Review written by Christian Garcia
What is considered by most Marvel fans to be the worst movie in the MCU: Iron Man 2. Is it as bad as everyone says? Let's take a look.
Given that this is a sequel and we've already established who Tony is in the first film, I am going to skip right to the hero's journey.
Hero's Journey
Tony is dealing with a lot of consequences resulting from his choice to reveal his identity at the end of the first movie.
He relishes the celebrity that comes from everyone knowing he is Iron Man, but he is also facing pressure from the government who wants his technology and are casting doubt that he can protect people as he claims.
He is being slowly poisoned by the palladium that he uses to power his arc reactor and Iron Man suits. As Jarvis states, the device keeping him alive is also slowly killing him.
He relaunches the Stark Expo which brings up harsh feelings towards his father, Howard that messes with his psyche.
On top of that, a man from his father's past, Ivan Vanko (played by Mickey Rourke) appears seeking vengeance.
All these mounting pressures and the certainty of death cause Tony to act out irrationally which leads to a drunken confrontation between him and his best friend Rhodey.
Tony is forced, by Nick Fury, to confront his issues and find a way to fix his problems. After getting unexpected words of encouragement from his father, Tony creates a new element to fix his heart issue and saves the day, with the help of Rhodey who has his own suit as War Machine.
I mentioned in my Thor review how a common and tired trope is having to watch a character wallow in self-pity when they reach their lowest moment. Unfortunately, we have to sit through that here. And it is not entertaining to watch. Tony goes on a drinking binge at his birthday party to cope with his seemingly terminal condition. Tony becomes very unlikable in this moment swearing he knows what he is doing and acting like a jerk to the people who want to help him. I understand that Tony Stark is stubborn and has an ego but in the last movie he was able to do so and still be likable. Here he comes across as immature. While the image of a drunk Tony Stark sitting inside a giant donut in the iron man suit is funny, this journey with the heart condition feels like an unnecessary detour that slows down the movie significantly.
The idea of a superhero coming to terms with their mortality and something holding them back has been done before and much better. I believe the storyline with Tony's heart giving out is an interesting idea. It reminds me a little of Spider-Man 2, when Peter was losing his powers because of the mounting pressures of being Spider-Man. It was a good take on how the pressures of being a hero and doing the right thing can take their toll. I think the issue in this case is that while the issue with his heart effects Tony it does not affect Iron Man. What I mean by that is that it does not affect Tony in battle. When Tony first fights Vanko, it doesn't affect his performance at all, and he is able to defeat him. (More on Vanko later.) If it tied in more to the other plot threads of the film, it would have worked better. As is, this thread could have easily been cut from the film and would not have affected anything.
The Villain
Ivan Vanko (also known as Whiplash) is a Russian physicist who swore revenge on Tony Stark for the actions of his father that left Vanko's father disgraced and penniless. Vanko's father worked with Tony's father, Howard on the project for the Arc Reactor but was deported after Stark found out he had ulterior motives.
Vanko in the beginning of the film is shown building his own arc reactor to build a suit like Stark's Iron Man suit. His design was very cool, and he looked like a threat. Mickey Rourke is a pretty good choice for the role as he puts in a good performance and had momentum at the time having just come off the success of the movie The Wrestler.
Vanko attacks Tony at the Monaco Grand Prix. However, he is defeated and sent to jail. This is the immediate problem that hurts Vanko's standing as a villain. The fact that he is beaten in their first encounter makes him feel like less of a threat to Iron Man.
In many superhero movies, the introduction of the villain usually results in the hero defeating them but just barely doing so. For example, when Spider-Man first encounters Doc Ock he barely wins the encounter thanks to an assist from Aunt May. But even so, Doc Ock is not beaten decisively. He drops Aunt May which causes Spider-Man to save her and escapes. He still looks like a threat because Spider-Man was only able to best him but not defeat him.
The idea is that Vanko was limited by the technology that he had compared to Stark and if he had more advanced technology that he would have won. But for me, as soon as Tony bested him here my reaction was, “Well that was easy.” After that, I did not really care about what happened with Vanko next or even feared for Tony’s safety when he teams up with Hammer later. The concept of Whiplash is a cool idea. Another person who can create what Tony created is a good idea for a threatening villain. But the fact that he is bested so easily kills him right off the bat.
But another issue with Vanko is that he is not an interesting character and is very one dimensional. He just wants revenge on Tony and that’s what drives him. There’s no depth or complexities to him. Of course, that is not entirely his fault but more on that later. But what we do get with him is not very deep or interesting and he falls very flat as a villain. Even though Obadiah Stane was not the most interesting of villains, he at least served a purpose in Tony’s growth. Vanko does not really serve much purpose in Tony’s dilemmas in the film besides a physical obstacle to overcome but even then, he’s not even focused on enough to be that.
The Film's Pros
Black Widow
Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow is one of the most popular characters in the MCU and one of my favorites. I first became aware of her in The Avengers and thought she was an awesome character and empowering female character. I forgot until I went back to watch this that this was her debut movie. She debuts as Natalie Rushman, to seemingly be a new eye candy assistant. We get a glimpse of the real her when she flips Happy. But by the climax of the film, we get to see her really spring into action. While it is great to see her in action, there isn't as much in the film as we get in later Avengers films and in her own movie. But for the few moments that we get, it's awesome.
War Machine
Fun fact about me, I was introduced to War Machine before Iron Man. War Machine appeared in Spider-Man: The Animated Series and I always thought he was so cool. To be honest, in terms of design, I always preferred War Machine's design to Iron Man's. I thought with the extra artillery he looked more intimidating. So, when they teased the appearance of War Machine in the first movie, I was excited. When we finally got him and got to see him in action, it was awesome. Don Cheadle plays him this time around and as I said in the review of the first film, I do believe Cheadle puts in a better performance and has great chemistry with Downey. His comedic timing is great, and we see more of it in later movies. And although it isn’t very long, it is cool to see him and Iron Man battle side-by-side
The Film's Cons
Ivan Vanko...or lack thereof..
I mentioned before that Ivan Vanko falls flat as a villain but that it also not entirely his fault. The main issue that hurts him as a villain as well as hurts the film is the fact that we barely see him. I looked it up and Iron Man and Whiplash have a total of about 6 minutes of shared screen time. That is right, 6 minutes of screen time in a movie that is 2 hours and 5 minutes long. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder but too much absence makes one forget and that’s exactly what happened here.
It’s bad enough that we barely see him but what makes it worse is that when we do see him, again, he is not that threatening and is beaten easily. I made the argument before that when Tony beat him in his first encounter that they were going with the idea that he was limited by the technology that he had. But later, he teams up with Stark’s rival Hammer and creates these drones that are supposed to be a threat. So, with access to better technology, you would think now he would be a big threat that they were building towards, right? Nope.
In one of the lamest and most anti-climactic climaxes, Tony and Rhodey easily dispose of the drones. There is only one moment where it looks like Whiplash has them beat, but it’s not very long and if you blink and you miss it. They immediately come up with a plan to combine their blasts that beats him, so he decides to set the drones to self-destruct and blows them and himself to pieces, making him look like a chump and making him one of the most wasted villains in the MCU.
Too many plotlines
The biggest issue that hurts this movie is that there are too many plotlines going on that are never fully fleshed out. The ideas that they have are interesting enough that they could have been their own films. Tony being a celebrity as Iron Man but also dealing with the pressures from government and rivals to take his technology could have been its own movie. Tony’s struggle with himself and who his father was could have been its own film. Tony’s issue with his heart giving out could have been its own movie. Ivan Vanko wanting revenge on Tony could have been its own movie. These plotlines could have been much more interesting and engaging had they been allowed time to be fully fleshed out. But in trying to combine all these stories into one big story, they aren’t given the time they need and fall flat.
This film suffers the same issue as Spider-Man 3. Too much going on for its own good and in its quest to satisfy all these plot points, it ends up satisfying none of them. As a result, the audience is forced to jump from plot to plot, try and keep up with it, and because it is not fleshed out, it is not that interesting and doesn’t keep them engaged. Which is a real shame because these storylines have potential to be very interesting. The storyline of Tony’s alcoholism in the comics is a popular storyline. The Demon in the Bottle storyline dives into Tony's struggle with alcoholism and how it affects his work as Iron Man and his mental state. Tony accidentally kills an ambassador as result of his malfunctioning suit and begins drinking more to cope. It is a great tale of overcoming addiction and accepting help from others. Had it been made the focus of this film and they set aside the other plots, it could have made a for a great story, especially in parallel to Robert Downey Jr’s history of overcoming addiction. But as is, it is a glass half full kind of story that doesn’t fill up in the end.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, Iron Man 2 is a film that had potential with interesting ideas, but it never followed all the way through on them and falls flat.
Do I believe that this is one of the worst films ever? No.
Is this one of the worst superhero films ever? No.
Is this one of if not the worst film in the MCU? Yes. And there is a glaring issue that makes it that for me.
The biggest problem with this film and what puts at the bottom of my list of Marvel films is that in the grand scheme of the entire MCU, nothing that happens in this film really affects it. You can easily skip this movie and not miss anything major. Aside from the recasting of War Machine or even Black Widow’s debut, nothing of great importance is set into place here. As cool as it is to see her, even the debut of Black Widow is not major enough that you need to see this film. You could just assume that Avengers was her debut, and, in a way, it would be better as she is used much better in that film than in this one. This film is the definition of a filler movie.
This movie’s place in the MCU is so insignificant that I did not even bother showing it to my girlfriend. I watched this on my own to give it another chance to see if it was as bad as everyone says and while I do not think it is one of the worst movies I have ever seen, or even one of the worst superhero movies I have seen, it is the worst of the MCU films. It was a chore to sit through and although it was only 2 hours and 5 minutes, it felt longer. There was not enough interesting stuff to keep me engaged and anything that did have potential to be interesting was never fully fleshed out. As a regular movie, it’s adequate. There are some cool visuals and Robert Downey Jr. is still great as always. But for a film that takes place in an epic universe, this film is an unnecessary pit stop that you can easily skip.
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