The Fatter the Knuckle, the Smaller the Diamond: Man on Movies: Iron Man 2

For the man’s man, there is no better example of someone living the dream other than Tony Stark – aka Iron Man. Here’s a guy who has got it all: money, power, fame, women, and enough tech toys that would make James Bond jealous. Oh, yeah - and he can fly.

Although fictional, Tony Stark is the man men strive to be. Although being born into a family of privilege, he wasn’t satisfied just living a prosperous life. He leveraged all that he was given and built an empire. And as we all witnessed in the first Iron Man that was released in 2008, when he was faced with impossible circumstances, he didn't give up, he invented a new power source to keep him alive, invented the iron man suit, killed all the terrorists, and then he rested.

In the world of superheroes, Iron Man is in a league of his own. For example, look at Spiderman and Superman. Peter Parker was an insecure little boy with no ambition, and by freak accident was bitten by a spider that gave him his spider-abilities. Superman didn’t have to work hard to become super, he was just born that way. In fact, he spends most of his life trying to suppress the super man that he knows himself to be in order to be the boring Clark Kent. Tony Stark didn’t stumble into greatness like Peter Parker. He wasn’t born a super man. He made himself great. He made himself powerful. To top it off, he didn’t care if everybody knew it! He realized his own greatness, and he was going to be damned if anybody tried to take it from him. In a scene from Iron Man 2, Tony Stark is sitting in front of Congress when he makes the bold statement: “I am Iron Man. The suit and I are one.” I want to be Tony Stark, and every man reading this blog should want to be as well.

Iron Man 2 is a solid sequel, which starts up immediately where the first movie ends and makes a logical and satisfying progression through the storyline. We see Tony Stark’s fame, and classic narcissism, rocket to meteoric heights. He gets grilled by Congress. He kicks some bad guy ass. The action sequences are so realistic, it makes Transformers seem like Toy Story. There’s not much more to ask for in a superhero movie.

Tony Stark will be Robert Downey Jr's most popular role in his career. But like any other great movie, Downey is joined on screen with some top talent as well. Don Cheadle, Mickey Rourke, and Samuel L. Jackson all make solid performances. And I would be remiss to not mention the ever lovely Gwyneth Paltrow, reprising her role as Pepper Pots, and the luscious Scarlett Johansson. Mmmmm…Scarlett Johansson.
It may be difficult for people to truly identify with the Tony Stark character, because he does not exhibit the same insecurities that a lot of people experience in life. But that is because Tony Stark is not your everyman.

He is the man. He is Iron Man.

by Guest Reviewer J.Bleez