett Johannsen is featured throughout the film, but Black Widow’s real introduction comes towards the end of the film. She infiltrates Hammer Industries and effortlessly takes down a bunch of thugs. Ah, someone who can’t just blow stuff up or smash it.
The whole cast is great really. It features Sam Rockwell, Samuel L. Jackson, and of course, Gwyneth Paltrow. I don’t believe the cast is what causes people to view this is as one of the lesser MCU flicks. I believe that is caused by Tony’s character regression. I know growth is not linear, but the re-emergence of Tony’s irrational behavior makes it hard to believe that he took Yinsen’s message to heart. Yinsen said don’t waste your life. Tony is dying. That can make people behave differently, but Tony throws all of his character growth away along with Pepper and Rhodey.
Quick Hits
Lot’s of Thor References. It’s like that was the next movie coming out.
Coulson! His Super Nanny line is great.
Captain America’s Shield is in Tony’s workshop…. or something that looks like Captain America’s shield.
I enjoy Justin Hammer. He is this Tony Stark wannabe. It is hilarious watching that guy try so hard to be Tony.
Happy’s dirty boxing journey is amazing. He complains about dirty boxing in an earlier scene with Tony and then ends up using it to defeat a security guard at Hammer Industries. Meanwhile, Nat has already beat up every other guard.
Senator Sterns is Hydra! Wants Tony’s suit. Oh, Hydra.
Stan Lee’s cameo is Larry King.
There is a tesseract drawing in Howard’s notebook.
Post credits scene is Coulson seeing Thor’s hammer.
The film is full of funny lines and great fights. Its primary issue is that it wobbles between being a setup for the Avengers (2012) and continuing Tony’s arc. Now, I get that Tony cannot completely change and that him not being a self-destructive, quick-witted, party boy makes the film a much harder sell. Tony ends up using the information his father left him to save himself from death but does not mean that he is really a grownup now? I guess we will have to see in future movies if he starts taking accountability for his actions.