Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots

Rating: Null/10 (9 May 2010)

Perhaps because he is primarily an actor, director Jon Favreau graciously gives actor Robert Downey Jr room to run wild in "Iron Man 2". Favreau, who even plays Downey's servant within the film, turns the reigns almost entirely over to his leading man, every sequence designed to both make him look good, and submit us to his iron will.
Indeed, Downey isn't just "Iron Man" in this film, he's a manic God, manipulating machines, computers, TV screens, existing 3 steps above the rest of his cast and outsmarting everyone, either physically or via witty comments. And when Iron Man's not dancing on stages, applauded by audiences or wooing women, he's taking part in action sequences which first require him to order disc jockey's to fire up some music. Every thing Downey does here is self-consciously a theatrical performance. Ironic meta-acting taken to the extreme, no longer does the action hero merely wink at the audience ("Indiana Jones", "Die Hard" etc). No, meta has gone one step more meta, the actor now playing the god, playing the god, playing the god in the machine. It's not only a question of super-reflexivity, of postmodern irony squared, but rather, a kind of contempt for all material. With plot pastiched to hell, reinvigoration has nowhere else to go but inward, the actor now as fragmented and cut-and-pasted as the film he's in.
Compensating for this fragmentation is Downey's own need to dominate. His need to be the deity outside the character playing the character playing the character. Compare this to the straight faced Joker in "Dark Knight" who, despite supposedly being an anarchist, looks completely old-school next to the freewheeling Downey (or Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow).
Interestingly, unlike most superheroes, "Iron Man" has no need for anonymity. He's pure ego, allowed to be a celebrity, a public figure, a playboy, a rich kid, a toy maker, an invincible muscle man, a billionaire industrialist and a one man military industrial complex. While most superheroes function as power fantasies, "Iron Man" goes several steps beyond. He's a very white, Western, 21st century fantasy. A celebrity superhero for the reality TV generation; everyone must know his name.
Whilst Favreau is gracious to Downey, submitting the film to the actor's improvisational talents, he also provides space for his film's other heavyweights – Sam Rockwell and Mickey Rourke - to run wild. Rockwell hams things up, Rourke goes to Brando lengths to internalise his character and Don Cheadle projects his usual air of noble earnestness. Beyond this, all three characters are poorly written.
Surprisingly, the film rectifies the big mistake of the first "Iron" film in that it mercilessly removes much of its dull action scenes. Aside from one surprisingly good sequence in which actress Scarlett Johansen engages in a bit of martial artistry – the best pop-corn wire-work since the Nightcrawler sequence which opens "X-Men 2" – the film downplays action in favour for sitcom level rapid fire banter. This has ticked off audiences, but spectacle is largely dead. Most recent films praised for their action ("Avatar" et al) are completely inept, turgid and/or outdated.
Of course, thematically the film is horrendous. At times it looks as though Faverau wants to use Rourke as a tool to highlight Western blow-back, the hypocrisy of peacekeepers like Iron Man and their dark pasts, but the film steers clear of these things. It knows that treating the Rourke character seriously would take things in a direction audiences can't handle, so Rourke is repeatedly pushed off into the sidelines. The result is the usual Hollywood fascism: a message of anti-militarism married to gleeful explosions, hardware and mayhem.
7.5/10 – "Iron Man 2" is all about Robert Downey's iron penis. About performance. About a kind of self-conscious, actorly domination, Downey dazzling us as he goes off on his insane jazz rifts. Now all the franchise needs is Shane Black and an R rating ala "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang".
Worth one viewing.