A good effort....

Rating: 9/10 (28 May 2010)

This new installment of the "Iron Man" movie series works well as a continuation of the story started in the first film. We get to see the consequences of Stark's ego run amok and how the suit, along with it's related gadgets take a physical toll on him. His new-found notoriety as Iron Man has attracted intense competition, attention from outside powerful forces and opened some old family wounds he didn't even know he had.
Personal relationships change...and one man hell-bent on taking revenge for his own father's fate coincides with Stark's dealing with his own "father issues"....
Good, heady stuff that for the most part, works. It's a handsome, well-produced production with great design, good SFX that don't look overdone or overstay on the screen. The cast is again top-notch, with Mickey Rourke adding considerable weight and intensity to his performance as Valko. Cheadle stepping into the role previously essayed by Terrence Howard, does a good job of giving Rhodes a no-nonsense military edge that's needed and Rockwell achieves a great balance of sleaze and naiveté' with his run as rival weapons creator Hammer. But the show once again belongs to Downey, who, like Christopher Reeve decades before was the perfect Superman, has made the role of Tony Stark totally impossible to imagine without him playing it.
As for the two women in the movie...they both come across adequately...Paltrow plays Potts with the right amount of concern and seriousness, while Johanssen gives her mysterious "Natalie" just enough edge to stay interesting but not much more.
The only minor missteps may have been forcing the whole "SHIELD/Nick Fury" subplot into this story...it was one thing too many for this already crowded movie. Having "Agent Coulson" dispense with any of that plot would have been enough...it would have been more interesting to see more of the Rourke character in the story. As it was, Rourke was almost like another special effect...shown just enough to intrigue and wow us, but not much more. One really good thing with that though was how much of his character was communicated through design, from his intense body ink to that incredible power harness for his whips, there is a brute strength to him that just screams off the screen...that visually arresting image of the coveralls burning off his body as the whips crackle to life was one of the best moments in the movie.
As it stands, this installment really feels like the middle of something...here's hoping Favereau and his cast and crew get the chance to complete the "Iron Man" story they're telling...before he gets lost in all the noise of any "Avengers" group one...