Don't listen to critics, this is one of Marvel's Best

Rating: 10/10 (28 April 2017)

With Marvel now having 15 movies out right now, there is a lot of people on the internet always criticizing Iron Man 2 on websites & YouTube. Don't listen to them. They are wrong.
You have to realize the time period when this came out. Iron Man was such a monster success and as us comic book fans, we finally got War Machine in a film. Not only that, but they incorporated Tony Stark's alcoholism into the story line which was fantastic. Iron Man 2 was THE COMIC BOOK movie at that point. I remember everyone talking about it in 2010 and loving it. It did extremely well in box office. Mickey Rourke was fresh off of his Oscar nomination from The Wrestler. Sam Rockwell just did Moon. Don Cheadle was a very acceptable replacement for War Machine.
The review of this film is that this is a great comic book film. People were still in awe over The Dark Knight just two years ago, and this was more light hearted and fun. Dark Knight was depressing and dark. This was upbeat and entertaining. Mikey Rourke as Whiplash was fantastic. And his character interacting with Sam Rockwell was brilliant. They are two of my favorite actors so I'm a bit biased. Don Cheadle was actually better than Terrence Howard. And of course Robert Downey Jr and Paltrow were amazing as usual. The film's story was great. Whiplash had Tony's technology and this caused the Government to find the excuse to shut down Tony. Meanwhile, besides external forces trying to shut down Tony, he is battling alcoholism and his own struggle with the metal possibly killing him. Besides the inner demons and Govt, but Whiplash is out for revenge toward Tony. He is the Russian counterpart to Tony, brilliant, but different version of Tony Stark. Tony's rival, Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) is competing with Tony in making the most advanced weapons.
The movie has Tony against the ropes. Alcoholism, Whiplash against him, Govt against him, Justin Hammer trying to take him over, his physical problems with the reactor killing him, and his affection for Pepper Potts that can not bloom due to personal issues. So much going against Tony. This inner struggle and external struggle leads to one of the best Marvel movies.
The film introduces us to a deeper perspective of SHIELD led by Nick Fury who has his first decent part in a Marvel film rather than a cameo. Also, the introduction of Black Widow who goes onto to play a huge role in the MCU. Agent Coulson gets a bigger part. And there is a few tie ins to the future Marvel movies such as Capt America, Thor and Avengers (critics bashed these subplots, but ITS A COMIC BOOK MOVIE that is staying true to the source material, I enjoyed it!) Critics also said the movie didn't have enough action, but this is another part I completely disagree. The action was just enough. The race track scene was one of the most memorable action scenes in all of MCU. Iron Man 2 wasn't support to be a Transformers movie or a dumb Zack Snyder DC film, its about the character of Tony Stark and his struggles. And this film nailed it.
So why all the hate ? Because people tend to have short term memory. People are so spoiled with the Avengers movies, Guardians, so many sequels for the solo heroes, more solo origin stories - that Iron Man 2 got left behind in many people's heads. They don't remember how awesome it actually was to see War Machine for the first time. They don't remember how cool it was to see Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell as villains. To sum it up - people have short term memory and are spoiled. The idiots over at Collider are in their 40's and can't even remember anything beyond 2 years ago.
In the end, Iron Man 2 is a fun entertaining film. Perhaps I'm biased because I had such a great time in 2010 seeing this film in theaters and getting really big into the Iron Man franchise (I'm a Batman & Spider-Man fan). But this movie just worked so well for me. I smiled the entire time watching it.
Now Iron Man 3 ? That is a terrible film. I get offended when people put IM 2 and IM 3 in the same category as 'bad ones'. Iron Man 2 is NOT a bad film, its a GREAT film and one of my favorites in the MCU.
10/10