more thoughts on Iron Man 2

*****SPOILER ALERT***** Don't read if you have not seen the film and don't want know anything in advance.

I really enjoyed Iron Man 2. It was highly entertaining and as summer movies go it was just right, a roller coaster ride of adrenaline, filled action. But after the movie is over you sit back and you start to think about it and realize that there are great parts but they only add up to a good movie. The reason the movie fails to be the triumph it could have been, are all in the script.

Looking at the movie from the ending first it seems the writer's determined that the finale would involve both Iron Man 2 and War Machine against Whiplash and the rest of the script is manipulated to make that happen.

The film has a number of lapses in logic. The first one was glaring and I wondered about it even as I was watching the scene unfold.

1.) The set-up: Whiplash receives some documents, a passport and a ticket to the Grand Prix in Monaco. Next we see Tony Stark arriving in Monaco. Pepper is still nagging him about neglecting things. The scene moves fast with quick snippets of dialogue. It appears Tony, Pepper, Natasha and Happy are in Monaco to watch the Grand Prix from prime seats in a restaurant. Suddenly Tony Stark is on the race track and getting ready to drive in the race. Pepper and Natasha are taken by surprise. So is the entire ground there to watch the Grand Prix. Tony Stark is a last minute substitute to drive his companies race car.

Next we see Whiplash. He is disguised as and emergency response person who has access to the track and racing area. We see him enter the track and start destroying race cars to confront Tony Stark in his car.

Logic question: How did Whiplash know that Tony Stark would be driving the car since it seems no one knew. Whiplash made a plan based on knowledge he could not have had.

Script solution - Tony Stark is dying. he knows this. Establish early that he is behaving recklessly, putting himself in danger without the Iron Man suit. Make it public knowledge he is racing against the wishes of his friends and colleagues.

2.) The set-up: Tony Stark is drunk at his birthday party while wearing the Iron Man suit, creating a bad public image and possibly endangering his guests. Pepper tries to get him to stop and then Rhodey. Finally Rhodey puts on one of the older suits and challenges him to a fight.

They fight till the house is practically destroyed and Tony and War Machine nearly kill themselves by blasting repulsor rays at each other. This scene is in the script so Tony and Rhodey can use the same repulsor blast to defeat Whiplash later on.

It's not a great scene because it feels forced into the script and here's why.

a.) The movie has not established Tony behaving irresponsible with the Iron Man suit prior to this scene.

b.) While we see Tony drinking we have not seen him lose control before. The script should have included other scenes where his drinking was out of control prior to the party scene.

c.) In the scene just prior to the party, Tony is with Natasha and talking about canceling the party. He asks her what she would do if it was her last birthday. She responds by saying she would spend it with who ever she wanted too and do what ever she wanted. This seemed more of a set-up for Tony to be with Pepper in an intimate way, rather than clowning with a huge crowd, drunk in his Iron Man suit.

d.) would Rhodey really put on a Iron Man suit and challenge Tony to a fight while he is drunk in front of hundreds of guests. If Rhodey has access to the suit then he has access to "Jarvis" the computer. Either Rhodey or Pepper could have used Jarvis to deactivate Tony's Iron Man suit.

The fight felt forced and while it was cool CGI, you knew neither one of them would be hurt so the scene itself was flat.

3.) the set-up: Nick Fury arrives after the party and puts Tony on lockdown. He explains that his father left a secret behind and Tony must solve it. The secret will probably be the solution to save Tony's life.

Agent Coulson says he will be on watch to ensure Tony does not leave the premises. We see Tony going through his father things which have been in the possession of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The next scene Tony is driving his car, buys strawberries, goes visits his old office and after some banter with Pepper leaves. Before leaving he realizes the secret his father left behind.

In the next scene he is back in his house, in his downstairs lab unraveling the his father's secret. He understands what he needs to do and gets to work. He builds a nuclear collider in his lab to create a new element. Agent Coulson shows up and admonishes Stark for leaving and Stark replies "oh that was like thirteen hours ago".

So my questions are these:

1.) How does Stark leave if their are agents from SHIELD there to prevent him including Agent Coulson?

2.) How does Tony Stark build a nuclear collider in his lab with just the assistance of his robots in thirteen hours. Where did he get all the equipment, supplies and energy from. Remember at this point he is still dying of palladium poisoning, was drunk all night, didn't sleep and was beaten up by his buddy.

3.) What was Captain America's shield doing in these equipment boxes. Did the boxes belong to Tony, his father or S.H.I.E.L.D.?

I expect super hero movies to ask me to suspend my disbelief but that comes to things like actually being able to create a suit of armour that makes you Iron-Man. The first film handled the development of the suit so well it seemed very realistic. Now Tony Stark creates a whole new element in his lab by himself, in thirteen hours, without any trial and error.

The script could have solved this by moving the scene to Stark Enterprises. He was already there. They could have taken us into a Tony Starks personal laboratory at the plant where he could have solved his father's riddle and created the new element in a more realistic way.

4.) Finally the final battle. Tony and Rhodey against droid robots. Rhodey's suit is under Vanko's control. Vanko is so sophisticated with computers that he can match Iron Man's flying to a tee. But Rhodey is able to warn Iron Man when the suit is shooting missiles at him?

Tony already knows flying high causes the suits to fail because of freezing. Fly high, the droids freeze, shut down and crash to the ground. Rhodey freezes and Iron Man catches him. There the battle is over in two minutes. But not a very satisfying fight scene.

After whizzing and flying over the Expo grounds and putting thousands of civilians in danger Iron Man moves the fight away from the Expo by flying on, under and over a freeway! No civilians in danger there! Common sense would have them fly over the Long Island Sound, less than a mile away. Again not as exciting for a battle scene.

But is fighting flying robots really exciting anyway. Watching the film you know the hero will survive, so it's the quality of the villain that makes the danger. And speaking of danger, there are thousands of people at the Stark Expo, yet not one of them is killed by the robot droids run amok and shooting everything in sight with machine guns and shoulder mounted missles. The first film had a number of scenes that reminded us what weapons can do to people.

In the next scene Iron Man and War Machine are surrounded by droids and after some blasting, Tony uses a weapons that destroys the remaining droids at once. Hmm... why not use that weapon first? Again because the movie would be less exciting. Then the final confrontation with Whiplash. The moment we have been waiting for, and it's over in what felt like 30 seconds. Huh?

I also noticed that all three actors continually open the face plates of the armour in times of danger. That's because clashing metal suits gets boring after a while and the director wants us to see facial expressions. Both Whiplash, and in the last film, Iron Monger, open their armour to boast about their finishing off Iron Man, right before he finds a way to defeat them.

Putting a script together for a big blockbuster movie, with huge expectations, can't be easy. I am always willing to suspend my disbelief and believe a man can fly, but a story really needs to have a sense of realism in order to make the fantastic seem possible. The first film did this very well, the second, not so much.

Even with these issues I still stand by my three star rating because the movie in itself is highly entertaining and a blast to watch. See it in a big theatre with digital projection.