The Single Biggest Mistake Each MCU Film And TV Show Has Made
38. Iron Man 2 - Studio Interference
From Hancock to Superman II, from Spider-Man 3 to... well, nearly all of the DC Extended Universe, there are many cases of studio interference undermining superhero films. It's not like we needed yet another example of that but, in the form of Iron Man 2, we got one anyway.
A film so overstuffed it's bursting at the seems, Iron Man 2 combines three main ingredients - Iron Man battles Whiplash (Mickey Rourke), Iron Man faces a potentially fatal health crisis, and there's a whole bunch of Avengers set-up too - and does justice to precisely none of them.
The sequel set-up is forced and incredibly awkward, the film's emotional drama is terribly written, and the film's action storyline is unacceptably dull and tension-free. In fact, there are literally only two action scenes in the whole thing, even though this was supposed to be an action film.
Generally speaking, this movie is a rushed, choppily edited mess in which nothing pays off in a satisfying way, and retrospectively it seems like studio interference was the main thing that ruined the film. Sadly, this wasn't the last time studio meddling would nuke an MCU film either.