Iron Man 2 (2010)

Director: Jon Favreau

Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sam Rockwell, Mickey Rourke, Jon Favreau, Samuel L. Jackson, Gary Shandling

More info: IMDb

Plot: With the world now aware of his dual life as the armored superhero Iron Man, billionaire inventor Tony Stark faces pressure from the government, the press, and the public to share his technology with the military. Unwilling to let go of his invention, Stark, along with Pepper Potts, and James "Rhodey" Rhodes at his side, must forge new alliances - and confront powerful enemies.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? Absolutely!

The first film caught me off guard with how good it was, largely due to Downey's fantastic performance. He and director Favreau really hit it out of the park. A solid home run and one of the better comic book movies to date.

While I did enjoy the sequel, it suffers from the sad formula that's going around where you have to keep adding more and more with each additional picture. What's this? Part 2? OK, we need more villains. For fuck's sake. This needs to stop. Even though this has WAY more shit thrown into it, it's still a fun ride with a lot of great things going for it.

Check out this cool alternate opening...

Downey continues to be awesome. Fuck Johnny Depp. RD Jr's the man. Sam Rockwell's character is utterly amazing. I really dig his character and his performance and I'm looking forward to seeing more of him in the next one. I'm glad Terrence Howard was replaced by Don Cheadle. That pompous prick demanded more money. Gone. Unfortunately they didn't do much with the character of Rhodey which is a damn shame because Cheadle is a beast of an actor and he deserves better. Maybe in the next one.

Then there's Mickey Rourke. He was fantastic and his Ivan Vanko was great. Yeah, it seemed a bit much at times but at least you felt his motivation. He was borderline one dimensional but he delivered a very good performance that elevated the picture. More Sam Jackson in this one and that's never a bad thing. I like the integration of the S.H.I.E.L.D. characters. The build-up to the eventual AVENGERS film is fun. I really dig how Marvel is building a single universe that exists with all of their films. It's exciting and well handled.

I almost forgot, the whole business with Stark's father is nicely done. I was choked up during the moments when Tony sees the behind the scenes clips of his father's little movies. Very touching. It's moments like this that add dimension to something that originated as a comic book, not in any way demeaning the medium. It gives me hope for the THOR and CAPTAIN AMERICA films coming out next year. Marvel has a proven track record and there's no reason to doubt that it will continue...fingers are crossed...please let it continue...