Iron Man 2 has been released and I checked it out last night. Personally, I enjoyed it, but doubly after having read the Alexander Irvine novelization. Much like with going from the graphic novel of Kick-Ass to the movie Kick-Ass, the transition from a weak telling of a story to a strong telling of a story can make such a difference based purely on the comparison.

I always love doing this little experiment of checking out the novelization of comic book movies, then seeing how the final product compares. I’ve been doing it for the past few years and they’ve always seemed to be based on the full version of the story. The novelization is what the movie is like before the editor cuts off chunks. Sometimes this works out for the better (Incredible Hulk). Sometimes this works out for the worse (Spider-Man 3). There’s even the first Iron Man, where the second act had to be refilmed and edited around just to make the Air Force happy.

Iron Man 2 is a different beast, since it doesn’t appear to be based on the full version of the screenplay, but of an earlier, incomplete version. There are plotholes and loose ends riddling the story that the movie is nice enough to fix. Even better, some of the climactic moments are so ridiculously underwhelming that the final cinematic output is a godsend.

Let’s take a look at what was changed.

– The most obvious removal is the scene of Pepper kissing Tony’s helmet and throwing it out the aircraft as he tells her, “You complete me!” as seen in all the ads. A variation of that is in the book. The situation makes it look like Tony is about to be dropped into a warzone. He’s vomiting into a toilet and argues with Pepper over what brand of aspirin she’s given him. The two banter back and forth and the tension is played up until he finally makes the jump out of the plane. The payoff, of course, is that this is for the Stark Expo and not some big battle.

– One thing I complained about in my review of the book was the Tech-Ball. This is a device Tony tinkers with early on in the movie and I’m really not even sure what it is. The best I can tell is that it’s some kind of machine nanite dealy that shapeshifts based on – I guess – the whims of the one holding it. Tony suggests to JARVIS that he might be able to eventually make a suit of armor out of it.

– The court scene mainly has two differences. One, the footage of Hammer’s Iron Man knockoff test subject shows that he’s able to take off, but then crashes and explodes. Two, they took out the awesome final line. As you may remember, Hammer compares Iron Man to a sword instead of a shield. Tony ends the press conference with, “I don’t know if I’m a sword or a shield, but I do know that Hammer is a tool.”

– When Vanko meets up with the guy in the alley, more emphasis is put on the guy’s neck tattoo, which is of the Ten Rings symbol, thereby tying it into the first movie. The actor is identified as being part of the Ten Rings in the movie credits, coincidentally. Worth noting is that although his name never comes up vocally, the novelization brings up “The Mongolian”, who is supposed to be a bigwig in the Ten Rings. An odd inclusion by the author.

– Tony and Pepper are back on the aircraft from earlier after the court session is finished. Pepper was nice enough to let Rhodey join in for the ride, which Tony disagrees with. He feels betrayed that Rhodey didn’t warn him ahead of time and the two have an argument about the Iron Man tech while Pepper tries to play peacemaker. Rhodey really thinks it’s better in the government’s hands and gives a good argument. Also brought up are how Justin Hammer replaced Tony when he decided to stop making weapons for the government and how the big Monaco car race thing is something Tony’s especially passionate about. In fact, he even says from the start that he’s going to be racing his own car.

Exchange worth noting:

“It’s business. The world didn’t stop just because you stopped making weapons. You left a vacuum. Hammer filled it.”

“So you’re telling me you’re proud of the fact that Hammer filled your vacuum?”

– When Pepper barges in on Tony and he ends up making her CEO, he annoys her with the Tech-Ball at one point. She ends up holding onto it, which is important for later.

– At the car race, there’s a part where Pepper tries to talk to somebody in French, but only has a novice understanding of it, so it’s disastrous. Natalie Rushman proves herself more able by speaking more fluently as a save. This sets up the Pepper/Natalie rivalry that feels very incomplete in the movie. Plus it gives Natalie something to do before she’s revealed to be a spy. Her entire existence makes Pepper feel like less of a woman, while Happy feels like less of a man.

– The spy thing is more obvious, as Natalie is regularly seen answering a cell phone call from an unknown number and claiming it’s her father. Pepper chastises her for personal phone calls and Happy suspects something is off. During the Whiplash situation, she acts by telling her superiors about what’s going on on the phone.

– When Happy drives Pepper to the racetrack, they’re shot at by guards, which makes you wonder why nobody’s shooting at Whiplash. In the movie, there’s that brief part where Happy mentions that the key to the briefcase armor is in his pocket. In the book, Pepper fishes in his pocket for the key and amongst all the panic, Happy confesses that he’s always loved her. Suddenly things get very awkward and he admits that he probably shouldn’t have said that while she had her hand in his pants.

– Having beaten Whiplash, Iron Man doesn’t crush his arc reactor, but keeps it for study. The first thing he tells Pepper is that his first priority is investigating it. He follows that up with noting that the Mark V suit is a success, but still needs a little work.

– The only real difference in the Tony/Vanko scene is that Tony refuses to believe that Vanko built that arc reactor. He grills him over who built it for him. Vanko teases with, “You like it? I’ll make you one.”

– During the scene of Tony and Rhodey arguing in the lab, we see Jim Cramer on TV, again telling everyone to sell their Stark stock due to the new CEO and the Whiplash disaster. The news shows a helicopter flying above Tony’s mansion, so he decides to do something about it. He goes outside, taps into the helicopter pilot’s helmet and gives him a comment.

“Is this the helicopter that’s hovering over my balcony and blowing all the leaves off my plants? Good. Okay, here’s my statement in the aftermath of the events of the Monaco Historic Grand Prix. Iron Man won! The other guy? He’s toast. The world is as safe as it was the day before yesterday. Iron Man is on the job!”

– Pepper isn’t sure about going to Tony’s birthday party, but Happy talks her into it. She walks in with a gift and is dismayed to see Tony messing around with Natalie. This part was definitely at least filmed, since it’s shown in the trailers. Natalie wears the Iron Man gauntlets and he helps her aim them. Later on, we see that a woman at the party is wearing both Iron Man gauntlets and is using them to hover in the air while telling everyone not to look up her dress. Rhodey is appalled by this and Tony diffuses the moment by sending the girl to his room for later.

During my review of the book, I noted that they had the potential of a huge mistake when Rhodey runs off to become War Machine for the first time, but luckily they changed it. In the movie, Rhodey’s last straw is seeing Iron Man blow up the champagne bottles. In the book, he’s set off by seeing Iron Man blow up the watermelon. Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t help but think that the combination of that scene would have led to a big wave of racial awkwardness if left unchanged. You can’t tell me 4chan wouldn’t have been all over that one.

During the Iron Man/War Machine fight, they smash through Tony’s bedroom, which freaks out the girl from earlier and she runs screaming.

– Sadly missing from the Tony/Fury scene at the donut shop is Fury slapping the taste out of Tony’s mouth to prove he’s real and stealing Tony’s last donut because it’s apparently okay to just take things from Iron Man. There are people outside with cell phones, trying to take pictures, but Agent Coulson presses an EM device that disrupts their phones.

– The footage of Howard Stark talking to Tony is different and more touching. Howard is in his pajamas, holding a baby Tony in his arms. Here’s the full speech:

“This is the third night you’ve kept me up crying. Thought I’d give your mother a rest. Right now you haven’t mastered English yet so I thought I’d put this on film for you. I want to show you something.

“See that? I built that for you. And someday you’re going to realize that it represents a lot more than just people’s inventions. It represents my life’s work. Someday you’ll figure it out. And when you do, you’ll do even bigger things with your life. I just know it. You’re the future.

“I’ve created so much in my life, but you know what is the thing I’m proudest of? You. My son. You are and always will be my greatest creation. I love you. Now let’s get you to bed. The secret to the future is here.”

– After fixing his problem by creating a new element, JARVIS asks Tony if he’d like to name it. He calls it “vibranium”.

– The Vanko/Hammer relationship is far better in the movie, just for the scene with the birdnapping. The whole, “I want my bird,” subplot isn’t even in the book. It’s just Vanko agreeing to work for Hammer and the reader having to guess on who’s going to needlessly turn on the other first. This ultimately makes Hammer look far weaker than in the movie, since there’s no moment where he appears to have the upper hand. Even the part about no longer needing Vanko due to the War Machine development is gone. At one point, he simply tells his guards to take care of Vanko and that’s it.

– Naturally, Vanko kills them. Vanko then suits up into his new Whiplash 2.0 suit and makes his way to the Expo, long before Black Widow and Happy go after him.

– Since there’s nothing involving the Thor reveal, Agent Coulson is at the Expo and protects Pepper briefly. Pepper confronts Hammer about the drones running amuck and he tries to blame everything on Vanko. He lies through his teeth and swears that he never truly hated Tony and attempts to cover his ass before taking off. Pepper points him out to Coulson, who gives chase. Neither Coulson nor Hammer are mentioned again.

– The War Machine/Iron Man chase is way longer, or at least feels that way. It’s mostly Tony repeatedly yelling at Rhodey for shooting at him no matter how many times Rhodey insists it’s not him doing it. Tony also decides that this is a good time to express that he’s been acting like a dick lately due to the fact that he was dying. Whiplash is shown using War Machine’s vision to track down where Pepper is.

– One of the reasons the chase is longer is because it’s Iron Man and JARVIS who have to figure out a way to get through War Machine’s firewall and destroy Vanko’s tampering. This is probably the best thing they ever changed. You see, in the book version, this means Black Widow does absolutely NOTHING. She spends all that effort beating up goons, even though we know for certain by that point that Vanko isn’t around, and she doesn’t even fix War Machine. It’s ridiculous. After she warns Tony that Vanko’s already left, she’s never mentioned again.

– The final battle is so goddamn shitty I don’t know where to start. Iron Man and War Machine fight off the drones and Iron Man gets a call on his helmet from Pepper. He answers it to find that Whiplash has her and wants him to fly over. Iron Man has no choice but to leave War Machine to fight off the rest. Iron Man lands in front of Whiplash, who has Pepper hostage and says he might let her live if Tony gives himself up. Iron Man and War Machine are able to communicate through their helmets and they talk about bringing “the Ex-Wife” (Hammer’s super missile that didn’t work in the movie) over after War Machine finishes with the drones. Keep in mind that Tony should not know what the hell the Ex-Wife is, yet he does anyway.

Tony gives in and his armor removes itself from his body and folds up onto the ground. As they’re making the trade, Tony insults Vanko’s father by saying it’s not his fault how he turned out. This causes Whiplash to go back on his deal. He’s going to kill Tony and Pepper. He begins to strangle them both with his whips, but focuses so much on Tony’s impending death that he absent-mindedly lets Pepper go. Pepper reaches into her purse and pulls out the Tech-Ball. The Tech-Ball, which they hadn’t brought up since what would have been minutes into the movie had they kept it in. She tosses it to Tony, it wraps around his hand like a gauntlet and he yanks the whip off his throat.

He gets Vanko angry by pointing out the holes in his revenge story, which his way of stalling so he can fall onto another suitcase armor that builds around him. I guess this is the same armor that he just deactivated a minute ago, but the book really isn’t clear. Whiplash grabs Iron Man by the ankles with his whips, but is then distracted by War Machine showing up. Iron Man springs up, punches Whiplash down, grabs Pepper and flies off as War Machine fires the Ex-Wife missile at Whiplash, blowing the area to kingdom come.

– This brings us to the scene on the rooftop where Pepper quits. The only real change is that Rhodey is a little more specific about his future. He and Pepper briefly argue whether the military or Stark Industries own the War Machine armor, but Rhodey claims that whoever owns the suit, he’s keeping it. Besides, maybe when Iron Man takes a day off, War Machine will be there to step in. He leaves, stating that he’s going to hide the armor and come up with a bunch of lies to tell his superiors. As he flies off, Tony remarks that he’s never seen his armor fly off in person before and how it’s pretty cool.

And that’s it! That’s the end. No celebration or Nick Fury epilogue. It’s just over.

So whether you liked Iron Man 2 or hated it, I think it’s safe to say that we can agree that it could have been a lot worse.

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Posted in 4thletter exclusives, Deleted Scenes, Lists, movies by Gavok |