Iron Man 2

The novelty of the almost-always interesting Robert Downey Jr. playing a comic book superhero has warn off in the sequel, unimaginatively titled Iron Man 2. The weaknesses of the director, Jon Favreau, and a muddled script by Justin Theroux make this a mostly boring time at the movies, save for a little infusion from an interesting villain and a sexy new heroine.

We pick up from the first Iron Man film with Tony Stark, played by Downey, in a funk because he's dying. Whatever the power source that he wears in his chest that is keeping his heart beating is also killing him. He responds by going into a tailspin of alcohol abuse, while also resisting attempts by the government (in the form of an oleaginous senator played by Garry Shandling) to take away his Iron Man suit.

Meanwhile, the son of a scientist who was slighted by Downey's father, played by a permanently dingy Mickey Rourke, plots revenge. He creates some kind of power suit that enables him to crack whips of electricity, and he uses them on Downey at a Grand Prix race in Monte Carlo.

Rourke fails and is jailed, but a rival industrialist, hammily played by Sam Rockwell, recruits Rourke to build his own army of Iron Man suits. But Rourke has his own ideas, and there's a big showdown at an exposition in Flushing Meadow Park (one hopes there wasn't a Mets game going on the time). Rourke has a grand time with the character, warbling in a Russian accent, sporting gold teeth (I'm not sure that they aren't Rourke's own teeth) and covered in prison tattoos.

Despite all this, and a subplot involving the recruitment of Iron Man into the Avengers by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson, in the longest build-up to a tent-pole picture on record) and Stark's friend, Jim Rhodes (now played by Don Cheadle, replacing Terrence Howard) also donning the Iron Man suit, there are long stretches of tedium in this film. What's clear is that Favreau has no idea how to pace an action picture--there is no rhythm here at all. We get a lot more of people fiddling with computers, which I find about as exciting as watching someone type.

Furthermore, the action scenes are not great. There's a long one between Rhodes and Stark, both in their suits, that has no drama because neither one is really trying to hurt the other (though Stark's Malibu mansion gets trashed). The final battle with Rourke is over almost before you can blink.

The best action scene involves the new character of Black Widow (we know her name from the comics, but it is never said aloud in the film for some reason). Sexily embodied by Scarlett Johansson, she takes out an army of guards with some snap, crackle and pop (and mace) that gives the film's final act a nice jolt. The role also plays to Johansson's increasing tendency to act with a vacant stare.

As for Downey, he's as charming as ever, but Favreau's strategy seems to have been to just let him go. A lot of his lines are mumbled, and there's a sense of improvisation. A little more discipline is called for here, as this was perilously close to seeming like a Robin Williams performance.

We're not done with Iron Man. He will certainly be back for a third film (no doubt to further explore his burgeoning relationship with Pepper Potts, again played by Gwyneth Paltrow) and he'll be in The Avengers, which will be released in 2012. I suppose it's too much to hope that Favreau won't be involved in the third film (he even casts himself as Stark's valet Happy), but perhaps Joss Whedon, who will be helming The Avengers, will do the character better justice.