I’m still not entirely clear on where Iron Man 2 went so wrong. Many of the elements of the first movie were present, most importantly the Robert Downey Jr. factor, which is a formidable factor indeed. Watching him is perpetually entertaining and sustains the first section of the movie, harkening back to everything we enjoyed about the previous film.
Maybe it was because the latter sections focused more on fairly dull action set pieces and an underdeveloped meltdown of Tony Stark. Perhaps it felt like it was simply trying to recreate the first movie and ended up feeling like a lackluster rehash. It may even have been the awkwardly inserted S.H.I.E.L.D. plot components that were necessary for building this universe and in hindsight may have served the franchise and team-up project for the better, but watching it in 2010, the setup didn’t seem to be pointing to much of a payoff. It only seemed to be taking away from Mickey Rourke’s screen time.
Another disclosure to reveal why this list (and all rank lists—let’s be real) is so arbitrary: I saw this movie during a trip to Berlin, where due to a translation mixup, I was provided a cup containing two liters of apfelschorle. Given that it was next to me, of course I drank the whole thing in the first hour and a half of the movie, making the climax a blur due to bladderly distraction and the epilogue a non-starter due to required bladderly relief. I watched what I missed a year later, and remained unimpressed, so I feel fairly confident in its spot in these rankings.
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