My review of The Avengers....I mean Iron Man 2

Rating: 6/10 (8 May 2010)

Now I'm all for movies being loyal to their origins (in this case the original Marvel comics), but at some point, there has to be a little bit more of the "human elements" that create the fine line between the two in this film. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is the ego driven technology typhoon, whose cocky humor gets annoying at times, has a problem. His power supply is running low and he is slowly dying. This film takes a more serious look into what Iron Man is truly composed of, but unfortunately the characters don't seem to understand the situation as much as we do. If Tony Stark cannot take himself seriously, then why should we as an audience?
Wipelash (Mickey Rourke), Iron Man's new enemy in this film, is a very dark, interesting character. Sadly though, is given about 15-20 minutes of screen time, majority of which he is either building something or hacking computers. Even his on screen presence is often interrupted by the annoying and uninteresting Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell). His actual action scenes where he is actual causing destruction may total 3 minutes.
Iron Man and Whiplash share a minuscule amount of time on screen together. They meet near the beginning and again near the end. Everything that the two characters were doing in between were totally unrelated to the other (This may be the one part of the film that actually frustrated me).
Later in the film, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) discusses Iron Man's health with Stark. Now for a fan of the Avenger series (like myself), you would probably recognize him, but for anyone else, you wouldn't have a clue what his relevance is. Same goes to Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) her appearance seems to build slowly up to one scene where she beats up like 10 guys.
Much of the film I felt like I was watching an extended trailer for The Avengers. Another portion was like I was watching an Audi commercial. Another portion was like watching a married couple bicker at each other (Pepper Pots (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Tony Stark showed no chemistry at all). Many scenes were so unrelated, I don't know how they weren't cut out. The small portion remaining was what I had hoped much of the film was about, more action, and less boring, totally random dialogue.
Overall this film is no doubt a "filler film". It's just a tiny piece of the big picture that Marvel is working towards. It's one thing to hype a movie with news and trailers and other things. But, it is a totally other thing to hype up A MOVIE WITH ACTUAL MOVIES.