Iron Man 2: No One Goes Anywhere Alone

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That's what the whole theme of the movie feels like to me seven hours after I left the theatre.

"No one goes anywhere alone."

I don't remember where I read it or heard it. But it fits.



Consider Stark's claims to have privatized world peace in the context of the bluster of a man who believes himself to be dying. He doesn't want anyone to know until he's gotten all the pieces of his succession plan in order. So he already knows no one can afford for him to truly be indispensable. So he behaves in some of the worst ways possible to distract Rhodey, Pepper...everyone who's close enough to figure things out from actually noticing what's right under their noses.

Irony or inevitability, or perhaps both: the first one to figure out what's really going on is Ivan Vanko, the man who wants revenge for sins real and imagined against his family by Howard Stark. He's looking for the weak spots in the various kinds of armour Stark's wearing already, and he's not going to care too much about sparing the pain.

Thematic reinforcement: Stark has to rely on help from a lot of other people to get anywhere. Pepper, Rhodey, Hogan, Fury, Romanova, Coulson, JARVIS. It's probably an incomplete list. The help takes forms ranging from research to butt-kicking. And sometimes it's Tony's own backside in need of the kicking. Verbally or physically.

It was a good movie. Character study in progress, history lesson, action roller-coaster ride...take your pick. It's a movie that works.

Worth two hours and ten or twelve dollars.

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Also...

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...I hope that the cockatoo survived the end of the story.