With a somewhat jumbled script disappointing fans of the 2008 Iron Man, the new film does arrive with the same qualities that made the original such a delight. Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark has a twitchy intelligence, an impish need for attention and a tendency to let his dark moments of the soul to play out amid goofy, drunken debauchery. His nemeses are Sam Rockwell, as another weapons industrialist nipping at his heels, and Mickey Rourke, as a Russian baddie with Iron Man-like abilities and zero need to be beloved. Iron Man 2 has its glitches—over-emphasis on technological mumbo-jumbo that stretches the credibility of even a comic book movie to advance the plot—but the Iron Man franchise has a fun buoyancy and a refreshing lack of self-importance.
This article appears in May 13-19, 2010.
This film maintains the playful exuberance that the original had, and just added a bit of Summer Movie DNA. Bigger explosions, bigger characters, bigger set pieces. I think the original garnered the critical attention it did because the characters were the focus of the film, but 2 reverts to the typical superhero film genre.
It’s not Iron Man 1, but because Robert Downey Jr is so bloody likable, it works.