PARIS (AP) - "I privatized world peace," he trumpets. Iron Man is a man of iron and principles: no question of yielding to U.S. government secrets to the weapon that makes him invincible and can hold in check all the wicked of the world. However, the trouble will accumulate for him in "Iron Man 2" (Wednesday on French screens).
Two years after the first episode, director Jon Favreau Robert Downey Jr. again in the role of Tony Stark, billionaire playboy and a megalomaniac who has publicly revealed he was "Iron Man", a character with magic armor and implant palladium in the chest. Ex-arms manufacturer, heir to an industrial empire inherited from his father disappeared 20 years ago, Tony Stark has seen the horrors of war before being stored now in the peace camp.
So when he goes before the Senate Committee of Defense, which seeks to extricate him the secret of his armor, he replied: "Armor and I are one". Egocentric, glib, narcissistic womanizer, an alcoholic at times when he has no armor on the back between Robocop and Terminator, between Superman and Batman, Tony Stark would never suspect a thing and sees itself as the main benefactor and protector-of-humanity, half-Steve Jobs, mid-Bernard Tapie.
But when he decides to drive his own Formula-1 at the "Historic Grand Prix" in Monaco, he found someone suddenly across his path. Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), who came from Siberia to the challenge and avenge his father, an engineer like him and who was, perhaps, the co-inventor of the famous armor. The man burst onto the runway in an outfit with an implant palladium external blew some cars, fights with a whip with electric Tony Stark / Iron Man, before being overpowered and arrested. "You lost, Stark!" He sneers before being taken away by police.
This incident will upset the fair insurance billionaire. "This man can continue to protect us?" Wonder loop televisions worldwide. The army redoubled zeal to get the secret of his armor. Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), a manufacturer of weapons without faith or law, also wants to seize it. And why does escape from prison Ivan Vanko.
Faced with adversity and danger, Tony Stark can count on his friend, Colonel Rhodes (Don Cheadle), on his faithful secretary Virginia "Pepper" Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), whom he appointed president of its industrial empire, and a new dream creature, Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), come from his legal department and it made a strong impression upon first meeting. All these allies will not be too much to recharge the batteries of an Iron Man who is dying slowly: its palladium implant inserted in his chest, near the heart, her body makes every day a little more toxic .. .
The action and special effects abound, of course, in this sequel to the adaptation of a comic book of Marvel Comics of the 60s. But the director puts more emphasis here on feelings and weaknesses of the main character. Tony Stark is a glib seducer but the game sentimental cat and mouse with the two women around him shows that he feels very lonely. He also suffers from lack of love lavished by his father, too preoccupied with her business. And he fears he's invincible, death as everyone else.
Robert Downey Jr is subtle in how to express these different facets of his character. It is surrounded by an impressive cast, and among the newcomers the sexy outfits (dresses or shapers) Scarlett Johansson does not trump a Mickey Rourke at the top of his long hair, goatee, solid gold false teeth, tattooed everywhere, botox to death, but a sober yet tasteful in his role as villain in Russian accent you could cut with a knife. AP
