Not as good as the first, but still a fun thrill ride.

Rating: 5/10 (25 May 2010)

The film is based on the Marvel comic book series. Six months after Billionaire Tony Stark (Played by Robert Downey Jr.) has freely admitted to the whole world that HE is Iron Man, he is now being asked by the government to hand over the Iron Man suit, which he refuses to do. He appoints his secretary Pepper Potts (Played by Gwyneth Paltrow) as CEO of Stark Industries. He tries to deal with several dangerous things, such as a rising toxicity level within his blood from using the Iron Man suit, his friend James Rhodes (Played by Don Cheadle) using one of Tony's suits to become "War Machine", and a dangerous new supervillain named Ivan Vanko (Played by Mickey Rourke) arriving on the scene.
And what did I think of the film itself? I thought it was rather fun, not as good as the first though.
I think one of it's main problems was the script, which seemed to get a little hectic while balancing all the subplots, but it didn't drive it to the point of no return. It was a nice story. Fast paced, although the length is noticeable once or twice.
Performances are pretty good. Robert Downey Jr. once again shines as Tony Stark, adding much needed humor to the movie. He and Gwyneth Paltrow have excellent chemistry together, Paltrow herself is a great performer. The same chemistry can't exactly be said for Downey and Don Cheadle. Cheadle was alright, but Terrence Howard just played the character better. And Scarlett Johansson seemed to add little to the story as Natalie Rushman aka. Black Widow, she seemed like eye candy, but what gorgeous eye candy.
Now villains. Mickey Rourke played a really good villain, Sam Rockwell, not as much. He tries to be funny, but half of the time it's a bit more annoying than funny. But, I won't deny that it was still a good role.
The Visuals of this movie are remarkable, once again Industrial Light & Magic has brought brilliance to the screen. But what good is a movie without it's Sound? The sound design is just as brilliant in the movie, and I think I see another possible two Oscar nominations to Christopher Boyes' tally.
In short, the film is a bit over the place, but it's still thrilling, hilarious, and features some good performances.
I give it **1/2 out of ****