Iron Man 2 (2010)
Controversial, I know, and don’t get me wrong – Iron Man is a fantastic film. It’s just that Iron Man 2 is, well, better. The franchise experiences the same thing that most superhero movie series experience – the necessity of the origin story. The first instalment must deal with all the exposition, such as how the hero becomes super, who the main players are, what their motivations and agendas are, and what the stakes will be.
It’s why The Dark Knight is better than Batman Begins. It’s why Superman II is better than Superman. It’s all important stuff, and Iron Man does it exceptionally well. But Iron Man 2 hits the ground running.
It overlays the final scene of Iron Man with the introduction of Iron Man 2’s villain, Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), and we are very soon off to the races – literally – with an outstanding action set-piece as Vanko attacks Tony Stark at a racing circuit. The film makes a deeper exploration of Stark’s sense of mortality, his relationship with Pepper Potts, his relationship with Lt Col Rhodes and, most importantly, his relationship with himself. And it has Sam Rockwell in it, to boot.
Even though Iron Man 3 features a post-Avengers Tony Stark who is clearly struggling with some level of PTSD, Iron Man 2 contains far greater depth to his characterization. While the third film almost arrogantly trades on the familiarity of the characters – using that as an excuse to skim any meaningful psychological exploration – Iron Man 2 works hard to remain accessible to new audiences as well as entertaining its fan-base. That makes it far superior within the series, in my eyes at least.
