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Iron Man 2
Release Date: May 7, 2010
Stand-Out Character: Justin Hammer (played by Sam Rockwell)
Best Scene: Iron Man & War Machine vs. Hammer Drones

Here's the very underwhelming Iron Man 2. There's just so much lacking in this movie and I really can't believe that they didn't do better with it. So many pieces just don't work.

Iron Man 2 is about the government wanting Stark's Iron Man tech to make their own fleet of them and Tony Stark refusing to give it up. Meanwhile, his tech rival Justin Hammer enlists in a vengeful Ivan Vanko, who hates Tony Stark because his father took credit for his arc reactor tech. Tony Stark manages to upgrade his arc reactor in his chest to keep it from poisoning him and killing him while Ivan Vanko attempts to kill Stark, ultimately leading to Iron Man and War Machine beating him, and Stark cementing his love for Pepper Potts.

So I guess we'll just go ahead and talk about what's good in this movie, and virtually the ONLY reason I hold it in any regard:

Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer is absolutely perfect. For the love of god, get Justin Hammer back. I don't care how. Justin Hammer is the shining gem in this movie because every scene he has, he just manages to chew the scenery as well as Robert Downey Jr. The only difference is that while Tony Stark is a cool, suave tech head, Justin Hammer is anything but that, but he wants so badly to be that. He's obsessed with becoming the next Tony Stark, and he is so awkward and bad at it. It's a masterclass how well he pulls it off. My favorite scene of his is where he's trying to sell the military on add-ons for the Stark Tech.

My other favorite scene is where Hammer is completely fed up with Vanko wasting his money and just starts screaming at him and having a meltdown, commanding his men to take his clothes and his bird. "I just took your stuff. How does that make you feel? Does it make you feel bad? Good. BECAUSE THAT'S HOW I FEEL!" He's a total jackass, borderline incompetent, but he has that ruthlessness in him when it comes down to it to make up for his lack of talent, but he's shooting way above what he and his company is capable of.

Ivan Vanko is also kind of here. He spends the majority of the movie sitting in a computer room which is kind of the problem with it all. He's just some kind of Russian super hacker hanging out in a white room when he should be more present. But Mickey Rourke does a great job with Vanko, and he comes across as evil and surprisingly clever. He completely plays Hammer for a fool to try and kill Tony Stark and completely takes over all of his drones. The Whiplash stuff is also way too cool to have been relegated to two scenes.

And of course Robert Downey Jr. also does an incredible job. It's Tony Stark doing Tony Stark things and you can't really go wrong. He's a fun, eccentric billionaire being a dick to people and it's really just great. When he has more serious moments too, it works. And even when he's blasting stuff at his party, drunk off his ass, it works too. A visual that sticks with me is Tony Stark driving with a giant diorama of the Stark Expo hanging out of his convertible.

Samuel L. Jackson also gets more play in this movie and it's a delight. He's really a perfect Nick Fury and really comes across like the smartest guy in the room next to Tony Stark and knows precisely what to do and say to get him to get his shit together. Every scene with Nick Fury is just awesome and a pleasure to have him here.

That's it for what I liked, so let's jump into the issues this movie has. This plot is kind of executed horribly. We have a two plot points here: Tony is dying of his arc reactor; Justin Hammer and Ivan Vanko want to defeat Tony Stark--Justin in business and Vanko in taking his life. Neither of these end up doing well.

Tony Stark just doesn't go far enough with the self-destructive part of this. He gets drunk at a party, sure. But there's really not enough that makes me think he's gone so far over the deep end aside from putting people in danger there and it does lead to the blow up between him and Rhodey. I think they should have made Tony Stark just be more reckless somehow when saving the day, because good god could we have used more excuses for Tony Stark to save the day.

Concerning Vanko, I touched on it a bit, but he's just not doing anything for the majority of the movie. While it was nice to give a close focus on the character of Tony Stark, this movie suffers from spending too much time on that and not enough on him just being a hero. Vanko gets little to do in this and it's such a shame because Mickey Rourke is just great.

Scarlett Johansson is also kind of a drawback because man, did she ever not feel herself in this role enough. She's completely uninteresting and although I do love her one fight scene in this, she has zero charisma in the role. I know she grows into it more, but it was rough in this one.

I think that Pepper Potts and Tony Stark's relationship evolves fine in this as well. The problem is that it's just more of the same as the previous movie. We don't go too far except for her being a bit upset at Tony but not tremendously so? I mean, it works because they have a lot of chemistry but it's just not stand-out to me.

I touched on the lack of action, and I feel like mentioning that again because the action we do get works for the most part, but really only at the end of the movie. I don't love the scene with Iron Man vs. Whiplash at the beginning, and I think that the Iron Man vs. War Machine fight is lacking too (as well as feeling a little bit forced). But when you get to the Hammer Drone attack, and then Hammer Drones vs. Iron Man & War Machine, it's really awesome. But we're way too far into the movie for that. Worse yet, the showdown between Vanko and Stark/Rhodes is so short. You can yawn and miss the whole thing it feels like. Completely underwhelming final fight.

Overall, it's not a great movie, but there's some things that save it--mainly great performances from folks to carry the movie along in what is otherwise a rather forgettable installment of the MCU. But for real, give us Justin Hammer back if you take anything else from this film. He's too good for Iron Man 2.

Girlfriend Thoughts: She still really likes Tony Stark and everything landed there from him. She was flabbergasted at Elon Musk appearing in this too. She was kind of bored but also really liked Samuel L. Jackson too. She didn't get a kick out of Justin Hammer as much as me though, but she loved the "I call it the Ex-Wife" line about the missile he was showing off. She was also really disappointed in the final fight with Vanko too. For some reason she was also really confused about whether or not Hammer really got Vanko's bird too and asked me multiple times if that was really his bird or not. She wasn't a huge fan, overall.