Over the course of 12 years and 23 movies, the MCU is nothing short of a Marvel of Hollywood (pun intended). I am always fascinated by things like actor retention and long-game storytelling. Only a few TV shows, like Supernatural, The X-Files, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (hey-yo, Whedon!) have been able to pull off long-term feats, but never has a film series held so much together for so long. Perhaps only James Bond, and even then the wheel of actors playing the titular character changes with each passing decade. And when you take a moment to think how much of what we have today, from cultural significance to the very idea of extended universe movies, you realize that most of it was predicated on the success of one title: Iron Man (2008).
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But let’s face it, it wasn’t really Iron Man that solidified the story Marvel and Disney would be telling for over a decade. Iron Man was a Jon Favreau movie, with a glimmer of Marvel execs’ vision in the post-credits’ horizon. He was making his own Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight or Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man. At the time, Iron Man was an underdog, and no one expected it to be the smash hit it came to be. Marvel saw what they wanted next, but The Incredible Hulk starring Edward Norton released the same year, and had the very real potential of squashing all their dreams under a big, green foot. It wasn’t until 2010 that the boundaries between big budget, single-character superhero movie and multi-hero cinematic universe would come together and truly launch the mainstream love affair with Marvel.
I’m talking, of course, about Iron Man 2.
The film is considered somewhat divisive in fans’ eyes. Some see it as a fun spectacle that roller coasters us into the Marvel waterfall, while others see a hodge-podge of lackluster villainry and convoluted story that tries to do too much all at once. And the truth is, both are right.
Jon Favreau’s original story concerned the sins of the father. Ivan Vanko / Whiplash (Mickey Rourke) is paramount to a sequel story arc and could have been on the level of Doc Ock, or even Joker (watching the deleted scenes and commentary tracks give us some insight into this). Vanko pits Tony against the idea that his cold, calculating father was a liar, a thief, and a butcher. Add that to Tony coming to terms with the fact that his blood, his father’s blood, could both literally and figuratively be poisoning him. These pieces give meaning and depth to the second chapter of the Iron Man saga. And when Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) is worked into the mix, a man who represents everything Tony would be had he never been kidnapped and thrown in a cave, the overarching conflict and growth necessary to the story Favreau and writer Justin Theroux were trying to tell.
But Marvel producers needed the immediate and present inclusion of the Avengers Phase One story arc. Not being a part of Favreau’s original plan, the filmmaker would find himself, yet again, in production without a completed script.
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Iron Man 2 was given less than two years to create a story, produce, edit, and release, nearly unheard of for a film of this scale, and it was fighting against the expectations set by not only the studios but by the fans. As Favreau would say, “Iron Man was memory, probably better in their minds than it was on the film,” and that memory of greatness would hover over the entirety of Iron Man 2’s lightning-fast production schedule. And yet, where Iron Man 2 really succeeds is making a $200 million movie really look like the $200 million movie. It has a vast array of diverse locations, a massive sense of scale from the Stark expo to the Monaco race track. Even Elon Musk’s factory, and the man himself, make a cameo. The action scenes are huge, with a satisfying mix of practical and CG effects that elevate the visuals to a place that is visually better than newer, more shiny Marvel movies. The energy and saturation of the cinematography created by Matthew Libatique make it one of the best-looking Marvel movies out there.
But, when the deep pockets of producers and studios need something to generate their vision of the future, the meaningful plot and character development of Favreau and Theroux gets, well, fractured
I want to make it clear, I only have slight feelings of ill will towards the studio for pushing this. If I outright hated them, it would be like wishing the Marvel universe didn’t exist. It’s probably why Robert Downey Jr. and Favreau reprised their roles so many times, despite Downey explicitly saying in 2010 that Iron Man 3 would probably be his last time in the metal suit.
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With the success of Iron Man, Marvel finally had the clout and backing to do something that would elevate them past the juggernaut DC Comics book movies, which always won out on audience appeal. A truly connected universe, a series of movies that would not only be great stand-alones, but come together in a massive two-part climax surpassing that of Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. The character Favreau and Downey created was the emotional crux of all three Avengers’ movies, add in Civil War and Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Tony Stark got his due when it came to pivotal, meaningful, and emotional arcs. Even though they were planned in Iron Man 2, audiences would have to wait.
Ultimately, the writers wanted to make a film that was as fun as it was meaningful to the character of Tony Stark. The studios wanted a film that was as fun as it was meaningful to the story of the Avengers. You just can’t hate them for that. The Incredible Hulk had not performed nearly as well as Iron Man had, and the next connected universe movies on the docket were Thor and Captain America, both untested characters that could not guarantee an audience outside of Marvel Comic fans. But Iron Man could. Iron Man had a red and gold ticket to catapult the franchise. In 2010, the studio needed him to successfully set up what was to come. The studios were already looking 19 movies ahead, and part of that success hinged on the inclusion of plot points that Iron Man 2 just did not have the room for. There’s enough plot in Iron Man 2 for several movies, but Marvel needed this one to start giving weight to the Avengers’ Initiative.
Where we see this most is in the editing. The planned moments, the time it takes to spend with each character to develop their feelings and motives, were all cut short. Rhodey (Don Cheadle) dealing with his decision to effectively betray Tony as Tony becomes a liability to himself. Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow) trying to balance Tony’s self-destruction with her struggles of taking over his empire. Vanko and Hammer systematically playing dual-dark side of Tony’s psyche, and how Tony is affected by their reflections on himself. These are deep, strong story elements that often elevate films to greatness. Mix that in with large-scale action, and you’re moving into Dark Knight territory. But the studio’s insistence on editing down these moments, cutting out the conflict in favor of afterthought exposition by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and the inclusion of Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), made Iron Man 2 lose that innate conflict and beauty, those things that made Iron Man great.
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And again, I have to turn around on myself, because I freaking love Black Widow. I love her in Iron Man 2. I love her in Endgame. I will love her when I get to see her stand-alone flick. I know that things were lost because Black Widow was deemed a necessary inclusion by the studio, and that if she weren’t in Iron Man 2, we may have gotten to keep some of the more significant story elements that would have elevated the movie. But, damn if I don’t absolutely love it every time I watch her get into that boxing ring with Happy (Jon Favreau) and take him down. But back to my point.
There exists a version of Iron Man 2, a version that, while still possibly suffering a bit from the rushed production schedule, is a true sequel to Iron Man. It’s fun and fast-paced while dealing with human conflict and the magnitude of legacy. Dealing with the expectations set upon us by our own parents, the ingrained psychological struggles of how we come to terms with pain and deception, how we see the worst and best parts of ourselves reflected in others, and how we cope with that vision. It’s not the version we got. Because, ultimately, Iron Man 2 is two movies. The first is the vision already described to you, and second is the serviceable popcorn flick available on Disney+ that truly launched Marvel out of single-character obscurity and into the multiverse. This second movie is fun, too. It has a lot of great moments, both Avengers and Iron Man-related. Unfortunately, they fail in making a cohesive whole.
I very much enjoy Iron Man 2, but the footage for the real sequel, the sequel described here, it exists. The “Favreau cut” is a real thing. And after 10 years, I would very much like to see it.
If only there was some way we could remove half of Iron Man 2…
(Snap)
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