Sightlines · how to watch
How to watch Iron Man 2
2010 · Jon Favreau · Iron Man 2 on Sightlines
5 things to watch and listen for on a first viewing, without spoilers, and 4 more once you have seen it. Each names something you can see or hear, the pattern it belongs to, and what noticing it gives you. How these keys work.
On a first viewing
Notice the dark lines spreading on Stark's neck. (performance)
Downey plays a man performing invincibility while the reactor in his chest poisons him. Blood toxicity shows as creeping dark veins. He checks them alone, then walks back into the room and jokes.
Payoff: The film gives you a gauge on his throat. The swagger reads differently once you are tracking it. In the reading: symptom. The reading calls those veins a symptom: the visible sign of a drive the character refuses to name out loud.
Notice the difference between Stark's rooms and Vanko's. (light)
Libatique keeps Stark in burnished metal, lens flares and clean high-key light. Vanko's workbench and the Russian interiors get harder, colder light and grime. The two men never share a palette.
Payoff: The lighting sorts the rivalry before the plot does. Inherited wealth and improvisation get different kinds of light. In the reading: binomial. The reading calls the rivalry a binomial: force against force, staged here as two opposed ways of lighting a workshop.
Listen for AC/DC arriving whenever Stark does. (sound)
Shoot to Thrill scores his entrance and the band's catalog keeps returning with him. Tom Morello's guitar threads the score. The armor carries its own signature: servo whine, repulsor charge, heavy footfalls.
Payoff: Character is delivered through the soundtrack. You hear who has walked in before the suit is on screen.
Watch the reaction shots after Downey's fast lines. (cutting)
Lebental and Pearson cut to keep the feel of improvisation, holding on listeners so ad-libs land. Dialogue overlaps and runs quick, closer to screwball comedy than to superhero solemnity.
Payoff: The comedy is built in the edit. Notice which face the camera chooses to catch each line.
Look at the Stark Expo domes and the vintage film. (staging)
The fairground is designed as mid-century World's Fair futurism, retro domes and all, with a promotional reel of Howard Stark speaking in mannered optimism. The film keeps returning to both.
Payoff: The father's leftovers are staged as an exhibit. Notice how much attention the movie gives what looks like background.
Once you have seen it
Notice the plan hidden inside the fairground model. (structure)
The Expo layout Howard designed turns out to be the atomic structure Tony needs. The old promotional film and the diorama were a message all along. Tony then builds the element by hand.
Payoff: A city plan doubles as a molecule. The reconciliation with his father is delivered as a drawing instead of a speech. In the reading: diagram. The reading calls this a diagram: a plan that shifts across time into an entirely different plan without changing shape.
Count the separate plots the middle of the film juggles. (structure)
Stark's illness, Vanko's revenge, Hammer's contract, Rhodey's turn and the S.H.I.E.L.D. material all run at once. The cutting shuttles between them, and long stretches move information rather than people.
Payoff: The slack in the middle is the franchise laying track. You can feel the picture stop to set up other pictures.
Watch the party where Stark fires repulsors at bottles. (staging)
He is drunk, sick and sealed inside the suit, blasting champagne out of the air while guests laugh and then stop laughing. The scene does almost nothing for the plot.
Payoff: This is the clearest picture the film has of its own subject. A man burning himself down inside the thing keeping him alive.
Watch Rockwell's hands whenever Hammer is nervous. (performance)
Hammer flatters, fidgets and oversells everything. Rockwell plays the same appetite Stark has with none of the ability behind it, and pitches the Expo dance to be almost unbearable.
Payoff: The rival is built as a mirror. Watch how much of Stark's own act you can find in him.
Carry this in: Watch the veins on Stark's neck. The swagger is a performance laid over a man who believes he is running out.