The sequel to the 2008 blockbuster
Iron Man has been described as
a film about secret dangers, the sins of the father and the nasty price of modern celebrity. If that isn't enough for our hero to handle, the amount on villains he has to take on this time around has tripled. Tony Stark will face off against Mickey Rourke's Whiplash, Sam Rockwell's Justin Hammer and Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow (whose ultimate allegiance is still in question). The LA Times' Hero Complex recently spoke to director Jon Favreau about the difficulty juggling so many baddies in one film,
"You want to be sure you don't suffer from multi-villainitis," he said.
"That's been the downfall of many other superhero franchises." The fan favorite director didn't go into detail about the franchises he was referring to, one can safely assume Sam Raimi's
Spider-Man 3 and Joel Shumacher's Batman films are part of the mix.
There's no need to worry about
Iron Man 2 suffering the same hate, though. Favreau took the time to guarantee his villains aren't used as pointless plot devices, but have an emotional connection to the film's protagonists.
"I was more concerned about the interpersonal dynamic and how the presence of Natasha [a.k.a. the Black Widow, played by Johansson] would affect Tony and Pepper, because what I didn't want to do is make this film episodic, like just another episode of a TV series. So one way to approach that is shift the dynamic with the introduction of new characters. So you have Justin Hammer [Rockwell] inserted into the Tony-Rhodey relationship, and you have Natasha Romanoff inserted into the Tony-Pepper relationship. When done right, a superhero movie has the character's personal life mirroring what's happening in their superhero world, and sometimes you have to force things to do it. In this case, I'd say, we found an organic way to do it. We wanted both A-story and B-story to be affected by these new characters." With
Iron Man 2 hitting theaters in only a few short weeks, fans will be able to judge for themselves whether the curse of comic book movie "multi-villainitis" will finally be broken.
Information courtesy of the LA Times
By TwitterButtons.net
ComicBookMovie.com, and/or the user who contributed this post, may earn commissions or revenue through clicks or purchases made through any third-party links contained within the content above.