Iron Man 2 (John Favreau 2009)

Some of what was nice about the first part is missing here – in other cases, it is that you can use an element only once, second time around it seems stale. Example for the former: doubt, inner conflict, possibility of failure. Example of latter: cool wisecracking billionaire as lead hero.

I know some may disagree with me, because all franchises build on repetittion, but then again I believe that most franchises are terribly boring because they fail to bring character innovation.

If you are dealing with a character like Tony Stark who is drawn as a remarkable personality on which the film builds, but do not change this character over the period of several movies, then your story needs to get stronger every time around. You can only stick with nondescript storylines if your main chracter is weak and does not overshadow the plot (as in Superman, maybe, where the hero basically is dull, but which allows for focus on plot and action).

The plot of Iron Man 2 is forgettable. Even the addition of a character with revenge in his heart (usually good) is oddly underused, because Mickey Rourke apparently was only given three shooting days, so he is strangely absent from the film. The plot line of stealing technology, the ruthless father figure … left abandoned.

Instead we watch some robot skeleton armies beating the crap out of each other. That is a bit too much Ray Harryhausen and not enough … well: Iron Man (1) for its own good. I felt bored.

Iron Man 2 Movie Reviews, Pictures – Rotten Tomatoes.