Iron Man II opened this weekend to overwhelmingly positive reviews, but beneath the surface of the satisfied masses there is a strong undercurrent of negativity toward the second chapter in the saga of ol’ Shell-Head.  Many people have dissected Iron Man 2 and dismissed it as lifeless, convoluted and even boring.  One reviewer even suggested that it was in the same league as Spider-Man 3.  Wait.  Really?  Have you seen Spider-Man 3?

I’m not sure if fans across the Internet are still mad about the A Nightmare on Elm Street remake (and allow me to call bullsh.. on 90% of you that hate the movie since the mediocre box office suggests that most of you haven’t even seen it), but it seems like dissing a movie is way more fun these days than just watching it and having a good time.  In any event, let me address some of the ‘problems’ that Iron Man 2 has (many spoilers ahead).

Problem: Tony Stark’s character- A lot of fans were turned off by Mr. Stark, complaining that he was too self-centered, cynical and basically the cause of every bad thing that happens in the movie.

Response: Tony Stark is a self-centered, cynical, self destructive guy.  In comic lore he’s known almost as much for his alcoholism as he is for his exploits in the armor.  That’s just who he is.  His appeal is that he manages to be heroic in spite of his obvious character flaws.  He’s basically a good guy, but he’s just not everyone’s cup of tea.  The irony is that the two Iron Man movies capture Stark perfectly; when you first meet him you think he’s kind of funny and cocky, then you think he’s a bit of a flake, then you start liking him a lot, then when you really get to know him and the layers start peeling back you realize that he has more than a few issues.  And  And he’s a jerk.  But other than that he’s cool. he’s self-destructive.

Problem: Drunk Iron Man- Many people were turned off by the scene where Tony dances, sings and generally acts like an ass while in the armor.

Response: Did we mention he’s an alcoholic?  If you’ve ever had the misfortune of having someone close to you become addicted to alcohol, you know that there are few things more cringe-worthy and distressing than watching someone you care about turn into a completely rudderless being when they become inebriated.  It’s embarrassing and downright scary.  Watching Tony decide to start blasting champagne bottles with his (lethal) repulsors right over the heads of party guests really brought home the fact that this guy is going to have a tough road ahead of him, no matter how this particular episode turns out. 

Problem: Too many plotlines made it boring- I asked a friend of mine this week why she didn’t like the movie and her first response was, “Too much talking.”

Response: Okay this one comes down to personal choice.  Many people complained that the flick was just too damn boring, and to that I have no logical rebuttal.  I thought the movie was fast paced, intelligent and quite compelling.  Fundamentally, I think this is where the wheels fell off for many of the viewers, but more on that later.

Problem: There wasn’t enough action.

Response:  This is where I take umbrage to criticism of the film.  Not enough action?  The original Iron Man was a lot of great things, but my major beef with it was that they spent so much time creating the character they forgot about the action and tacked on a so-so battle with Iron Monger at the end.  Iron Man II boasted great action set-pieces that were more drawn out and expertly staged than those in the original.  To suggest that the movie didn’t have any action is crazy-talk, but it illustrates a much larger problem with the overall story structure than I realized the first time I saw it.

Problem: War Machine sucked.

Response:  Again, this one comes down to personal choice.  The only reason I included it on the list is the fact that I never liked War Machine in the comics and was pleasantly surprised to find that I liked the character/suit in the movie.  Whereas the Iron Man suit is an elegant, streamlined piece of tech, War Machine is a lumbering, overwrought behemoth that really reflects the misguided creative excess of the nineties.  However, I found that the cinematic version of War Machine was actually handled perfectly; and the visual and conceptual dichotomy between the armored heroes really shined through in the way that they were presented.

Ultimately I think Iron Man II suffers because it requires a certain level of inside information to be thoroughly enjoyed; information that is only hinted at in the first one.  For a comic fan that has read Iron Man comics with some level of consistency, the movie plays like pitch perfect representation of many of the major dramatic threads that have run through the title(s) over the last few decades.  For a non-comic fan that got sucked into the Iron Man mythology through the first movie, the sequel represents a departure from what they have come to expect because the story suddenly veers into territory that is foreign and unexpected.  The result is what seems like a mish-mash of ideas that appear out of nowhere and integrate themselves into the story without warning. 

Take Tony’s alcoholism as an example. Longtime Marvel readers know that Tony’s disease was so debilitating that he actually stopped being Iron Man for a time while he battled his addiction.  So for me, the idea that Tony Stark in the movie had begun to slide into alcoholism began with the very first scene of the first movie, where we see him holding a glass of whiskey while riding in the Humvee with the soldiers.  When Tony loses control at his birthday party in the second one, it comes as no surprise to me, and I know that we’re still a long way from rock bottom.  Contrast that with a non-comic fan’s reaction to that scene, which could be summed up with a giant “WTF?”.  All of a sudden Tony’s drunk and doing a jig in his armor?  It must seem a tad heavy handed and ill-fitting. 

My complaint with many Super Hero movies is that they spend way too much time filling in back-story and bringing the uninitiated up to speed.  As a comic fan who is accustomed to the contextual recognition that any single issue of an ongoing series is just one story that sits on top of hundreds (sometimes thousands) of other stories, it is hard for me to step back and realize that the average moviegoer may like Spider-Man the movie but has no interest in ever picking up a Spider-Man comic, nor do they give two sh!ts about the importance of Amazing Spider-Man #121 in the development of Peter Parker's character.  All they want to see is what’s onscreen, and if the filmmakers spend too much time winking and nodding at the comic fans the movie suffers because as a single, self contained story it lacks a complete dramatic and logical arc. 

Even with self-contained stories that make it to the big screen intact, a certain amount of transitioning needs to take place before the viewer is brought up to speed.  Watchmen is a perfect example.  As a comic, and for all its brilliance, it is fairly inaccessible to a casual reader who just happens to pick it up; someone without a rudimentary understanding of the modern Super Hero and how that ideal fits into Western culture will have as difficult a time as a seven year old picking up a copy of Moby Dick for an afternoon read.  Even fans of the book will tell you that the movie in many ways was too faithful to the source material, and because of that it underperformed at the box office.  Watchmen is still my favorite comic book movie, but I wouldn’t recommend it to a lot of people. 

So I guess Iron Man 2 is two things at once; a great comic-book movie, and a so-so movie movie.  It delights some and confounds others with equal measure.  Honestly, and selfishly, I hope it continues to dominate the box office to the point that the suits don’t feel it necessary to demand that the third one shift gears and go back to the formula of the first one. Even though I loved the first one, I thought the second was much better and more entertaining.  But that selfishness, if indulged and taken to its logical conclusion, will only lead to the franchise becoming more and more inaccessible to the same people who made the sequel possible because they loved the first one so much.  I guess in the end the best any of us could hope for is a hybrid of both, a perfect Super Hero movie that is a movie first and a Super Hero story second, like The Dark Knight… But without that stupid growly Bat-Voice.