Iron Man 2: Another Metallic Masterpiece
Eagerly awaited by cine-fans and comic book lovers since the roaring success of the first live action film Iron Man (Favreau 2008), Iron Man 2 (Favreau 2010) touched down in cinemas earlier this year with an outstanding reception.
Robert Downey Jnr. returns as Tony Stark in an electric opening sequence as he opens the “Stark Expo” as Iron Man then reveals his true face (and a sharp looking suit) to give a speech to a roaring and excitable crowd. Excited ourselves then, this film wastes no time sharply introducing conflict for Tony in the next sequence. We see Stark at a Senate hearing where he is unsuccessfully pressured to relinquish his suit, otherwise known as the Iron Man Weapon, to the US Military. Is the bad guy in this film Tony’s own country perhaps? Amongst all the glitz, glamour and wit, the consequences of this decision make for a thrilling ride…
Of course no good comic book film would be complete without a flamboyant villain – equally, if not slightly more impressive than the hero himself. Mickey Rourke slips into this role as Whiplash, an intimidating Russian ‘hard man’ with intelligence and technology to equal Tony. Whiplash is later recruited by Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), Tony Stark’s business competitor, who financially backs the Russian in a bid to out-do Stark at his own Expo, naively ignoring Whiplash’s singularly minded agenda, the death of Iron Man.
The combination of adversaries from both sides of Tony’s life, and constant hounding from the government, is a fitting step up from the villain in Iron Man (Favreau 2008), making this a successful and interesting sequal, leading on directly from the first film, while developing both the characters and the story just enough to re-fuel our Iron loving engines.
Speaking of character development, the most notable difference in this film from the first comes in the form of Rhodey (Don Cheadle), Tony’s best friend, who along with a different actor from the first film (Terrence Howard), grows a little backbone, becomes a little less loveable, stands up to Tony in a lads-fight at Tony’s birthday party and steals one of the Iron Man suits. We also meet Tony’s new assistant (Pepper Pots finally got promoted, go girl!), the mysterious combat trained Natalie Rushman (Scarlett Johansson) who suggests a conflict and the possibility of a girl fight with Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow) for the affections and trust of Stark.
An exhilarating, exciting and entertaining ride, Iron Man 2 is another brilliant metallic edition from Favreau’s comic book box. Enough shiny to keep you in awe, enough action to keep you on edge, and enough story to keep you thinking, this film is sure to be a favourite of any comic/cine-fan. As one of the forerunners of the much anticipated Avengers film due to hit cinema screens in 2011 the antics of Tony Stark and the introduction of S.H.I.E.L.D’s Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) sets the scene for many more thrills to come.
History of Iron man
Following the recent trend of successful superhero movies, yet unlike the pubescent premise of Spiderman (Raimi 2002) or the new broody Batman (Nolan 2005), Iron Man uses his charmingly arrogant wit to mask and then overcome his emotional issues while getting the job done.
Iron Man was first seen in Tales of Suspense #39 (March 1963), created by writer-editor Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber and artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby. The character of Tony Stark was initially written in an experiment during which the writers decided to create a character the readership would hate, a wealthy playboy industrialist engineer with a cocky attitude, and shove it down their throats and make them love it. Iron Man began exploring Cold War themes and over the years has developed to focus on more contemporary issues such as terrorism and corporate crime. Iron Man has throughout his career been a member of the Avengers and has appeared in several of their stories, a tradition continued in the Comic Book Film era, where Robert Downy Jnr. makes a cameo appearance in The Incredible Hulk (Leterrier 2008) as Tony Stark.
In addition to comics, Iron Man has been made into several television animated series, the latest being Iron Man: Armoured Adventures (2008 – present) which was created after the first live action Iron Man film success in 2008.
References:
www.imdb.com
