Ok. So that’s wasn’t entirely as awful as I remember. Actually until about halfway through, I thought maybe I was too hard on it. But it really falls apart right around Tony’s birthday party.
They had some pretty interesting concepts introduced in the beginning but fumble the ball about halfway down the field. (That’s a thing, right?) First off, the idea of the government wanting Tony’s suit. Obviously we find out later that Senator Stern (Gary Shandling) may have ulterior motives here, but the general idea actually flows well into the MCU. To whom is Tony Stark accountable and is he responsible enough to hold this power? Seeing how Ultron and Civil War play out, it’s nice to see this kernel laid early in the MCU. Of course, it’s never really mentioned again after this film. I guess the government was content to have their War Machine and just call it even.
Next up: Tony’s lingering threat of death. This could have been a rich look at the character as he falls into nihilism and more of his dark side is exposed. Of course like Spider-Man 3, why explore pathos when you can be silly? I feel this was a studio mandated change. Originally when the first film came out, I believe Favreau said they would tackle Tony’s personal issues, like his alcoholism in later films. I think they got gun-shy and decided to give his bad behavior a different motivation. And even then, his dark side consists of getting drunk and peeing in his suit. The music in that party scene as he’s blowing apart the champagne bottles is supposed to create tension. Give us anxiety. But in all honesty, if this is the worst Tony can do with such colossal power, it’s pretty weak sauce.
Onto SHIELD! Obviously SHIELD folded better into the Captain America series because I’m not entirely sure what their motivation is in this film. What was Black Widow’s mission exactly? She said she was a shadow but I find it hard to believe a trained assassin and psychological manipulator like her would be tasked with a babysitting job. She seemed to be steering Tony towards his dark impulses, but why? To force him to hit rock bottom so they can rally him at the end? It was good to get more Fury but in retrospect he seemed more out of character in this film. Obviously at the time we only had one scene with him. But both at the donut shop and Stark’s house, he seems really flippant and jokey. More Samuel L. Jackson than Nick Fury
Ah the villains. Marvel is really hitting its stride now. In both Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk we had villains set up promisingly but turned into cliches by film’s end. Here I never really took either Vanko or Hammer seriously. Vanko’s plan is to take revenge on Tony for how Howard betrayed his father. Ok. The problem is we don’t really get anything other than that log line at the beginning. Add to that Rourke’s propensity to just be weird, and the Vanko character seems like such a waste and completely forgettable. As for Hammer, he’s a poorer copy of Stane from the first film. He dances. I guess that’s a plus.
Overall the film is not a total waste of two hours, but it’s easily skippable as it really adds nothing to the overall franchise other than some character notes: Tony and Pepper start dating, intro to Black Widow, Coulson is gonna be in Thor! I’m going to rate this 5/10. Downey is still fun to watch but there’s not much else here. Even the action scenes seems perfunctory with little to no tension in them. This won’t be the last generic army of robots that will take to the skies in the finale. And Vanko did it without a super-intelligent AI!
Current rankings:
1) Iron Man
2) The Incredible Hulk
3) Iron Man 2
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