《钢铁侠2》之众家评(有声)

DAVID BIANCULLI, host:

In 2008, Marvel Comics superhero Iron Man came to the screen starring Robert Downey Jr. as billionaire arms mogul Tony Stark, who wears an iron suit that lets him fly around and zap bad guys. In light of that film's superheroic box office total, Downey and director Jon Favreau are back with "Iron Man 2," which also features Mickey Rourke as an electrified villain called Whiplash.

Film critic David Edelstein has this review.

DAVID EDELSTEIN: As I watched "Iron Man 2," one phrase went through my head. It's the compliment the male characters paid to one another in director Jon Favreau's first film, "Swingers,": You're so money. "Iron Man 2," you're so money.

I don't mean garish or gaudy or without a sense of humor. But in all the superhero leagues in all the world, Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark has the swankiest pad: a cliffside Malibu mansion that would make Bruce Wayne drool with envy. In his cool, low-lit lab, a computer with a smooth British voice supplies his needs, while sexy A-list foils like Gwyneth Paltrow and Scarlett Johansson sashay in and out.

Viewers might ask: Can money buy a good movie? Not always, but in this case, yes. "Iron Man 2" is a smart piece of work. It doesn't have the emotional heft of "Superman 2" and "Spider-Man 2," those two twos that outclassed their ones. But Favreau and screenwriter Justin Theroux have paced it like a screwball comedy, with fast-talking dames and ping-pong zingers that show off Downey's expert timing. After promoting Paltrow's Pepper Potts to CEO, he needs a new assistant and Johansson's Natalie Rushman, from the legal department, looks super promising.

(Soundbite of movie. "Iron Man 2")

Ms. GWYNETH PALTROW (Actress): (as Pepper Potts) She is from legal and she is potentially a very expensive sexual harassment lawsuit if you keep ogling her like that.

Mr. ROBERT DOWNEY (Actor): (as Tony Stark) I need an awesome person.

Ms. PALTROW: (as Pepper Potts) Yeah, and I've got three excellent potential candidates all lined up and ready to meet you.

Mr. DOWNEY: (as Tony Stark) I dont have time to meet. I need someone now. I feel like it's her.

Ms. PALTROW: (as Pepper Potts) No it's not.

(Soundbite of dialing phone)

Ms. PALTROW: (as Pepper Potts) What are you doing, Googling her now?

Mr. DOWNEY: (as Tony Stark) Mm-hmm. I thought I was ogling her. Oh wow. Very, very impressive individual. She's fluent in French, Italian, Russian, Latin. Who speaks Latin?

Ms. PALTROW: (as Pepper Potts) No one speaks Latin. It's a dead language.

Mr. DOWNEY: (as Tony Stark) No one speaks Latin?

EDELSTEIN: "Iron Man 2" does have a plot, and it's functional. It starts where the first film ended, with Stark admitting publicly to being the guy in the iron suit flying around battling baddies. "Iron Man" peddled a bogus but appealing fantasy: that an American from a family that made its fortune selling weapons to kill people in far-off countries could himself become a weapon for peace. So you could, if inclined, applaud the anti-military-industrialist-complex message but also cheer for a superhero who's the product of military-industrialist ingenuity. Either way, America is so money.

At first, "Iron Man 2" adds a new wrinkle. Stark gets subpoenaed by a Congress that resents his boast of having quote, "successfully privatized world peace." But his chief Senate antagonist, played by Garry Shandling, turns out to be the puppet of unscrupulous rival weapons-maker Justin Hammer, played by Sam Rockwell with the perfect ratio of unctuousness to menace. So the politics, in the end, are moot, and we're left with special effects fighting other special effects.

To be fair, they're sensational, and we never lose sight of the characters behind them. Stark has a plug in his chest made from the element palladium that keeps him alive but is also poisoning him. So his feats are double-edged: the more superheroic, the greater the cost to the superhero. Plus, he's facing off against a Russian supervillain, Mickey Rourke's Ivan Vanko, who has a chip on his shoulder the size of an asteroid. Even in prison, it's clear Vanko has the upper hand. Stark has no idea where Vanko got the technology for his own electrified supersuit or how the two men are linked.

Mr. MICKEY ROURKE (Actor): (as Whiplash) You come from a family of thieves and butchers and now they're all guilty men. You tried to rewrite your own history and you forget who the likes the Stark family has destroyed.

Mr. DOWNEY: (as Tony Stark) Speaking of thieves, where did you get this design?

Mr. ROURKE: (as Whiplash) My father, Anton Vanko.

Mr. DOWNEY: (as Tony Stark) I never heard of him.

Mr. ROURKE: (as Whiplash) My father is the reason youre alive.

Mr. DOWNEY: (as Tony Stark) There's no more lives because you had a shot, you took it. You missed.

Mr. ROURKE: (as Whiplash) Did I?

EDELSTEIN: Mickey Rourke's recent re-emergence is a beautiful thing, the way Dennis Hopper's was after "Blue Velvet." They're actors who entered death spirals of excess and were resurrected, though much the worse for wear, and are equal parts inspiring and scary.

As Vanko, Rourke sports messy tattoos and a mouthful of metal from which he spits blood smiling, of course. Decked out as "Whiplash," he throws out arms extended by long and lethal electric tendrils. He gives "Iron Man 2" a badly needed sting a glimpse of personal demons a movie so money can't buy.

BIANCULLI: David Edelstein is film critic for New York magazine. You can join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter at nprfreshair. And you can download podcasts of our show at .

(Soundbite of music)

For Terry Gross, I'm David Bianculli.  

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