Welcome back to the countdown. To finish off the day, I watched Iron Man 2.
Within the first few minutes of the film, Tony Stark welcomes me back like I’m an old friend. He’s still witty, sarcastic, and his own number one fan. But there’s a twist in this film; his palladium core arc reactor is rapidly deteriorating and if that goes, he goes with it. Once again we’re taken on a journey as Tony Stark fights for his life, while also defeating a few new bad guys who want his tech for their own.
There are a few things about this movie that makes it so different from the first one. Within this film, we already know Tony Stark and we’re used to his antics and his personality. Which makes us love him even more. For another thing, one of Tony Stark’s adversaries is a fellow physicist, who turns out has some of the same daddy issues that he does. Especially given the fact that their dad’s worked on a more sustainable version of the arc reactor back in their day.
One of his other adversaries, a man in the weapons industry, is another villain obsessed with outdoing Stark in everything he does. Justin Hammer of Hammer Industries takes a different approach to Obadiah in the first film; he joins with Stark’s new adversary. This makes the villain threat twice as dangerous and twice as smart. But along with the double villainy, we get a further look into the beginnings of SHIELD.
Iron Man 2 introduces a beloved female character, Natasha Romanoff, portrayed as a sexy secretary who’s really just keeping tabs on Stark. Her relationship and repertoire with Stark, as well as Pepper Potts, provides us a really good peep into the badassery and complexity of Black Widow, while also giving it’s female viewers a sense of “Oh hey, I could do that”.
Lastly, this movie introduces us to Don Cheadle’s take on James Rhodes, Stark’s ballsy but loyal best friend who by the end of the film, officially becomes War Machine. This makes for a movie full of new relationships with old information, but also another journey in finding humanity and life within Tony Stark.
Definitely a 12/10 would recommend, and on to the next one!