My theory about diminishing returns on superhero sequels was proven true again. It’s not meant to be schadenfreude. I dig these flicks because special effects have caught up with everyone’s imagination and I dig director/writer/actor Jon Favreau. I don’t want him to fail, then he’ll be stuck doing weaker crap like Jonathan Frakes. Sadly, it was inevitable. Iron Man lacks a strong rogues gallery to propel him forward but that didn’t stop Hollywood from trying as they were blinded by the dollar signs in their eyes. Again, they piled on too many additional characters to bog down any possible interesting larger plot: Whiplash, rival defense contractor Justin Hammer, Col. Fury, Black Widow, James Rhodes/War Machine and to some extent, Senator Stern.
So some months have passed after Stark revealed to the Senate that he is Iron Man but the government still demands the suit; it’s a weapon for national defense and America’s enemies are working on knock-offs, therefore it can’t remain in private hands. Then Whiplash shows up: he’s a bitter, nasty Russian scientist who also knows how to weaponize the suit’s power source. He’s mostly motivated by revenge and the movie goes into the whole backstory during a long, slow stretch involving old footage of Howard Stark. Obviously Stark’s competitor Justin Hammer (good ol’ Sam Rockwell doing the same Tom Cruise impression he did in Hitchhiker’s) teams up with Whiplash or it would be a short movie.
There’s other subplots involving the power core slowly poisoning Tony, Rhodes’ friendship being strained over his loyalty to the Air Force, Pepper (the ever boring Paltrow) becoming CEO, Tony’s memories of his father and the upcoming formation of the Avengers (I recently saw the Thor trailer, the hero resembles the guitarist in a Scandinavian metal band more than the Norse deity). The latter element brings in the even flatter acting of Scarlet Johansson covered in a veneer of Joss Whedon’s Buffy-Serenity action schlock solution to disguise her lack of talent.
All these things are nice yet they could be done more effectively in a mini-series. Instead, they’re crammed into a two-plus hour movie. This somehow makes a simultaneously rushed and uninteresting film.
I would only recommend this to fans of comics and completists. The casual superhero fan isn’t missing out.