Bottom line: Iron Man 2 is a live action superhero sequel about a weapons expert who has decided to protect the world using an iron suite to protect him and destroy his enemies. The movie contains the typical superhero vs. villain battles with large scale, intense violence (low gore), language, and heavy innuendo.
MPAA Rating: PG-13, for sequences of intense action violence and some languageGenre: Action
Runtime: Approx. 125 minutes
Starring: Robert Downey, Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Mickey Rourke and Samuel L. Jackson
Release Date: May 7, 2010
Iron Man 2 - Overview
Tony Stark has already revealed to the world that he is Iron Man, and everyone seems to have accepted it pretty well. Screaming and applause ensue whenever he so humbly insinuates that he is responsible for bringing world peace and other benefits to mankind, and he is easily able to dissuade lawmakers who think his weaponized iron man suite is a danger that should be turned over to the government.
Tony's supremacy comes into question, though, when a Russian with a major chip on his shoulder comes out of the woodwork with his own iron suite fitted with a couple of electrical whips. Couple that with the fact that Tony's palladium core is poisoning his blood, and that his rival, weapons expert Justin Hammer, strikes a deal to work with the whip-wielding villain, and Tony has some real problems.
As always, Tony's assistant Pepper Potts is by his side, and she steps in to handle business affairs, but personally, Tony is on the verge of self-destructing. Will Tony take help from Shield and resolve to find a way to overcome his challenges, or will his enemies win and use Tony's own technology to bring chaos to his peaceful world?
Iron Man 2 - Guide Review for Parents
The weapon-building, womanizing, world-saving Tony Stark is back and more arrogant than ever. This Iron Man sequel is similar to the original movie in the amount and type of heavy violence, language, and frequent uses of innuendo.
The new story presents Ivan Vanko, an intimidating, scary-looking and disturbed new villain, who has created his own iron suite complete with a set of long electrical whips. Violence and mayhem ensue as Ivan goes after Tony personally. The violence in Iron Man 2 -- which is both large and small scale, involving everything from hand-to-hand combat to combat using massively destructive military weapons -- may be frightening or unsettling to kids. Surprisingly few people are harmed during the destructive battle scenes, and there is also much less blood and gore than one would expect. But, as far is kids go, is this a good or a bad thing? Sure, there's not as much blood, gore and death as there should have been (if these things happened in real life), so it's good kids don't see that, but it is also a little bit disconcerting to think of kids seeing all of this violence with very little actual consequence. The absence of real life consequences in movies would be a great topic of discussion for kids that see this movie.
The movie also contains some profanity and heavy innuendo. Women in the movie are most often dressed in tight, revealing outfits. Tony, however, seems to have his eye on only one woman this time around. For a more detailed look at the movie's content, please see the "content overview" below.
Iron Man 2 - Content Overview
*May contain spoilers.- Violence (Extreme): Violence in Iron Man 2 is of a large-scale, very destructive nature. Things are blown up and broken all over the place as iron men fight each other in various situations and settings. Characters use military type weapons and large and deadly guns and other weapons are shown and used throughout the movie. Cars go flying and crash into things, buildings are destroyed, glass shatters, and characters get thrown around, hit, blown up, and more.
- Sex/Nudity (High): Most of the women in the movie wear tight and/or revealing clothing. Heavy innuendo is used throughout. One example: Pepper tells a reporter that she did "quite a spread" on Tony last year.
- Drugs and Alcohol (Medium) Characters are shown drinking. A drunk iron man continues to drink as he makes a fool of himself and begins shooting at things for fun.
- Language (High): Words including the "a" word and the "s" word are used numerous times. Also, words like "damn," "hell," and various phrases like "Oh my God" are used several times.
- Disrespectful/Imitative Behavior (Extreme): Iron Man is egotistical and brags about himself as he goes about getting whatever he wants from anyone he wants. At a party, people throw things up in the air so Iron Man can shoot them, which results in wild cheering (mostly by women in sexy clothing). Kids may want to imitate some of the battles and violent scenes that occur throughout the movie, especially those between Iron Man and his nemesis.
- Scary Scenes (High): Scenes listed under "violence" may be scary to kids. Kids may be frightened by Iron Man's nemesis, Ivan, and his tattooed, scarred, scary looks.
- Sad/Unsettling Scenes (High): The palladium in Iron Man's chest is causing blood poisoning which can be seen in his veins which are popping out. He becomes sicker as the story progresses. Iron man is also sad and bitter about how his father treated him, and some scenes in the movie bring this up as Tony watches old films of his father and learns new info about his father.
Iron Man 2 Topics to Discuss
- After seeing Iron Man 2, kids may have questions about: weapons, world peace or lack thereof, blood poisoning, people inventing deadly weapons and using them on each other, covert organizations, superheroes.
