The MCU Rewatch - Iron Man 2 (2010)

After Iron Man proved that if done right movies about Marvel super heroes could work at the box office, the company made The Incredible Hulk (not covered during this rewatch for the reasons in the first post), thus continuing something called The Avengers Initiative, which was cryptically mentioned by Nick Fury to Tony Stark during the post credit sequence of Iron Man.

Curiously they then made a sequel to Iron Man, rather than introducing audiences to other members of the Avengers like Thor or Captain America, the character of Natasha Romanov (aka Black Widow) was introduced in Iron Man 2 (it is an absolute shame that the character has never been given a film of her own).

By this stage Marvel movies were big budget extravaganzas that had no trouble attracting A list talent.

Robert Downey Junior, Gwyneth Paltrow, Clark Gregg, Paul Bettany and Samuel L. Jackson all reprised their roles from the first film. Jon Favreau directed again and played Happy, the role was far more beefed up, he got his arse kicked by Natasha and he also duked it out with one of the villain’s security guards. 

The character of Rhodey also appeared again, but Terrence Howard was replaced by Don Cheadle, which as I said in the review of Iron Man I think was a mistake. Apparently, Howard was difficult to work with. I don’t dislike Cheadle as an actor I just think he’s wrong for this role. 

Stan Lee also performed his obligatory cameo, continuing the mistaken identity gag from the first film, this time he was greeted as broadcaster Larry King. Curiously two other high profile journalists also appeared playing themselves in newscasts, they were Christiane Amanpour and Bill O’Reilly. Billionaire businessman Elon Musk also appeared in a cameo as himself, it was a nice little nod to the fact that Tony and Musk are not dissimilar.

John Slattery also makes his first appearance as Tony’s father Howard Stark. I know Howard Stark is probably modelled on Howard Hughes, but when they show him in his office, introducing tech to people I’m always reminded of Walt Disney’s introductions to various episodes on The Wonderful World of Disney. It doesn’t hurt that Slattery’s Howard Stark does look a little like the famous animator.

Another newcomer to the franchise was Scarlett Johansson. She played Natalie Rushman, although she later reveals to Tony in the movie that her name is Natasha Romanov and she works for S.H.I.E.L.D. Right from the start Johansson is excellent in the role and totally believable. I would paid for a ticket just to watch her kick butt for two hours.

The main villain was played by Mickey Rourke. He played a vengeance seeking Russian physicist by the name of Ivan Vanko (his character in the comics is known as Whiplash, but he’s never called that in the film). I felt Rourke kind of slept walk through the role. He grunted and put on an atrocious accent, but never really got out of second gear in the acting department. He wasn’t a greatly satisfying villain and his idea of using his own version of Iron Man against Tony was very reminiscent of what happened in the first film.

Sam Rockwell was cast as Jason Hammer. Hammer is a wannabee Tony Stark. He’s in the same business and he tries to upstage Tony on a number of occasions. He always fails. He’s not as smart as Tony, he’s not as good looking, he doesn’t have the same charisma and as a result he isn’t as successful. He winds up becoming Vanko’s pawn. Rockwell did his best, but the role was too close to Jeff Bridge’s Obadiah Stane for me.

Garry Shandling played the sleazy and corrupt Senator Stern, it would not be the last time Stern would raise his head and cause trouble for the MCU.

The pre credit sequence of Iron Man 2 introduces the audience to Ivan Vanko, it takes place at about the same time as the end of Iron Man, showing Tony outing himself to the world, and establishes that for some reason Vanko has an axe to grind with Tony and it seems to involve the senior, recently deceased Vanko.

Tony appears to have some sort of death wish, his behaviour has escalated since the end of the first film, and he’s appointed himself as the protector of the world, even going as far to proclaim that Iron Man has brought peace to the world. It’s about that time that he’s brought into senate in order to force him to give the government his suits. Predictably he refuses and at the same time makes a fool of Hammer. This is also where his friendship with Rhodey becomes problematic.

Part of the reason for Tony’s erratic behaviour is because the arc reactor that keeps him alive is rapidly infecting his bloodstream. Using the suit actually makes it worse and speeds up the process. Tony seems incapable of not being Iron Man, and begins to prepare for his eventual demise by initially handing over control of this company to Pepper.

While this is in process Tony goes to Monaco with Pepper and in a very Tony move decides to drive the Stark sponsored car in the Formula One race. The race is interrupted by a suited up Vanko, complete with some sort of super powered whips that are capable of cutting a car in half.

Happy and Pepper take Tony’s Rolls onto the track to deliver his portable Iron Man suit (it’s in a briefcase) to him so that he can attempt to stop Vanko. He does do so, although it is a near run thing.

Hammer breaks Vanko out of jail and uses him to assist with modifying his own weapon suits, so that he can take the military contract and do it at Tony’s own expo. What he doesn’t understand is that Vanko is simply using the resources provided by Hammer to pursue his own vendetta against Tony, and his is lethal, not ego driven. He also doesn’t give a damn about collateral damage,

After Tony turns up to his birthday party wearing the Iron Man suit and getting drunk, thus endangering himself and everyone else in attendance, Rhodey takes the action of appropriating one of Tony’s suits and taking on his friend. He and Tony cancel each other out, then Rhodey takes the suit to an airbase and turns it over, but is the guy to use it. Why no lawyer from Stark Industries actually charges Rhodes and possibly the US Airforce with theft is beyond me.

What Tony doesn’t know is that the lawyer Natalie Rushman is actually a S.H.I.E.L.D agent placed there by Fury to keep an eye on Tony. He probably also doesn’t think that because he’s already got Phil Coulson there, although Coulson does leave prior to the end of the film to go on another mission for Fury to New Mexico.

Fury finds Tony, outs Natalie as his agent, and then tells Tony that he didn’t know as much about his father as he thought. He didn’t know Howard was one of the founders of S.H.I.E.L.D and he didn’t understand that his father had a lot more faith in him than he ever realised.

After the pep talk, and after his relationship with Pepper hits the rocks (again), he unlocks the secret to the arc reactor and the cure to his own problem with infected blood. While he’s rigging things up is when Captain America’s shield makes its first appearance (the continuity with the MCU films is impressive), Coulson, who possibly recognises it, hands it to him. Tony uses it to prop something up.

Vanko makes his move and the new improved Iron Man is forced to act against Hammer’s super robot soldiers at the Stark Expo. He’s also fighting Rhodey, because the stolen suit was given to Hammer and he allowed Vanko to exploit it and control it. This is yet another example of why Rhodes shouldn’t have control of a suit. He simply doesn’t know enough about them or have the agility of thought to use them properly or get out of situations. It’s Tony who avoids disaster here and also inadvertently saves Hammer’s life.

Vanko leaves one last explosive surprise for Tony and of course Pepper gets caught in the crossfire. Tony does rescue her, but she wants to quit (I sure would). He stops her and they take their relationship to another level.

Both Tony and Rhodey are decorated in D.C, by the very same senator who was trying to force Tony into handing over his suits earlier.

The post credit sequence features Phil Coulson arriving in New Mexico and observing the commotion around a crater containing a large war hammer at the centre of it. This set everything up perfectly for Thor.

I found Iron Man 2 enjoyable, but less satisfying than the first film. Part of this was around the fairly lack lustre performance of Mickey Rourke, as well as the relative ineffectiveness of Sam Rockwell’s Hammer. I still have problems understanding what Pepper sees in Tony and issues with Rhodes’ unwavering allegiance to the US Airforce, which clearly doesn’t have everyone’s best interests at heart and its only using him to hurt his friend.

I also didn’t quite understand the need for another Iron Man film before we got a film introducing a new member of the Avengers. However Iron Man 2 does score major points for introducing the Black Widow and showing her taking names and kicking arse.

There's also another nice continuity point about Tony not liking being handed things, he mentions it a number of times in this film and it crops up again later.

I also loved the continuing establishment that Tony is an AC/DC fan. Their music is used to announce Iron Man's arrival in this and other films with the character.