Not as good as "Iron Man", but good enough to satisfy me after a two year wait.

Rating: 8/10 (7 May 2010)

I had high hopes for "Iron Man 2". But as time passed and the film was released a week early in Europe, I forced myself to erase those high hopes to make the movie enjoyable and not painful to watch due to what the early reviews had said. Let's just say it was a good thing my expectations were lowered.
"Iron Man 2" starts right off the bat in Moscow, Russia with Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) sitting at his father's, Anton Vanko, deathbed. Anton passes and Ivan, in his state of grief, begins constructing an exoskeleton suit using blueprints to the Ark Reactor. Next we see Iron Man, A.K.A. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), jumping off a plane and landing in his expo. It looks like it's all fun and games until we soon discover that the thing in Stark's chest that's keeping him alive is polluting his blood and is slowly killing him. Soon, the government wants Stark to hand over Iron Man to the United States because it's considered a weapon. If you think that that's not a lot on Tony's plate, wait until you hear this: He is attacked and nearly killed by the bloodthirsty Ivan Vanko on the Monaco raceway who was focused on killing him. Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) happens to see the whole event and takes Ivan to help him create an army of drones to beat his business rival, Tony Stark. However, Ivan had other plans in mind. After the Monaco scene (which was quite awesome), the movie starts to hit a rough path and begins to go downhill. But towards the end of the film, it went back up and went smooth sailing.
There was a great performance from the cast (especially Sam Rockwell and Mickey Rourke). Don Cheadle, who replaced Terence Howard from the first movie, as James Rhodes/War Machine did a fantastic job; a lot better than Howard. Scarlett Johansson was super sexy as Black Widow ('nuff said). It was also good to see Jon Favreau have more screen time this time around. I also have to give congrats to Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury.
This movie was better than my low expectations. I hadn't been expecting what this movie brought and I thoroughly enjoyed it. But for me, the best thing about the movie was seeing Ivan change from Whiplash, to bad "A" Crimson Dynamo at the end of the movie for the final fight (who is my favorite Iron Man villain next to Mandarin). My thoughts were raised about this film and it now sits on the throne with all the other greatest comic book movies. "Iron Man 2" did not soar as high as it's predecessor, but it's not low enough to be shot down.
7.5/10
P.S. Stay after the credits if you want to see Thor's Mjolnir.