Iron Man 2: A Few More Suits, No Additional Substance

Rating: 6/10 (22 October 2010)

Iron Man 2, much like the original, does a lot of things right. The special effects, the charisma, the characters, and the technology are all top notch. Watching Tony Stark play around in his massive, billion-dollar man cave makes every man/boy reconsider what he's doing with his life and why he didn't get into weaponry. So what's the problem? All the good stuff happens in the first 60-minutes, with the following 60 leaving not just a little, but a lot to be desired.
This film opens up with the it's new villain, Ivan Vanko, played by Mickey Rourke, a Russian physicist hell bent on not only destroying Tony Stark, but also his reputation and his enterprise. By creating a device that sends electric volts through cable whips attached to his back and arms, he not only gives this film a boost of fresh air, but he also creates one of the most unique villains to date. CGI aside, this dude looks completely crazy, completely frightening, and the most impressive part: completely real.
The rest of the story contains all the key characteristics of the original Iron Man, but makes them bigger, more exciting, and more out of control. The cars, the women, the style, the suits; it's all there. It doesn't feel old, per say, but it does feel a little outdated. My biggest concern, lies not in the fact that the film isn't innovative, it's that the film doesn't quite innovate enough. They start with an interesting villain, and turn him into something that's been done previously in Iron Man before; a man who creates another suit. They create Iron Man clones that don't do anything other than die at the push of a button or the shot of a gun. Iron Man and Tony Stark are still pushing boundaries, but everything around them is stuck in place. Where can the series go next? That's the exciting part.
There's a lot of talk in this film about the Avengers, the future installment of the Marvel franchise that features Ant Man, Wasp, Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America. Now whether or not these characters make it into the film of the same name is TBD, but it's safe to say that Iron Man is definitely going to play some part in piecing this film together and it might be exactly what this franchise needs to bring back the action and the energy we once thought that it had.
If you're a guy, you're going to check out Iron Man 2 no matter what I say. To that, I say go ahead, see it for yourself. It's a high budget action adventure film about a man in an iron suit. It can't be that bad right? Correct. It's not that bad, it's just not quite what it could be for the feature length, only about one half.
Michael Buffa Editor, Popcorn Jury http://www.popcornjury.com