Satisfying sequel but No 3 needs to blast

Rating: Null/10 (4 May 2010)

It's almost an iron (sorry) law of movie-making that a sequel is not as good as the original, but this one comes close enough to satisfy, aided by the return of the brilliant Robert Downey Jr as the manic Tony Stark/Ironman and Jon Favereau as accomplished director. There's more plot this time; indeed possibly too much, as our metallic and schizophrenic hero faces a whole slew of challenges from his one-time aide Lt Col Rhodes (Don Cheadle), rival arms manufacturer Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), Russian technocrat and tattoo fanatic Ivan Vanyo (Mickey Rourke as bulked up as in "The Wrestler") with his savagely destructive energy whips, and even his own suit which is slowly killing him.
In the face of so many troubles, even a super-hero needs some assistance and much of this comes from female aides Virginia 'Pepper' Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Natalie Rushman/Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) who provide superb management and martial skills respectively. In this sequel, there's a lot more ironmen but not quite enough of the Ironman himself. And not enough of the SHIELD's Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson). But there are good special effects and exciting action sequences so that the whole thing flies along like the suit with its jet thrusters permanently on.
All of which which makes one look forward immensely to "Iron Man 3" and, as with the original movie, if you sit through all the credits, you'll see a short item setting up the next film in the franchise.