Review of Iron Man 2 (2010) by Jake C — 14 Jan 2019

As the first true sequel in the Marvel series, despite only being the third entry in their cinematic pantheon, the movie (like its titular character) is asked to perform two roles at once, only one of which the filmmakers manage particularly well.

On the one hand, in its most interesting albeit underdeveloped moments, the movie attempts to massively expand the scope of the overall Marvel universe, working as something of a reset after the faint intimations barely hinted at in either of the two previous entries. On the whole, though the movie itself is hardly memorable, there are a number of memorable elements, even if we have forgotten their origin: The confused, practically incestuous history of SHIELD; the Eastern Bloc nexus of bad guys (which replace the more clichï¿ 1/2 (C) Middle Eastern terrorists) and its Cold War allegory; characters like Black Widow, Happy, and War Machine are introduced or fleshed out. Most importantly, though, the film inaugurates the central driving topos of the entire Avengers initiative, the struggle to deal with the political consequences of the existence of super heroes. As will be re-litigated again and again over the following decade, these heroes do not exist in a closed universe, but their very existence has reverberations: After the emergence and success of Iron Man (or, more broadly, after IRON MAN), more heroes and more villains will ineluctably arise in turn and time, with new organizations needed in response.

On the other hand, however, though it greatly enlarges the palette future Marvel movies will work from, on its own merits IRON MAN 2 struggles to move beyond its own name. By and large, this is the same character arc---Tony Stark the narcissist must be humbled, learning to devote himself to the higher cause of other people---as in the first film, repeated in a less interesting (because there is less room for growth) way. In lieu of Tony learning to make his own suit, though, here you get a second Iron Man entirely in the form of War Machine (who also gives us our second actor to play Rhodey). While the schtick still works, it's just not as memorable or entertaining the second time through, at least not as a sequel---though as the real full-blown beginning in a sequence, it aptly kicks off what we now think of as the MCU, even if we forget where it started.