YMMV / Iron Man 2

• Base-Breaking Character:
  • The brusque, collected Natasha Romanoff is easily the most understated major character in the film when it comes to personality tics. Some fans liked this, finding her icy and enigmatic while others found her bland and lacking in personality. This is difficult to gauge considering Natasha spends the majority of her time undercover so she doesn't have much time to display her true personality. An interview with the director revealed that the more flirtatious scenes between Natasha and Tony were cut to preserve the Tony/Pepper relationship. A scene from the first trailer even features Natasha smiling.
  • Justin Hammer. It depends on whether you find him hilarious or just annoying.
• Broken Base:
  • Fans are split as to whether they preferred Howard's or Cheadle's take on James Rhodes. Mostly applies to this film, as Cheadle's performance in Iron Man 3 was much more well-received. His appearance in Avengers: Age of Ultron has practically solidified him as a fan favorite.
  • The prominence of SHIELD in this film. Some enjoy the Shout Outs made to the comics and the way they flesh out the universe, while others consider them a Spotlight-Stealing Squad that derailed the plot and stole screentime from characters like Vanko who could've used more development.
• Critic-Proof: A mild case; Rotten Tomatoes scores designate this as one of the least well-received movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's first phase, second only to The Incredible Hulk. It is also tied with the first Thor film for the worst score on Metacritic among the Phase One films. Despite this, it became one of the highest-grossing movies in the phase, trailing only The Avengers. A lot of this likely has to do with the built-in good will that the first film had, building anticipation for this one.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • The video footage of the Hammerdroid's test malfunction (twisting around so fast it snaps the pilot's spine) evokes a That's Gotta Hurt gasp of sympathy from the audience. But Hammer's mealy-mouthed attempts to gloss over the failure by insisting that the pilot survived cross it back into a joke at his expense is quite funnier, as is his later statement that people are reluctant to volunteer to test them "for some reason."
  • Also, Tony's birthday party. "Iron Man, how do you go to the bathroom in that suit? ...just like that." Not funny. Giving an actual technobabble answer about filtration and being able to drink that? Now it's funny.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Judging by the internet, a significant portion of Russian viewers seems to be rooting for Ivan Vanko/Whiplash, despite his villainous status. Given that he comes across as a much more credible and threatening villain than Justin Hammer, combined with some patriotism, this is no surprise. Not to mention that he sets out to avenge his ripped off father, a much more sympathetic goal than the other villains in the films, and Mickey Rourke put a lot of effort into making the audience sympathize with him to the point that he was frustrated when several of his humanizing scenes got cut. Of course, a lot of people ignore the fact that he attempted to kill Tony for something his father did before he was even born, murdered several racecar drivers at the Grand Prix, both Hammer's security guards, and both a prisoner and a guard while locked up, as well as shot up the Expo and left bomb-loaded drones strewn about.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Ivan Vanko's bird, either his original bird or the new one which Hammer bought for him.
  • The kid wearing the Iron Man helmet got a lot more popular once it turned out via Word of Saint Paul later that he was really a young Peter Parker, to the point where detractors point to his cameo as being the best part of the movie.
• Epileptic Trees: There was one for a while, before previews for Thor came out, that a prisoner Vanko walks by that the camera lingers on for a second was Thor, specifically Ultimate Marvel Thor.
• Fan Nickname:
  • "Dynalash" for Ivan Vanko, due to being a composite of the Crimson Dynamo and Whiplash.
  • A beam superweapon that spins around and destroys everything nearby? The only name for that is "Death Blossom".
  • "Iron Man Lite" for the Mark V suitcase armor.
  • Tony gives an in-universe example, referring to the drones as "Hammer 'roids.
• Genius Bonus:
  • Howard Stark's notebook references◊ the Stark effect.
  • During Hammer's description of "the Ex-Wife" he mentions it has a "cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine RDX burst". That's the same term being said twice, one's the chemical name, the other's the acronym. In other words, Hammer is simply reciting the spec sheet, and doesn't have a clue how it's supposed to work. Quite a subtle way to foreshadow that the weapon isn't all it's hyped to be.
  • During that same scene, Hammer says that if the "Ex-Wife" were any smarter, it would write a book that made Ulysses look like it was written in crayon. Ulysses actually was written in crayon: James Joyce's eyesight was failing, so he used crayons and large sheets of paper to make it easier for him to write. Yet another clue that Hammer doesn't have a clue what he's talking about.
  • In one of the notebooks from his father Tony looks through, a drawing of a hypercube, also known as a "tesseract", can be seen, foreshadowing Howard's work with the Tesseract after the events of Captain America and that the arc reactor is based on his studies of it.
  • Vanko says that he can reprogram the Hammerdrones to "make salute." In Russian, "salyut" means "fireworks."
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • This is the film where two members of original six Avengers meet each other for the first time, Tony and Natasha. In Avengers: Endgame, they both would die sacrificing themselves. The fact that a scene has them discussing what they would do if it was their last night on earth lends an additional layer of sadness and poignancy since both are closer to the end of their lives than they suspect.
  • Howard's Parental Neglect of Tony takes on a much more tragic dimension after Captain America: The Winter Soldier revealed that Howard Stark's death was the result of a HYDRA assassination plot. It's likely he pushed Tony away on purpose for his own safety.
  • The entire subplot about how Howard deep down really cared about Tony, ending with Tony watching his father's video message telling him, "What is and always will be my greatest creation... is you.", only to confront the Winter Soldier for killing just his mother years later. Fortunately, he was at least able to clear things up when he ended up meeting his father in Avengers: Endgame thanks to time travel.
  • A Deleted Scene shows Vanko making a transaction with a man who is revealed to be a Ten Rings agent. Jon Favreau points out in the commentary about the Foreshadowing for "what's to come with The Mandarin". Iron Man 3 would infamously throw all of this foreshadowing away and try to claim that the Mandarin did not exist in the MCU, being only a front for that film's actual villain. Fan backlash to this was so huge that Marvel made an entire short film to retcon it away, but Tony would never encounter his arch-nemesis on the big screen before his death in Avengers: Endgame like Favreau originally planned, leaving the Ten Rings story arc to be concluded in the Shang-Chi movie instead.
  • Early in the film, Tony makes a grand showing of his televised court hearing to ensure that under no circumstances would he or his technology fall into the U.S government's hands. Six years later, and Tony will end up completely reversing this position by willingly signing the Sokovia Accords, ensuring that he and his technology is under the control of the United Nations out of guilt for creating Ultron. So much for successfully privatizing world peace, huh?
  • An early scene has Tony reprimanding Pepper for coming near him while sick and asking her to wear a mask, to which she replies "that's rude." Come 2020 and the COVID-19 Pandemic, and people who refused to wear masks during it, and that Pepper's actress Gwyneth Paltrow would end up among those who contracted the disease, that little exchange is more than a little bit uncomfortable.
  • After Natasha injects something into Tony's neck to "take the edge" off his hangover/palladium poisoning, he asks Natasha if he's trying to kill him out of shock. What If...? gives us an alternate timeline where Natasha accidentally does kill him, due to Hank Pym / Yellowjacket poisoning Stark from inside the syringe.
  • Tony Stark's determination to ensure his suits never get in the hands of the U.S government was already important in hindsight after finding out that Senator Samuel Stern was a member of HYDRA who likely wanted to confiscate the suits for their organization's agenda. One of the alternate timelines shown in What If...? gives us a worst-case scenario of Stark's technology being taken over by the government when Thunderbolt Ross takes control of several man-made drones Stark constructed alongside Erik "Killmonger" Stevens, and uses them to launch an assault on Wakanda.
  • Hammer's technology is treated as a joke here. When the company reappears in Luke Cage as the manufacturer of the Judas bullet, said bullet is strong enough to harm the titular hero, harder to bear.
  • Early on, it's a great show of Hammer Tech's inferiority to Stark that a pilot of a prototype power armor is crippled while wearing it. This happens to Rhodey, wearing the War Machine suit, in Civil War.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight:
  • Natasha and Tony have a rocky relationship in this movie, owing to her lying to him about her identity when he hires her to assist Pepper and protect her, given his awe in seeing her fight Happy. By the time of Avengers: Endgame, he considers Natasha as his family.
  • Happy is Overshadowed by Awesome when helping Natasha take down the compound guards, only getting one guy while she gets half a dozen. Iron Man 3 has Tony promote him to head of Stark Security as thanks for his commitment to the job, and Spider-Man: Far From Home has him successfully evacuate Peter Parker's friends when the Big Bad starts gunning for them.
  • The kid who was dressed as Iron Man at the Stark Expo was later revealed by Word of Saint Paul to be a young Peter Parker. This makes the scene in the climax especially heartwarming as Tony's compliment to him probably helped kickstart Peter's superhero career after he got his powers. Moreover, a good portion of this movie is about one's legacy: both Tony dealing with his father's, and trying to leave one himself. So in this scene, Tony ends up saving the life of the person he’ll later be entrusting that legacy to.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The Stinger where Thor's hammer is found. Viewers may assume that it's government presence that circling the area. As Thor reveals, it's just a bunch of macho dudes trying to pull out the hammer.
  • Phil Coulson trying to hide his knockoff Captain America shield from Tony Stark becomes a lot funnier after The Avengers revealed how much of a Cap fanboy he is. Tony's dismissive attitude towards it also becomes funnier when it's revealed that his father more-or-less helped create him during WWII, and likely had been holding it over Tony's head ever since.
  • Howard Stark is an expy of Walt Disney himself in this movie. Guess who bought Marvel just a few months before this movie was released? On that note, the announcement that Disney would be building three Marvel-themed lands at the Disney Theme Parks, including one at Hong Kong called Stark Expo Hong Kong.
  • After the film came out, the Internet became riddled with comparisons between Tony's Senate hearing and Hank Rearden's trial in Atlas Shrugged. Iron Man 3 turns Jack Taggert into "J. Taggart" — Jim Taggart is the name of an antagonist in Atlas Shrugged.
  • The scene where Tony greets "Mr. Musk"—Elon Musk, CEO of both Tesla Motors and SpaceX, playing himself—and Tony comments about how "Those Merlin engines are fantastic." Back in 2010 when the movie was released, this was just an inside gag about some new technology buzz. Since then, the Merlin engine has become the basis of SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch systems, which look likely to slash the cost of orbital insertions compared to conventional rockets, including contracts with the DOD and INTELSAT.
  • The reveal in The Winter Soldier that Senator Stern is a member of HYDRA would be seen in a darker light, unless you take into account that Tony Stark outsmarted and essentially trolled an undercover HYDRA agent on live international television.
  • The race in Monaco features 1970s to 1980s Formula One car designs. Some of the cars seen are cars from the 1976 season; most clearly seen is the Penske PC4 and the Ferrari 312T2. The film Rush (2013) is based on the 1976 season, and have a cast of two MCU actors; with Thor himself (Chris Hemsworth) playing James Hunt, while Baron Zemo from Captain America: Civil War (Daniel Brühl) playing Niki Lauda. As a bonus, Brühl is using that exact Ferrari model type in Rush.
  • According to Word of Saint Paul, the Expo kid wearing an Iron Man helmet from the climax, was a young Peter Parker and he was played by director Jon Favreau's son Max Favreau. Two years after this film came out, and the unrelated Spider-Man movie has another actor named Max (Max Charles) playing a young Peter Parker, before he grows up into Andrew Garfield. This is later made doubly ironic when Jon's character Happy Hogan was put in charge of looking after Peter for Tony in Spider-Man: Homecoming and crushes on his surrogate mother May in Spider-Man: Far From Home.
  • On a similar note, Tony telling Rhodey that "Iron Man doesn't have a sidekick" becomes ironic given that, after Spider-Man was introduced in the MCU, some people have criticized the MCU's version of Spider-Man as essentially being Iron Man's sidekick.
  • One of the songs DJ AM plays during Tony and Rhodey's fight at the party is "It Takes Two" by Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock. Said song would end up being extensively used by Marvel in the advertising for Ant-Man and the Wasp.
  • Hacked CCTV footage from North Korea during the Senate hearing reveals that they developed a Chicken Walker-esque mech which fails horribly. Tony quips that it's probably one of the countries 5-10 years away from perfecting mobile suits of his grade. Around 5 years later (or more) in South Korea... Speaking of, the Hammer drones' heads resemble Bastion's.
  • Ivan tells Tony that in order to stop people believing in God, you must make God bleed. Flash-foward to Avengers: Infinity War, where Tony makes Thanos bleed.
  • Hammer's last line in the movie counts as this. "You're making a problem for me? I'm gonna make a problem for YOU. I'll be seeing you again...REAL soon!" And after a decade and 20 movies... his only further appearance was a post-credits cameo in All Hail the King as a prison inmate.
• Ho Yay: A line from this film's original script (which still survives in the novelisation) has Tony drunkenly proposition Rhodey to join him in a three-way during his "last" birthday party.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Disqualify Iron Man from being on the Avengers. Right...
• Magnificent Bastard: Ivan Vanko, aka Whiplash, is the son of Anton Vanko, a disgraced colleague of Howard Stark. Vowing to destroy Tony Stark's reputation for his father's pitiable fate, Ivan developed his own arc reactor from his father's designs with limited materials and attacked Iron Man at a Grand Prix in Monaco for the sole purpose of disproving Iron Man's invincibility. Despite losing, Ivan observed that Tony was suffering from palladium poisoning and was content with knowing that Tony would be dead soon before being broken out of prison by Tony's rival Justin Hammer, making a deal to team up to take Tony down. Taking advantage of Hammer's resources while pretending to be incompetent, Ivan created Hammer Drones and his own Powered Armor for Hammer's presentation before hijacking the drones' programming and setting them loose on the crowd. Joining the fray, Ivan's suit proved a match for Iron Man and his friend War Machine, and despite losing again, Ivan used his death to set off explosives in every piece of machinery he made, nearly killing Iron Man. With his determination and skills, Ivan Vanko proved to be the ultimate match to Iron Man.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • IVAN VANKO BUILT THIS IN HIS BASEMENT! ...WITH A BURD!!! ^ExplanationA reference to the first film's meme about how Tony built his first suit in a cave, Vanko build his whips in his apartment with very few evident resources.
  • I VANT MY BURD!^ExplanationA reference to Vanko's insistence on not working until Hammer retrieved his pet bird from Russia
  • Dhrone Bettuh.^ExplanationVanko's reply to Hammer insisting on Powered Armor
  • Software shit.^ExplanationVanko says this after effortlessly Hollywood Hacking into Hammer's systems after typing a bit on a computer.
  • The scene of Tony Stark rediscovering the new element.^ExplanationUsed in caption memes to describe people working hard on something that really isn't that good. Example◊
  • "I'm limited by the technology of my time" ^ExplanationSaid by Howard Stark in the message to Tony explaining why he's unable to create the above mentioned new element despite having the knowledge to do so. Often used when somebody has to deal with technological limitations
• Narm: See here.
• Nightmare Fuel: The failed Hammertech manned power armor test run. This ended badly when the torso of the suit rotated 180 degrees (with a crack and muffled scream). Rivals The Dark Knight in terms of unseen Body Horror.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • Bill O'Reilly, who makes a surprising cameo as himself, commenting on his show about Pepper Potts becoming CEO of Stark Industries (which he thinks is just Political Correctness). It's much like the segments on his show in real life, but the fact that he was in Iron Man 2 made it hilarious. Became Harsher in Hindsight in later years when sexual harassment claims were filed against him that ended his show and career as a result.
  • Olivia Munn, who makes an appearance as a news reporter covering Stark Expo.
  • Kate Mara appears in one scene, but the whole scene is hilarious: She's waiting for Tony outside the Expo, much to his delight (her being a gorgeous woman), only to reveal herself to be a U.S. Marshal tasked with serving Tony a subpoena to appear before the Senate.
  • The Suitcase Armor. It's used for just three minutes and has the living crap beaten out of it, but the activation was so cool that the armor was used on the DVD cover instead of the Mark VI upgrade. Elements of it were also adapted into the Mark VII of The Avengers.
  • Elon Musk makes a cameo back when he was a little known tech CEO. By the 2020’s, Musk became a much more notable and controversial public figure known worldwide.
• Pandering to the Base: Some people accused the movie of setting up the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe more than its own, due to the greater presence of Call Forwards like Captain America's shield, a clip from The Incredible Hulk, Tony being evaluated for the Avengers, Black Widow, Nick Fury's return, and Thor's hammer being found. However, Nick Fury doesn't appear until more than an hour in and even then his purpose is more to get Tony off of his ass and work than to convince him to join the Avengers. He even tells Tony that how annoyed he is Tony has become his problem to deal with when S.H.I.E.L.D. has more on its plate to handle. Pandering also seems to be parodied when Coulson discovers an incomplete Captain America shield. Tony asks for it excitedly... and uses it to prop up his machine.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Chess Roberts, the news reporter covering Stark Expo, is played by Olivia Munn. While at the time fans of Attack of the Show! knew her for her stint co-hosting the show, this was before Munn became better known for roles such as Sloan Sabbith in The Newsroom and Psylocke in X-Men: Apocalypse.
  • The gorgeous woman who ends up revealing herself as a U.S. Marshal tasked with serving Tony a subpoena to appear before the Senate is played by Kate Mara, before she became more famous por playing Zoe Barnes in House of Cards.
• Sequelitis: Usually considered the weakest or one of the weakest films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe thus far. That said, general consensus seems to be that the second movie is still an entertaining film, if not exactly as fresh as the first one. It may help if you think of it as the second in a trilogy.
• Signature Scene:
  • Tony donning the suitcase armor, for the sheer amount of Technology Porn that came from putting it on.
  • Justin Hammer's sales pitch for outfitting the War Machine suit. The ex-wife line in particular.
  • The little boy in the Iron Man mask who gets a compliment from Iron Man himself became one after it was revealed that he was Peter Parker all along.
• So Okay, It's Average: Consensus is that while it still has the same one-liners and action sequences other MCU movies have it falls flat compared to the first movie and most other MCU movies in general. It helps that it isn't quite as base-breaking as the next Iron Man film.
• Strawman Has a Point:
  • Senator Stern is an ass and a HYDRA operative, and Hammer is an idiot, but both of them make a lot of valid points in the senate hearing. Tony is a loose cannon, his suit is a weapon (whether he likes the term or not) of the sort that would ordinarily be denied a private citizen, and he is acting totally independent of anyone who could review his actions or rein him in if he gets out of control. None of these things are remotely desirable traits in someone who is trying to be a one-man police force for the whole world.
  • As it happens, he's only acting out because the job's killing him. Notably, SHIELD agrees with Stern and Hammer that while Iron Man is useful, Tony Stark is too unstable. They still call him in for Avengers, on the grounds that they've hit the Godzilla Threshold.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Ivan Vanko actually has a more developed and interesting backstory than many of the other MCU Phase 1 and Phase 2 antagonists, who generally tend to fall into the category of Generic Doomsday Villain or turn out to be essentially just mooks for Greater Scope Villains, but the movie's having to spend so much of its time introducing new characters and setting up things for The Avengers means that Vanko ends up an under-developed Anti-Climax Boss in the finished product.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Pepper quite notably confronts Natalie Rushman during Tony's and Rhodey's fight about her influence on affairs, but this is never extrapolated on and the two present a united front in later scene. It's quite possibly a leftover of the Love Triangle that was cut from the final release.
  • This movie is the closest the MCU has come to portraying Tony as an alcoholic like in the comics, but here his excessive drinking and unstable behavior is merely a reaction to slowly dying from his implanted arc reactor. One reason for this is that Disney and Marvel didn't want the series to have such a dark and troubling subject as alcoholism, as well as the fact that Robert Downey Jr. was also uncomfortable with dealing with this topic, for fear that spending time in the mindset of an addict would cause him to relapse into substance abuse.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Tony Stark putting on his "suitcase armor".

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