Iron man 2 pulls no punches. Its premise is the alcoholic playboy millionaire Stark’s illness and pressure with being a one-man army. Straight off the bat, Don Cheadle is introduced as Terence Howard....I’m sorry James Rhodes, with a cheeky wink to the audience with the line “yeah it’s me, just deal with it and let’s move on”
The pace of the film would suit a Porsche with the witty banter between downy jr and Gwenyth Paltrow’s characters being just one of the movies highlights.
Improved special effects combine with an increasingly more human side to tony stark and his battle with keeping the Iron man identity, even if it kills him. The alcoholism and blood poisoning mirror Downey Jr’s experiences in real life too and one can’t help but wonder if he’ll end up snorting coke of a prostitutes crack somewhere along the film, kid’s film be damned.
Sam Rockwell does seem a little uncomfortable being on a blockbuster yet he does a superb job as Hammer, Tony Stark’s rival.
He teams up with Russian-accent-spouting Mickey Rourke playing, well to be honest, himself...if he was Russian...and had a weaponised suit.
Scarlett Johansson fulfils her role, eh amply as the requisite eye candy in the lovely form of super-spy Black Widow. I personally don’t think anyone gives two flying figs that she neither looks nor sounds Russian in any shape. Still in fairness, when you can fill a cat suit like that, all regional differences become very blurry indeed anyway.
The end scenes, while not spoiling anything, are awesome. The flight scenes and fight scenes are really well done and almost make you forgive that the final boss fight lasts about as long and as hardcore as a playground duel for ownership of a swing set.All in all it is a decent enough film and after watching it twice I can say its worth the tenner to go see it.
I also won’t spoil anything about the teaser after the credits, which leads into the next hero in the Avengers saga to be given the silver screen treatment....