So if you want see Iron Man 2, go ahead. Just don't join the rest of the stampede to see it.

Rating: 6/10 (2 May 2010)

Sequels are tricky. Very rarely is a sequel better than the original movie. Recently, Empire Strikes Back was voted best movie sequel ever by members of an online movie magazine. To me that makes sense, because Empire was a great, great movie. Only a handful of comic book movies, have had great sequels. Spiderman 2, X-Men 2, The Incredible Hulk and even Punisher: War Zone was a far better movie the first one. To honest with you, I began to have doubts as to whether or not this movie would live up to the first film, which was one of my movies of the year in 2008. So after watching Iron Man yesterday evening.
WHAT I LIKED:
I'll start with performances first. Robert Downey Jr continues to do same job he did in the first movie. If anything he's even funnier in this one. Another good performance from him and it shows that he was made to play Tony Stark/ Iron Man. Gwyneth Paltrow was also very good as Pepper Potts had great chemistry with Robert Downey Jr and looked very comfortable in her role. Don Cheadle is a welcome change from Terence Howard, his performance made me almost forget how crap he was in Brooklyn's Finest. But he did well to fit in with the other characters. Mickey Rourke made a decent bad guy. Didn't over do it and didn't try too hard either, but I thought he was alright as Tony Starks enemy. A lot of the other reviewers couldn't understand why Rourke's character was so bitter towards Tony Stark to want him dead. But after watching 30 mins of the movie, I thought it was clearly obvious. What I also liked was the 2 min set piece were War Machine and Iron Man destroy 10 robots. Great action and great visual effects make it the most memorable scenes in the movie. War Machine is awesome and I hope he'll feature in the next Iron Man movie.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
This movie drags and drags and drags. Yeah the movie is only 2 hours, but if fill it with pointless scenes, it feels longer than 2 hours. The story was mixed in with all these subplots. Tony Stark battling radiation poisoning from the Iron Man suit, and at the same time trying to reconnect with his dead father. Sorry, wasn't interested in any of that. Also Scarlett Johansson was absolutely rubbish in this. A S.H.I.E.L.D agent moonlighting as Stark's secretary. Just a pointless inclusion and I can't remember her being a great actress in anything she's done. Sam Rockwell is equally poor. He's one of my favourite actors, but his annoying babbling is simply...annoying! His character, should have played by a much older actor, someone who could have taken the role more seriously. I thought he was having a laugh. Not once did I think he was Stark's rival. Scott Glenn, David Strathairn, Kurt Russell maybe even George Clooney wouldn't given the Justin Hammer character a darker edge. Great actor, but had a shocker in this film.
All in all, Irom Man 2 is definitely worth the release and is bigger and longer than the original. Sadly, it isn't better. Favreau has done brilliantly as actor/ director in the last 10-15 years. But if churns another Iron Man movie like this one. I'll have have to fit him into the same boat as Stephen Sommers and Michael Bay. Both of whom I cannot stand as directors.
So if you want see Iron Man 2, go ahead. Just don't join the rest of the stampede to see it.