More 'Marvel Universe 0.5' than 'Iron Man 2'

Rating: 6/10 (8 May 2010)

Nowhere near as good as the first one, but enjoyable nonetheless. It's patchy and talky and Tony Stark spends much more time out of the suit than in it, but I still liked it. I can see why it's getting some poor reviews, it's all over the place with (too?) many characters and slows down in the middle. I think if you're not that familiar with the Marvel Universe you could find it confusing and maybe even boring. The thing I really enjoyed about this movie was that all the disparate events and characters go towards starting to define a cohesive movie version of the Marvel Universe. One of the things that has bugged me about superhero films in the past is that they try to occur in 'the real world'. The Hero is usually the only hero to exist, and only enough super-villains exist for the hero to vanquish in 2 hours. But these stories were never meant to work in the real world, they should be told within the context of a world of Marvels; a world of powers and magic, of super-spies and secret organisations, of advanced technology, miracle elements and mystical weapons. Iron Man 2 attempts this, but arguably at the expense of it's main character and a tight stand-alone script. The fan-boy in me likes the film for trying.