MLTR - Iron Man 2 Review

IRON MAN 2 REVIEW

Cast:
•    Robert Downey Jr.  as Tony Stark and Iron Man
•    Gwyneth Paltrow as Virginia “Pepper” Potts
•    Don Cheadle as Lt. Colonel James “Rhodie” Rhodes
•    Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff a.k.a Natalie Rushmann
•    Mickey Rourke as  Ivan Wanko a.k.a Whiplash
•    Samuel Jackson as Major Fury
Director: Jon Favreau

Story:
Robert Downey Jr reprises his role as Tony Stark and the not-so-secret-anymore-superhero Iron Man, and so does Gwyneth Paltrow as his secretary, Virginia “Pepper” Potts. The story is simple: Ivan Vanko, whose father Anton Vankow, a scientist of Stark Industries who was arrested and deported to Russia on the charges of cash in on illegal technology transfers while working under Tony Stark’s father Howard Stark, has vowed to revenge for his father’s impecunious death. Apparently, Anton also has a blue print of the arc reactor, which he gives it to Ivan before he dies. Ivan takes six months to build his own version of the arc reactor, and transforms his persona to Whiplash. His only aim is to bring down Iron Man.

Meanwhile, a senate committee led by Senator Stern is claiming that the arc reactor technology that is powering the Iron Man suit is a matter of National Security and hence should be handed over to the government. Tony Stark argues that other governments are at least a decade away from recreating this technology and refuses to hand it over.

Ivan Wanko shows up in a race at Circuit De Monaco with his "whip" and attacks Stark and other participants. Even though Stark quickly transforms to Iron Man with the help of his Iron Man suitcase, the damage has already been done. The world has witnessed that the arc reactor technology is no more a one-man secret which is more than enough for Senator Stern to maneuver the government to order the confiscation of Stark’s miniature arc reactor technology. Ivan Wanko is put in a French Jail, only for Justin Hammer, CEO of Hammer Technologies and a rival of Stark, to arrange an elaborate escape plan for Wanko, who is now presumed to be dead due to an explosion in his cell.

Along with Wanko, Stark is facing another nemesis within him. He is continuously being poisoned from the Iron Man suit because of its use of the Palladium core. He must find an alternate element soon else he would die of toxicity. He throws up a lavish birthday party, which he presumes to be his last, and makes a ruckus only to alienate his best friend Lt. Colonel James Rhodes, who is under order to bring the arc reactor technology from Tony Stark. In the ensuing fight between Stark and Rhodes, both of them in Iron Man suits, Rhodes prevails, and carries his suit to a military base. To Rhodes dismay, the suit is handed over to Justin Hammer to make large scale military robots powered by arc reactor technology.

On the next day, Nick Fury who is the director of S.H.I.E.L.D meets Tony and tells him that Tony’s father Howard was one of the founders of S.H.I.E.L.D and hands over his father’s possession to him. Fury believes that the secret in finding an alternative to the Palladium core could lie within these materials. Having failed to find an alternative element from the exhaustive list of all known elements, Stark successfully synthesizes a new element with the help of a hidden message encoded in his father’s old building plans. Before he could test the new element, Stark gets a message from Vanko that Vanko a.k.a Whiplash is very much alive and is still hell-bent on extracting revenge. With no time to test the new element, Stark inserts the reactor made from the new element into his chest, curing him of all the Palladium based toxicity and offering increase energy.

The final standoff takes place at Stark Expo where Justin Hammer is lining up his array of Military Soldiers under the command of Rhodes. However, it is Vanko who is secretly controlling all of them from his base. As soon as Iron Man shows up, Vanko takes control of all the robots and starts to destroy the expo. What follows next is some Transformers-meets-slasher movie kind of action. Eventually all rogue military robots are wiped off and Ivan Wanko arrives to meet Stark and Rhodes in their respective suits in a final standoff. As usual, our hero prevails.

Negatives:
Unlike its prequel which had a very dense story line, Iron Man 2 is your normal superhero-defeats-villain-and-saves-the-day type. Tony Stark’s daddy issues and his emotional entanglement with his secretary form a major part in the first half of the story, making it a little dry for action buffs like me. Actors such as Samuel Jackson, Scarlet Johansson and Jon Favreau, who is also the director, in the supporting roles were very much underused throughout the movie. Samuel Jackson who portrays Nick Fury is relegated to a few wise cracks, and Scarlet Johannson who plays Natasha Romanoff is used only sparingly. Also, I found that the CGI to be confusing, and in some cases, totally irritating. The camera work is very fast which leaves very little time to comprehend the action sequences.

Positives:
However, there are many positives in this movie which is more than enough to have you engaged. And Robert Downey Jr is first among them. He carries his dual persona of Iron Man and Tony Stark with ease with his usual flair for one-liners. Pay very close attention to his dialogues; he will leave you in splits. Second is Micky Rourke as Whiplash. Micky has taken a lot of pain to make his character look, feel and talk like a deranged Russian mad scientist. Third is Scarlet Johansson. Even though she is in a blink-and-you miss role, her ephemeral presence was enough to make my heart beat faster than usual. And how can I fail to mention the background music. The movie ends on a “high” note with ACDC’s “Highway to Hell” soundtrack, perhaps symbolizing the action in pipeline from the Iron Man sequels and “The Avengers.”

Overall, I found Iron Man 2 to be very enjoyable. A must-watch for all those Robert Downey Jr. Fans out there, I give my thumbs-up for Iron Man 2. It is a total entertainer.