Ironing out the wrinkles

'Iron Man 2' is essentially a mid-life crisis movie, augmented with explosions, high-tech brawls and a couple of awesome electric whips.

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Make it bigger, louder and longer: That’s the typicalblueprint for action-movie sequels. Yet “Iron Man 2” is not a completelyformulaic follow-up. Director Jon Favreau and screenwriter Justin Theroux havecreated something that’s closer to a comedy-drama than it is to a traditionalsummer-movie spectacular.

The often loopy, non sequitur-riddled dialogue isreminiscent of Favreau’s earlier movies, such as “Swingers” and “Made,” and,thankfully, the storyline does not slide into the oldevil-genius-threatens-to-take-over-the-universe groove. The primary villain in“Iron Man 2” is a slick but slimy industrialist who is more concerned withstealing the technology of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) than he is withglobal domination. The secondary bad-guy, Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), is onlyinterested in avenging the wrongs done to his father by Stark’s dad some 40years earlier.

“Iron Man 2” is essentially a mid-life crisis movie,augmented with explosions, high-tech brawls and a couple of awesome electricwhips.

The novelty value of the original is gone, of course. Werecognize Stark’s off-the-wall bravado and expect the playful friction betweenhim and his devoted, long-suffering assistant, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow).The capabilities of the Iron Man suit are also well-known by now. So Theroux issaddled with the always tricky task of enhancing familiar personalities withoutdamaging their appeal and introducing new ones without completely stealing thespotlight away from the stars.

As second installments go, “Iron Man 2” doesn’t belong in aclass with “Spider-Man 2” or “The Dark Knight,” but it’s a capably crafted,generally enjoyable adventure that even works in a subtle warning about themadness of the military-industrial complex. The late President Dwight D.Eisenhower would probably give it his seal of approval.

“2” picks up not long after the first chapter’s finale, withStark flying high, both figuratively and — thanks to the Iron Man suit —literally. His irrepressible ego is in full bloom (“I’m your nuclear deterrent;I’ve successfully privatized world peace”) as he faces an annoying senator(Garry Shandling) who’s holding hearings to pressure Stark into turning overthe Iron Man equipment to the government.

Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), Stark’s arch-nemesis in theweapons world, also wants to secure those secrets for his own money-makingmeans, and he rescues Vanko from prison to press him into a sort of indenturedservitude; Vanko’s late father was a scientist who engineered many of thegizmos Stark has built into the Iron Man outfits, and Ivan is no slouch in thelab himself.

Rockwell packs an astounding amount of wackiness intoHammer’s gratingly glib self-aggrandizement (both he and Downey seem to havebeen given leeway to improvise many of their lines). Describing a missile hiscompany has manufactured, he notes, “If it were any smarter, it would write abook, and that book would make ‘Ulysses’ look like it was written in crayon —and it would read it to you!”

Although almost as narcissistic as Stark, Hammer is also thequintessential nerd who continually tries to crack the popular clique and failsmiserably. When Tony parades around on stage to the tune of AC/DC’s “Shoot toThrill,” with a bunch of adoring chorus girls in Iron Man-inspired bikinis, hedrives the crowd wild; when Hammer struts his stuff — quite badly — to AverageWhite Band’s “Pick Up the Pieces,” the audience looks on in embarrassedsilence.

Vanko is also an exhibitionist, although he’s moreinterested in destruction than he is dancing. Brandishing two cracklinglive-wire lashes, he single-handedly turns the Grand Prix into a grandfree-for-all and nearly thrashes Stark to death in the process. “If you canmake God bleed, people will stop believing in him,” Vanko tells Hammer. “Andthere will be blood in the water — and the sharks will come.”

With his stiff, stringy hair streaked with gray and his bodycovered in murky tattoos, Vanko is as greasy as Hammer is stylishly sleazy, andthey’re a perfect mismatch.

Natalie Rushman (Scarlett Johansson) is less successfullyintroduced. Playing a mysterious beauty who may or may not be a threat toStark’s slow-boiling relationship with Pepper, Johansson initially seemsuncomfortable and starchy. Happily, when Johansson finally does find herfooting and her performance comes to life, it turns out to have been worth thewait.

Don Cheadle, placing Terrence Howard in the role of Lt. Col.James “Rhodey” Rhodes, also has to bide his time — approximately half themovie, in fact — before getting a chance to make an impression, while thesnappy Paltrow is disappointingly afforded less time to joust with Downey thanshe had in the original.

That’s because Theroux becomes so busy juggling subplotsthat telling the story becomes a challenge. Perhaps it’s the producers’ desireto include a little something for everyone, or just the screenwriter’sdetermination to make sure there’s always something happening — at any rate,“Iron Man 2” sometimes seems overly busy and congested with characters. For themost part, it’s fun, but it would have been even more enjoyable if its focushad been sharpened a bit.

Of course, this is finally Downey’s show, and he’sdetermined to make the most of it. His raised eyebrows and smarmy/sweet smileboth get extreme workouts, as does his gift for rapid-fire patter (which he’sbeing doing so skillfully since the days of “The Pick-Up Artist”) and wickedwisecracks. Approached by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) about a possibleposition in the superhero society The Avengers, Stark sneers, “I told youbefore, I don’t want to join your super-secret boy-band.”

Iron Man may cut down his enemies with lasers and artillery,but Stark does a very respectable job of beating down everyone around him withhis razor-sharp tongue.

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