Tony Stark has revealed his identity as Iron Man and is resisting calls by the United States government to hand over the technology. Ivan Vanko has developed the same technology, creating new challenges for Stark.
The film premiered in Los Angeles, California, on April 26, 2010 and in France on April 28, 2010. It is due to be released in the United States on May 7, 2010.
Plot
The beginning of the movie features an old man lying on his death bed watching Tony Stark on television, as he reveals to the world that he is Iron Man. He calls his son to his side and they speak in Russian about Stark before the old man dies. The son, Ivan Vanko, wants to destroy Stark and gets to work building an arc reactor.
Six months after the end of the first movie, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) has used his Iron Man armor as a nuclear deterrent, and a means of maintaining world peace. Stark is still vilified by the United States government, and Senator Stern (Gary Shandling) in particular, who demands that he hand his armor technology over to the United States government, for military application. Stark refuses, publicly shaming rival Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) in demonstrating how rival states and groups are at least five years away from successfully recreating the technology.
All is not well in Stark's life: he has discovered that the palladium in the arc reactor keeping his heart beating has begun to leak into his body and is poisoning him, raising his blood toxicity levels and slowly killing him. All attempts to find a substitute element have failed. Slowly going off the rails as a consequence of what he believes to be his impending death, he appoints his former personal assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) CEO of Stark Industries, replacing her with Natalie Rushman (Scarlett Johansson).
While racing his own team's Formula 1 car in Monaco, Stark is attacked by Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), wielding a pair of electrified whips that are powered by an arc reactor of his own. Defeating Vanko with the aid of his Mark V armor (a transforming briefcase), Stark discovers that Vanko is the son of disgraced Russian physicist Anton Vanko, who collaborated on the first arc reactor with Stark's father Howard (John Slattery). Anton had wanted to use the arc to earn money, and so Howard had him deported back to Russia, where he subsequently died and passed on the technology to his son, who swore revenge against the Stark family. Vanko is promptly broken out of jail by a revenge-seeking Justin Hammer, who puts him to work fashioning a line of "Hammer battle suits" that he will use to upstage Stark at his own Expo. However, Vanko decides to transform these battle suits into "Hammer drones", replacing the helmet assemblies with drone heads.
With the government coming down on him even harder, Stark throws what he believes will be his last birthday party and proceeds to get drunk whilst wearing the Iron Man armor, becoming a danger to himself and others. His friend Lt. Colonel James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) is forced to wear the Mark II armor and subdue him, after which he confiscates the armor for the military. The disgraced Stark is approached by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) of S.H.I.E.L.D, who reveals Natalie to be an undercover S.H.I.E.L.D. agent named Natasha Romanoff, assigned to keep an eye on Stark. Fury also reveals that Howard Stark was a founding member of S.H.I.E.L.D. and provides Stark with a chest of his father's old artifacts that can hopefully be used to find a cure for his palladium poisoning. Reviewing the film reels in the chest, Stark discovers a message from his father that leads him to the original 1974 diorama of the Stark Expo: in reality, a disguised diagram for the atomic structure of a new element. Stark hand-builds a particle accelerator with the aid of his computer J.A.R.V.I.S. (voiced by Paul Bettany) and synthesizes this new element. The newly synthesized element is then loaded into a modified arc reactor chest piece, and cures Stark's palladium poisoning. Vanko then calls Stark and taunts him, revealing that he is still set on revenge and plans to assault the Stark Expo.
At Stark Expo, Hammer unveils his new military drones, captained by Rhodes in a heavily-weaponized version of the confiscated Mark II armor, now referred to as the Variable Threat Response Battle-suit. Stark arrives at the expo in his new Mark VI armor, attempting to warn Rhodes, but Vanko takes complete control of both the drones and Rhodes's new armor and attacks Iron Man. As Stark battles against these remote-controlled enemies, Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) and Natalie race to Hammer's Queens facility to stop Vanko. By the time they arrive, Vanko has already departed for the Expo in a new, more powerful suit of armor, but Natalie is able to hack through Vanko's control terminal and gives Rhodes control of his armor again so that he and Stark can fight the drones and Vanko together. The two armored allies draw the drones away from populated areas and into the Japanese garden within the Stark Expo grounds, and together defeat the Hammer drones.
They then confront Vanko, who has developed a powerful suit of armor for himself based on a Hammer battle suit but incorporating scaled-up plasma whips that he used against Stark earlier. After a short but intense battle, Vanko is defeated. A slowly dying Vanko cynically chuckles 'You lose' and a ticking sound is heard. His armor and drones are revealed to have had their arc reactors rigged for a self-destruct sequence. As they begin to go off, Stark races to save Pepper, rescuing her at the last minute. After landing on a roof she quits her CEO position, and the two finally kiss. Rhodes leaves with the War Machine armor despite Stark's objection, determined to keep the armor for national security purposes.
At a debriefing, Fury informs Stark that while Stark is "unsuitable" for the "Avengers Initiative", S.H.I.E.L.D. wants Iron Man as a consultant. He agrees on the condition that Senator Stern present him and Rhodes with medals for bravery.
In a post-credits scene, S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) is seen driving to a remote impact crater in the New Mexico desert. He then informs Fury over the phone that they've "found it" as the camera zooms to Thor's hammer.
Cast
Robert Downey Jr., as Tony Stark / Iron Man: The billionaire who, after being held captive, escaped with a suit of armor he created and now uses an upgraded version to make the world a better place.
Don Cheadle as Lt. Colonel James "Rhodey" Rhodes / War Machine:Cheadle replaces Terrence Howard from the first film. Howard said, "There was no explanation, apparently the contracts that we write and sign aren't worth the paper that they're printed on sometimes. Promises aren't kept, and good faith negotiations aren't always held up." Entertainment Weekly stated Favreau did not enjoy working with Howard, often re-shooting and cutting his scenes; Howard's publicist said he had a good experience playing the part, while Marvel chose not to comment. As Favreau and Theroux chose to minimize the role, Marvel came to Howard to discuss lowering his salary – Howard was the first actor hired in Iron Man and earned the largest salary of the cast. The publication stated they were unsure whether Howard's representatives left the project first or if Marvel chose to stop negotiating.Theroux denied the part of the report stating "the role of War Machine was scaled back and then beefed up". Cheadle only had a few hours to accept the role and did not even know what storyline Rhodes would undergo. He commented he is a comic book fan, but had not previously participated in comics-themed films due to the lack of black superheroes.
Scarlett Johansson as Natalie Rushman / Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow: An undercover spy for S.H.I.E.L.D. posing as Stark's assistant. Johansson was cast after a scheduling conflict forced Emily Blunt to drop out of the part.
Gwyneth Paltrow as Virginia "Pepper" Potts: Stark's closest friend, budding love interest, and business partner after Pepper replaced Obadiah Stane as CEO of Stark Industries.
Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer: Stark's new business rival, and one of the primary antagonists of the film. Rockwell was considered for the role of Tony Stark in the first film, and he accepted the role of Hammer without reading the script. He had never heard of the character before he was contacted about the part, and was unaware Hammer is an old man in the comics, whereas in the film he will be significantly closer to Stark's age.Rockwell says his character is "plucky comic relief, but he’s got a little bit of an edge".
Mickey Rourke as Ivan Vanko: This version of the character includes elements of both Blacklash and Crimson Dynamo from the comics. In the film, he serves as one of the main antagonists, and is the son of Russian scientist Anton Vanko, who, in the comics, is the original Crimson Dynamo and creator of said armor. As the son of a Soviet physicist, Ivan Vanko designed his own repulsor-based weapon to enact vengeance on Stark. Downey offered Rourke the part during a roundtable discussion with David Ansen at the 2009 Golden Globes, and Rourke met with Favreau and Theroux to discuss his character's role. Rourke almost dropped out of the role due to Marvel's initial salary offer of $250,000, so the studio chose to increase the deal. Rourke researched for the part by visiting Butyrka prison. He suggested half of the character's dialogue be in Russian.
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury: Jackson initially had financial problems with Marvel and was unsure about reprising the part of Fury, until they reached a deal that would entail his appearance in up to nine films as the character.
Jon Favreau reprises his role as Happy Hogan,Tony Stark's bodyguard and chauffeur. John Slattery appears as Howard Stark, Tony's father. Garry Shandling appears as Senator Stern, a senator who wants Stark to give Iron Man's armor to the government. Paul Bettany again voices Stark's computer, JARVIS. Clark Gregg reprises his role as S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Phil Coulson from the first film. Leslie Bibb also reprises her role as reporter Christine Everhart. Kate Mara appears as a US Marshal. Olivia Munn appears as Chess Roberts, a reporter covering the Stark expo.Stan Lee appears as talk show host Larry King (although he is credited as "himself"). Adam Goldstein (a.k.a DJ AM) makes an appearance as himself and the film is dedicated in his memory.
Production
Development
Jon Favreau meeting with members of the U.S. Air Force while filming at Edwards AFB
Jon Favreau said it was his intent to create a film trilogy for Iron Man, with Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) becoming Iron Monger during the sequels. After a meeting between Favreau and various comic book writers, including Mark Millar, Stane became the main villain in Iron Man. Millar argued the Mandarin, whom Favreau originally intended to be the main villain, was too fantastical. Favreau concurred, deciding "I look at Mandarin more like how in Star Wars you had the Emperor, but Darth Vader is the guy you want to see fight. Then you work your way to the time when lightning bolts are shooting out of the fingers and all that stuff could happen. But you can't have what happened in Return of the Jedi happen in A New Hope. You just can't do it."
Following Emily Blunt's exit from the production other actresses considered included Angelina Jolie, Gemma Arterton, Natalie Portman, Jessica Biel and Sienna Miller.
In an interview with USA Today, director Jon Favreau revealed that the sequel is set six months after the events of Iron Man. Favreau also discussed how their version of Iron Man's comic book nemesis the Mandarin "allows us to incorporate the whole pantheon of villains". He also mentioned that S.H.I.E.L.D. will continue to have a major role.
During development, Favreau said the film would explore Stark's alcoholism, but it would not be "the Demon in a Bottle version". Downey said, while promoting the first film, that Stark would probably develop a drinking problem as he is unable to cope with his age, the effects of revealing he is Iron Man, as well as Pepper getting a boyfriend.Before filming began, Downey revealed that while the film was not an adaptation of the Demon in a Bottle storyline from the comic book series, it was more about the "interim space" between the origin and the Demon story arc.
[edit]Pre-production
Justin Theroux signed to write the script in July 2008, which is based on a story written by Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. Theroux co-wrote Tropic Thunder, and Downey recommended him to Marvel. Genndy Tartakovsky storyboarded the film. Shane Black gave some advice on the script, and suggested to Favreau and Downey that they model Stark on J. Robert Oppenheimer, who became depressed with being "the destroyer of worlds" after working on the Manhattan Project.Adi Granov returned to supervise the designs for Iron Man's armor. Filming primarily took place at Raleigh Studios in Manhattan Beach, California.
Filming
Principal photography began April 6, 2009, at the Pasadena Masonic Temple. The fake working title was Rasputin.[40] Filming also took place at Edwards Air Force Base and also at the 2009 Monaco Grand Prix. In an interview with Complex actress Olivia Munn revealed that she had been given another part and reshoots involving her scenes had taken place stating; "Actually, they just gave me another role in the film. I had to reshoot all of my scenes.... as they started to edit they realized it was becoming darker than what they'd expected and what my scenes had allowed for. My parts were lighthearted and comedic. Jon Favreau called and was like, 'I've got good news and bad news: This is what's happening in editing but we all really like you.' Marvel and Jon had to add another character from the Marvel universe to keep me included".
Soundtrack
AC/DC: Iron Man 2
AC/DC will be providing the soundtrack to Iron Man 2, being released by Columbia Records on Monday, April 19, 2010[44]. There are at least three different versions: basic, special, and deluxe. The basic edition includes just the CD and can only be bought at Walmart (in USA). The standard edition comes with the 15-track CD, a 32-page booklet, and a DVD featuring exclusive interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, and music videos. The deluxe version is available at Amazon.com and includes a reproduction of one of Iron Man's first appearances in a comic book.
The original score for the film was composed by John Debney. Tom Morello, who previously worked with Ramin Djawadi on the first movie, returned to work with Debney on the sequel. According to an article on Hollywoodreporter.com, Sony Classical will release the Iron Man 2 Original Motion Picture Score album separately from the AC/DC album. John Debney confirmed via Twitter that the score will be released July 7, 2010.
[edit]Marketing
At the 2009 San Diego Comic Con, a five minute teaser trailer for the movie was shown. Actors portraying Stark Industries recruiters handed out business cards with an invitation to apply for a job at Stark Industries. [46] A website for Stark Industries also went online, with an attached graphic of a "napkin memo" from Tony Stark to Pepper Potts announcing that Stark Industries no longer made weapons. Another section featured an online application. It was confirmed that the first Iron Man 2 theatrical trailer would premiere in front of Sherlock Holmes (another Robert Downey, Jr. film). This trailer was released online on December 16, 2009. A new trailer was shown by Robert Downey, Jr. on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Sunday, March 7 after the Academy Awards. Promotional partners include Symantec, Dr. Pepper, Burger King, 7 Eleven, Audi, and LG Mobile.
Novelization
The film has recently been adapted into a novel and was released in April 2010. It was written by Alexander C. Irvine.[books 1]
Video games
Iron Man 2 (video game)
A video game based on the film is to be released by Sega on May 4, 2010 in North America[50], written by The Invincible Iron Man scribe Matt Fraction. The game's Comic Con trailer showed that the Crimson Dynamo is set to appear as a villain. Both Iron Man and War Machine have been confirmed as playable characters. The Wii version will be developed by High Voltage Software and all console versions will be published by Sega. Don Cheadle and Samuel L. Jackson will voice their respective characters in the video games. The trailer revealed that A.I.M, Roxxon Energy Corporation, and Ultimo (depicted as man named Kearson DeWitt in a large armor) will be enemies in the game as well as reveal that the wearer of the Crimson Dynamo armor is General Valentin Shatalov.
Gameloft will publish the Iron Man 2 mobile game.
[edit]Reception
Iron Man 2 is a 2010 American
Critical reception
The film currently holds 76% overall approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 54 reviews with an average rating of 6.5/10.Metacritic gave the film film 61% based on a normalized rating of 6 reviews.
Brian Lowry of Variety stated; "Iron Man 2 isn't as much fun as its predecessor, but by the time the smoke clears, it'll do".[58]
Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter stated; "Everything fun and terrific about Iron Man, a mere two years ago, has vanished with its sequel. In its place, Iron Man 2 has substituted noise, confusion, multiple villains, irrelevant stunts and misguided story lines."
[edit]Box office
Iron Man 2 launched internationally with no. 1 openings on Wednesday April 28, 2010 in six European markets for a total $2.2 million from 960 venues.[60] The highly-anticipated sequel earned an impressive $100.2 million its first five days from 6,764 theaters in 53 foreign markets for a strong average of $14,814 per site. IMAX Corporation reported that the film grossed $2.25 million at 48 IMAX theaters overseas - an average of $46,875. That's a new record for a 2D release, surpassing 2009's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen ($2.1 million).
Source:wikipedia
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