But the whole opening thesis of the film, as presented in the sequences where (a) Vanko builds his own armor and (b) Tony faces down the US Senate over ownership of Iron Man, is that Tony should, to a great extent, be dealing with external pressures. In other words, being Iron Man is literally a damaging prospect. The idea seems to be that this story aspect is meant to internalize all of the external pressures on Stark. (Seriously: when a high-powered fight scene set in part to a Daft Punk song doesn't work, you know you've screwed up.) It also gives him a reason to drink, leading directly to the dodgy action sequence I mentioned above. Shocker! That gives Stark a reason to exhibit shaky, secretive and reclusive behavior. Here, Stark isn't an alcoholic, but it turns out that having a zillion-kilowatt power source embedded in your chest isn't super-healthy. The film would be a lot better off without trying to shoulder any of the burden of Demon in a Bottle. If you thought the end of Iron Man was unsatisfying as an action sequence, the finale of this film is aimed directly at you. One of them goes off poorly - it's like a superpowered dance-battle - but the other one, at the film's climax, is energetic and appropriately explosive. It hits the jealousy and responsibility of power themes nicely, and gives Favreau a chance to stage a couple of big action scenes. But without the structure of an origin story to fall back upon, screenwriter Justin Theroux, director Jon Favreau and the rest of the team cobbled together a story out of original parts and material drawn from two popular existing storylines: Armor Wars, in which Stark rival Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) steals Stark technology, and Demon in a Bottle, in which Tony battles alcoholism. So, right off, we've got themes: fathers and sons, jealousy, hubris and the responsibility of power. Bitter at his family's lowly, forgotten status as Stark seemingly rules the world, Vanko builds his own power source, the better to take on Stark.
Blueprints suggest that Vanko's father helped Tony Stark's pop come up with the generator that powers the Iron Man armor. The architect this time is Ivan Vanko (Rourke), a heavily tattooed Russian fashion disaster who is also a brilliant engineer and physicist. We open on a sequence that mirrors Tony Stark's (Downey) creation of the first Iron Man armor. Thinking back on Iron Man 2, it is difficult to say what the point of the story was, but I had a fine old time watching the cast and crew try to figure it out.
But a sloppy script can still be charming and fun enough to pass a couple hours when acted out by people like Robert Downey, Jr., Sam Rockwell and Mickey Rourke.
There are screenplays that are as well-engineered and powerful as the armor Tony Stark built for himself in the movie Iron Man.