Iron Man 2 marked the first MCU film to function as direct sequel to another. Production on this movie began not long after the release of Iron Man (2008). In fact, production began the same month as that movie's release.
In this sequel, after revealing that he is Iron Man, Tony Stark is letting the fame of being Iron Man go straight to his head. At the same time, he learns that the arc reactor that is keeping him alive is also slowly killing him. Worried about his health he appoints his assistant and love interest Pepper Potts to become CEO of Stark Industries. His stress about his failing health and the pressure of being a superhero is getting to him to the point where is developing a real alcohol problem. Things truly get out of hand though when a man with similar technology to him and ties to his father decides to seek revenge on Tony Stark and the Stark name.
Though this may not live up to the greatness of the first film, there is quite a bit about this movie to like. The character exploration of Tony Stark is wonderful here. This movie greatly delves into his flaws. Through this we get to understand him better as a human being and what makes Tony Stark who he is. Even as we delve into his flaws, we also get a good glimpse at why he is still a hero despite them. Of course, Robert Downey Jr.'s performance adds so much to this as he is able to add a lot of humanity to any role he plays. The rest of the cast is great as well. Gwyneth Paltrow is once again wonderful as Tony's assistant/love interest. Don Cheadle does a great job replacing Terrence Howard as Tony's best buddy. Samuel L. Jackson is wonderful as always. Scarlett Johanson is already stealing the show in her first appearance as Black Widow. Sam Rockwell and Mickey Rourke make great villains. This movie also benefits from very strong and exciting action scenes. The climatic action scene is especially wonderful.
This film is however quite messy at times. What made the first film so wonderful is that it had a simple straightforward story with no excess. This sequel however tries to do too much. There is the effect of Tony's fame, his declining health, the government accusing him of having unlawful weapons, the romance between him and Pepper Potts, his fight with his best friend, his alcoholism, Pepper Potts taking over the company, the introduction of Black Widow and of course the main villain's story. This is a whole lot to do over the course of one movie. The result is that it can often feel unfocused and overlong (even if it is one minute shorter than the first movie). The parts are often quite good, but they don't always work together to create a better whole.
Today for fans of Superhero movies, Scarlett Johansson and Black Widow are one in the same. Yet she was not the first choice to play the character. Emily Blunt was quite heavily considered for the role, but scheduling conflicts arose because of her appearing in Gulliver's Travels (2010). Blunt was very disappointed in this and would state about losing this role, "Because I just have to do this Fox movie, and it's fine and I'm gonna have fun. The whole beginning of the year has been rather dramatic, so I'd just rather go in with fresh eyes and know that I've made the right decision. You just don't know until it's all finished and done with, do you?" Scarlett Johansson greatly wanted the role and heavily lobbied for it. Johansson would state, “People were surprised that I wanted to play a comic book heroine, but I loved Iron Man, and I met with Marvel to see what was possible. I had done my research, and the Black Widow character resonated with me. She is dark and has faced death so many times that she has a deep perspective on the value of life. In the sequel, you learn more about the sadness in her past.” She added “I think of her that way. Black Widow is a superhero, but she’s also human. She’s small, but she’s strong. It’s hard not to admire her.”
Terrence Howard not reprising his role in this movie was not due to Howard not wanting to reprise his role. He was the first actor hired for Iron Man and therefore paid the largest salary. When the second film came about, Marvel Studios decided to not pay him anywhere near as much. Howard stated, “We did a three-picture deal. So that means, you did the deal ahead of time. It was going to be a certain amount for the first one, a certain amount for the second, certain amount for the third. They came to me [for] the second and said, ‘We will pay you one-eighth of what we contractually had for you, because we think the second one will be successful with or without you.’ And I called my friend that I helped get the first job, and he didn’t call me back for three months.”
Director Jon Favreau returned for this sequel. However, the film's main writer was someone completely new to Marvel. Justin Theroux had written the script for Tropic Thunder (2008), which also featured Robert Downey Jr and Downey recommended him to Marvel.
Having worked as a storyboard artist on this film was none other than Genndy Tartakovsky. Genndy Tartakovsky is well known to animation fans as the creator of Dextor's Laboratory and Samurai Jack as well as the director of the first three Hotel Transylvania movies and Fixed (2025). About working with him Jon Favreau stated " I had Genndy Tartakovsky. I’ve always liked SAMURAI JACK and I loved his CLONE WARS vignettes that he did. I’ve always liked his work, a lot. And I had met with him, we had lunch together just because I enjoy his stuff and I wanted to meet him. I really dig his sense of humor and his sense of rhythm, and the way that he acknowledges the same cinematic masters that I really love the work of, like (Akira) Kurosawa and (Sergio) Leone. And he finds a way to pastiche it without ever undermining the stakes or the reality of the tension that’s created in his action sequences. Now clearly his stuff is a bit broad for a live action film but I love his rhythm and his attention to detail. It has a real comic booky feel but yet it feels cinematic and not gimmicky and even his cartoons feel… there’s an elegance to them. So in this process as we’re storyboarding and designing sequences he and his team have come in and I’m working with them and they’re working on collaborating with us on the project and that’s a new wrinkle and it allows me… I feel like I’m really learning a lot from collaborating with this guy. And then he has the original IRON MAN film to draw from and he also has a pretty deep knowledge of Marvel. So, he is transitioning into live-action features, which I have no doubt in collaborating with him that he will. There’s a transition that he’s making that hopefully I could be helpful with and at the same time as I move from dialogue and character and story-driven filmmaking I’m able to understand the way to approach action in an interesting and elegant way. So, it’s been a very, very fun collaboration so far."
Iron Man 2 was a box office success and at the time had the fifth highest box office weekend opening. The movie went on to be the tenth highest grossing movie of 2010. Critics were mostly positive, feeling that overall, it was a good movie but not exceptional the way its predecessor was.
Resources Used
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/terrence-howard-accuses-robert-downey-656521/
https://www.wmagazine.com/story/scarlett-johansson-new-mom-the-avengers
https://web.archive.org/web/20090302132621/http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_movies_blog/2009/02/emily-blunt-on-losing-black-widow.html
https://variety.com/2009/film/news/emily-blunt-rumored-for-iron-man-2-1117998515/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1228705/
https://legacy.aintitcool.com/node/38907
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