Marvel Cinematic Universe: Iron Man 2 (Retrospective)

Picking up in the closing moments of the MCU's inaugural film, Marvel's Iron Man 2 wastes no time introducing us to Mickey Rourke's enigmatic Russian, Ivan Vanko. It's clear from the outset that he has some kind of personal vendetta against Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) who, in the months after revealing himself to the world as Iron Man, has begun a downward spiral into narcissism in the worst way. While government prudes in league with weapons manufacturer Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) attempt to requisition and weaponize the Iron Man suit, Tony learns that the palladium core of the reactor keeping him alive is also poisoning him—or something like that. I don't claim to understand how any of this works, it's the usual comic book nonsense that demands audiences suspend disbelief in order to follow the plot. The point here is that Tony learns he's dying, and there's no apparent cure.

Marvel's Iron Man 2 (2010)

So he sets about putting those he actually cares about at arm's length, like his stalwart and even-keeled love interest, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), and his Air Force officer buddy, James Rhodes (Don Cheadle, replacing Terrence Howard from Iron Man). And for the first half of the film, Tony corkscrews out of control, his worst tendencies rising to the surface in one self-destructive act after another. It turns out that learning to change isn't quite as easy as it seems at first. Perhaps this is the trouble with sequels,  as character arcs completed in the first film usually end up being walked back a few steps in order to accommodate the ongoing story. Tony learns to accept responsibility for his own actions at the end of Iron Man, but by the time this movie gets rolling, you'd never know he learned that lesson in the first place.

Then, right around the halfway point, the film shifts gears. Enter Nick Fury, played by Samuel L. Jackson, reprising the character he originally portrayed in the small after-credits scene attached to Iron Man. This is where the world that will blossom into Marvel's cinematic universe really begins to take shape. Through Fury and his organization known as S.H.I.E.L.D., we reconnect with Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) and are introduced to series mainstay Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson). Both of them are S.H.I.E.L.D. agents working for Fury, and their world of secrets provides our first real glimpse at the bigger picture.

The only problem with handling things in this manner makes for a bit of a muddled story. There is a lot going on in this film. In some instances, too much. On one hand, you have this really compelling story of fathers and sons that plays out between Tony and Vanko. On the other, you have a story about Tony learning to open up to the people around him, especially those who care about his well-being, after he learns that he's dying. It's not that either one of these particular stories is bad; in fact, they're both pretty compelling on their own. But compound both of these stories with the S.H.I.E.L.D. plot, and you have a bit of a messy story to untangle, and the problem arises with trying to do this in a span of two hours—the characters and the film's emotional resonance really suffer.

And the character that suffers the most is undoubtedly Ivan Vanko. Mickey Rourke is a rare talent, and his face is as instantly recognizable as Stallone's or Schwarzenegger's. He's introduced in a very compelling and sympathetic way, but his motivations are still shrouded enough to make him intriguing. And when he finally comes front and center for a harrowing sequence at a racetrack in Monaco, he's presented as this really quirky and intimidating villain. The character is established beautifully, but as soon as the film shifts to focus on Tony's dealings with S.H.I.E.L.D., Vanko falls almost entirely by the wayside. He's saved from the sidelines by Justin Hammer, but one feels as though this film is a bit overstuffed with characters and multiple half-baked characters are in play when only one really compelling villain is needed. Perhaps this is why these characters, despite clear motivations, carry none of the emotional weight of this particular story.

And nowhere is this more evident than in the final sequence of the film. In the same way that I felt putting Jeff Bridges in a big metal CGI husk of a suit in the first film was a kind of injustice to the high caliber of actor playing the role, I literally groaned when Rourke turned up in what looked like a copy-and-pasted version of the same suit that Bridges wore. And after all this wonderful build-up that paralleled Vanko's story with Tony's, he's defeated in an anti-climactic affair with no emotional resonance whatsoever. The movie simply has too many plot threads to unravel, and the culmination is a criminal mishandling of Rourke's character.

This isn't to say that Iron Man 2 is a bad film—it's actually pretty entertaining, in that in-the-moment kind of way. And, amazingly, all of the major plot points are resolved. There are a number of really stunning action sequences, Vanko's introduction at the Monaco race is an instant standout. Another ten minutes or so of character development for some of the new characters might have helped, and a less by-the-numbers ending would have gone a long way in making this film more memorable than it is. Vanko is a compelling enough villain that he probably should have carried this film on his own, with the annoying Hammer character jettisoned altogether. At the very least, Rourke's understated and underrated performance deserved better than to go out with the eye-roll-inducing words, "You lose."

I can't say that there's much memorable about Iron Man 2. It's well-crafted, just forgettable. It certainly doesn't have the quirky appeal of the first film in terms of story or execution. But Robert Downey Jr. is endlessly watchable as he continues to own the role of Tony Stark in what will become a career-defining performance, making this film's two hour runtime blow past in a whirlwind of quips and wisecracks, even if you're left scratching your head by the time the credits roll. The post-credits sequence here is the first to tease a direct connection to the next film in the MCU, and by this point it's clear the course is set. The Avengers are coming, and Tony Stark is paving the way.