Industrialist/ Superhero Tony Stark returns in the action packed summer blockbuster IRON MAN 2. Tony Stark is viewed by many as a force for peace in the world with his Iron Man armor. The US Government demands that he give over the technology, but as you may recall, Tony is out of the weapons making business. Severe changes in Tony’s personal and professional life cause him to make some radical choices including making long time assistant Pepper Potts (Gwenyth Paltrow) the new CEO of Stark Industries.  With the pleasant surprise that the first IRON MAN film was could this one top it?

IRON MAN 2 has landed and I think that we can all agree that we needed it. It’s a rare thing when a sequel is as good as the first film, but with comic book movies that has been the case. X2, SPIDER-MAN 2 and THE DARK KNIGHT can attest to that fact, however, IRON MAN 2 didn’t fit that bill for me. First off, the film is a lot of fun and I wont deny that. I just felt that the story was a bit messy. The film tries to do a lot in its two hour run time and it seemed like they wanted to cram as much in that time as possible. It just wasn’t a very cohesive story line. I really liked the majority of the stuff that we saw, but we needed to spend a little more time on some of the plot and characters. The cast is so big that you could easily forget that a star like Mickey Rourke (Ivan Vanko, Whiplash) was even in the picture.

When you have Don Cheadle (James Rhodes, War Machine) and Scarlett Johansson (Natalie Rushman, Black Widow) mixed in the cast that we have already listed it becomes hard because you want to see more of each of them. I do think that the screen time that each character had was well spent, but right when you got used to that person we were off to the next character. I really enjoyed Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer in the movie. He felt like that rich kid you knew as a child who didn’t know how to be anything but rich. The dynamic of seeing Stark and Hammer together was fun. It’s like Hammer has all of this money, but all he wants is to have the respect that Stark has. And Stark makes sure that Hammer knows that he doesn’t command that respect.  Hammer is just awkward enough that you feel bad for him and just a jerk enough that you don’t like him. I am sad to say that I felt that Rourke was severely under used. Being promoted as the main villain I expected way more from him. When he is on screen he is great, but it was like he was there, then gone, then he was back at the end. I think that might be the ultimate fate of most super villain’s in film is that they are never used as much as you would like.

The CGI and the action in this movie was epic. That was the only thing about IRON MAN 2 that was better than the first. There are times when Downey Jr. is in the plastic version of the armor and then it goes to the CGI and it is so seem less. There is a fight with Iron Man, War Machine and the “Hammer-Droids” that I thought was pretty spectacular. Some people I spoke with felt like the end battle was lacking, but it is pretty much what I expected. The Black Widow has some really good physical stuff in the film that was so well choreographed I could watch it again and again. She was like a sexy Mexican wrestler.

There are a few reasons that the story was a little weak in the film. They could be saving some great stuff for a third film or even for THE AVENGERS movie. Either way, if you liked the first film I believe that you will like the second, I just wouldn’t expect it to blow you away as much as the first. It’s a solid summer movie epic that’s for sure and we are eager to hear your thoughts. Post comments below.

Fanboyz Grade B-