Iron Man 2 (2010)

With the world now aware of his dual life as the armored superhero Iron Man, billionaire inventor Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) 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 (Gwyneth Paltrow), and James "Rhodey" Rhodes (Don Cheadle) at his side, must forge new alliances -- and confront powerful enemies.

Iron Man 2 was definitely satisfying, coming from someone who had been anticipating it a lot. Robert Downey Jr. returns as Tony Stark, the billionaire behind Iron Man. Downey is great here, again, bringing back his charm he gave Tony Stark. Just when the world in this movie has had an uninterrupted peace for a little while, Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), AKA Whiplash, crashes the party. He destroys some vehicles and gets into a fight with Iron Man right in public, in front of everyone. He gets taken to prison, and thats when Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) recruits him to go against Iron Man. Thats the main plot here, with a couple subplots thrown in, but not too many, unlike Spider-Man 3. The acting from the entire cast is great. Gwyneth Paltrow was actually really good in this one, and Don Cheadle was a damn good replacement for Terrence Howard. Mickey Rourke is a pretty badass villain, though I wish he had just a little more fight scenes in the movie. Sam Rockwell was a great addition to this cast and does a great job with Justin Hammer. Scarlet Johansson sizzles as Black Widow, shes sexy and extremely fun to watch. The special effects are great, just like the first one. Overall, Iron Man 2 was a great comic book adaptation. Its one of the best and most entertaining movies of 2010 so far.

Another fine movie, like the first one, however I do have one fairly big complaint. Iron man fighting Iron man, with all the bad guys in the comic world when will they have Iron man go up against someone other than Iron man. If I have said Iron man too many times you might be getting my point. First Iron man has to battle a great big Iron man, now he has to battle several regular size Iron men, what's next? midget Iron men, then microscopic Iron men. Please enough already choose a real bad guy that isn't Iron man for number 3.

****/*****

4/5 Stars