Tony Stark vs Justin Hammer

I went to go see Iron Man 2 a few days ago with a couple of friends. Because I am a Theatre major and have been analyzing films and plays for a little bit my friends asked me after the movie why the audience connects with and likes the main character Tony Stark (Ironman!) and not with another character named Justin Hammer. I have been thinking about it for a long time and also talked with my parents about this (when I was feeling more awake, you see).

Be warned, there will probably be a few spoilers, so if you haven't seen the movie, I suggest you go see it first. :)

As my friends pointed out, the characters of Stark and Hammer were very similar in personality. Both of them are narcissists, both are the owners and CEOs of weapons manufacturers, and both of them are not very respectful of people around them. They even both danced right before their speeches at the Expo (earning groans from me during both instances). In truth, I didn't like either one of their characters, though I liked Stark better than Hammer.

As similar as these two characters are, the reasons the audience likes Stark better than Hammer is because of the differences between the two characters. Mostly in the difference of motives and tactics to get what they want. Stark is a brilliant man who builds off of his father's work to make bigger and better things, and he is the one to make the discoveries of the arc reactor, the iron man suit, and the *spoiler* new element of super-power-ness. He did the work himself.

Hammer, on the other hand, tried to get the work done himself (incompetently, of course), but also he *more spoilers* went through great lengths to spring Ivan out of jail (killing a man in the process and exploding part of the jail), and tried to force him to build iron man suits for him. When things weren't going as he had hoped he started to treat Ivan more and more like a prisoner. This instance was just one of many that showed just how petty Hammer is. Hammer, throughout the whole movie, was just trying to upstage Stark, show him up, even going to criminal lengths to do so.

Mostly it was seeing just how petty Hammer was, I think, that would lead the audience to put Hammer in the "despicable character" box.