8 MCU Movies You Can Totally Avoid Watching
7. Iron Man 2
The first Iron Man film introduced us to the charismatic Tony Stark and his penchant for pushing technological boundaries, and kick-started the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the process. The second, however, isn't exactly renowned for its importance to the overall narrative.
While Iron Man 2 does put forward some interesting ideas, such as Tony's realisation of his own mortality, the execution left a lot to be desired as his subsequent acting-out felt like more of a character regression than anything else. Furthermore, in terms of villains, Mickey Rourke's Whiplash pales in comparison to Jeff Bridges' Obadiah Stane.
The MCU was still very much finding its footing at this stage so, in a way, it makes sense that Kevin Feige and Marvel wanted to ensure its overall success by maintaining the focus on a character that they knew was a draw before venturing off into uncharted territory. That being said, Iron Man 2 just felt like a less-than-stellar (and completely unnecessary) companion to its predecessor.
Aside from the introduction of Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, who goes onto play a much greater role in later films, you could miss this one and miss, well, nothing of significance to the MCU.