If more of a good thing is always better, Iron Man 2 is a huge success.
Villains? Twice as many as in the first movie. Two and a half, if you count Garry Shandling’s vile bureaucratic caricature of a senator.
Potential love interests for Robert Downey, Jr.’s charmingly egomaniacal billionaire genius Tony Stark? Double the fun there, as well. Scarlett Johansson’s Natalie Rushman is added to the mix as Stark’s new assistant when he promotes the long-suffering Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) to CEO of Stark Industries. The sexual chemistry the trailers play up for Downey and Johansson is pretty fleeting, but in Johansson, the filmmakers perform much the same trick as the Wachowskis did with Keanu Reeves in The Matrix: they take an actor of limited emotional range and turn wooden acting into badass stoicism.
Director Jon Favreau and screenwriter Justin Theroux up the ante on the action as well. Explosions? At least an order of magnitude more. There’s also an extra Iron Man thrown into the mix once Rhodey (Don Cheadle, an introspective improvement to the character over Terrence Howard) suits up.
And then there’s the army of robots. Did I mention that a lot of things blow up? Best of all, Samuel L. Jackson gets an upgrade from a post-credit cameo to full supporting player, and more Sam Jackson is almost always welcome.
Is all that too much of a whole lot of good things? Sometimes, yes. In the quest to do things bigger, louder, and faster than its predecessor, Iron Man 2‘s excess can get a little… excessive. But this is still miles ahead of the average summer festival of fireballs, owing in large part to the great ensemble and the snappy dialogue Theroux gives them to deliver. Favreau continues to impress, a rare action director who places an emphasis on performance over effects.
Not that the thrills get short shrift. Just as important to its success, his battle sequences buck the current Michael Bay-approved vogue for quick cutting action so frenetic that you forget which blur is the good guy and which is the bad guy. Make no mistake, this is still a frivolous summer thrill ride, but with whipsmart writing and a real visual elegance.
