Showing Signs of Rust

Iron Man 2 (2010)

You could say that a Superhero/Action film is only as good as it’s villain. In most cases, they fall short, either being preposterously unthreatening or so ridiculously powerful that their defeat seems like a cheat. The best examples are probably still Superman 2, where the Man of Steel was matched by adversaries with the same powers and ended up having to trick them and use brains rather than brawn to win, or Star Trek 2, where the revenge motif is upfront and foremost, and Kirk too couldn’t rely on his usual firepower. Iron Man 2 isn’t up to that standard, and it’s main failing is getting Mickey Rouke(scary but at no point a real threat), and Sam Rockwell( a minor league Lex Luthor and too stupid and larky to be taken seriously) to team up, but then make the typical villain mistake of infighting rather than pooling their resources. Jon Favreau actually undercuts any suspense or tension in their scenes together, and indeed, even in the two action set pieces, with ill thought out humour- in real life people don’t crack jokes when they’re in fear of their lives. What set the first Iron Man so high was that the opening third was played admirably serious. In this, even Tony’s slow poisoning gets a quick fix before we get a chance to be concerned, or see some real self destructive behaviour- Downey’s mild meltdown isn’t as good as Christopher Reeve’s in Superman 3, which is a damning commentary. By the film’s end Favreau also brings back a hokey earlier plot device stolen from Ghostbusters-“don’t cross the streams,” and falls back on the main failing of the original film- a robot punch-up. He’s just about got away with it twice now but added to the recent, pestilent Transformers franchise, the next bad guy is in desperate need of a new modus operandi. However, it’s to the credit of director and star that the film still remains so entertaining, but this felt like pandering to the audience, not stretching the concept. 8/10