I just caught Iron Man 2 at the movie theatre. I thought it was entertaining. Not significant enough to write a full piece on, but with some relevant reflections from it fresh in my mind, I figured I’d jot them down.
Tony Stark is clearly a very troubled, albeit charismatic man. He has a very distracted, boyish consciousness, seen in one scene to be totally put off his balance by a rotating windmill-like desk decoration. He is incapable of listening to others with presence and seems unable to feel deeply into them, being so emotionally armored (for which I see his Iron suit as a perfect metaphor).
The reason for this, as is explained pretty well in one scene, is clearly that he did not have a close relationship with has father. He never felt his dad’s acceptance or love as a child and now he is compensating. When he hits rock bottom during the movie, the revelation through a video clip that his father loved him more than anything else in the world gives him the strength to move on.
Damned shame the dad didn’t just tell him, instead of creating a bloody film roll to be discovered 20 years after his death.
The villain Ivan Vanko’s main problem in life is exactly the same – a difficult relationship with his father, whom is seen to die at the beginning of the movie.
Iron Man 2 is hardly a movie about the father son relationship, and yet both the hero and the villain are characters defined by it. I thought that was noteworthy enough to mention before going to bed.