Upped to the 10th Power

Rating: 10/10 (26 September 2010)

A couple of things we knew we were going to see - hinted at in the 1st Film - Rhodey as War Machine, the Suitcase-Suit, the dying Stark who has to drink 80 glasses of Green Machine a day, Pepper Potts as the head of Stark Industries - S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury and The Avengers - Black Widow! We get to see all of it in some form or other in this excellent Sequel. Adding to my belief that Robert Downey Jr was practically born to play Tony Stark, he builds on the first performance and reveals even more about who Iron Man is.
Nothing really can be said about this that otherwise cannot be seen by simply watching the film. In Blu-Ray if Possible, on DVD if not... Looks good both ways.
My only beef is that Terence Howard did not reprise the role of Rhodey/War Machine - But the addition of Scarlett Johanssen as Black Widow, Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer, Mickey Rourke as Vanko, and Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury - Ease my initial disappointment at seeing Don Cheadle take up the mantle of War Machine - But the fact that Cheadle plays it JUST like Howard did - Even the Mannerisms, so it really IS the same Character, Cheadle does the best he can, not being Physically matched to Howard but personality-wise captured it. Also, the repeat performance of Leslie Bibb as the Vanity Fair Reporter Christine Everhart was well used- Even hinting that she was a fair Reporter, so maybe if there are any more of these, we'll get to see her come back, probably one of my favourite characters from this franchise. Finally, director Jon Favreau gets to be Happy Hogan a Lot MORE in this film much to my relief (Why recreate a great Iron Man character and only show them twice? Much better to have them in the film as much as the story can benefit by it?) The choice of Justin Theroux/Screenwriter made this a much darker story than the initial Iron Man story - As Tony builds Iron Man in the first film, this film mirrors that by having Vanko building his Arc-Reactor weApon. I thought they were bringing In Omega Red (X-Men Villain) into the story with the addition of Vanko, but apparently this is a combination of a couple of Iron Man Villains.
This film is just another link in the upcoming promise of an Avengers film, and Marvel is gathering all of its forces for this effort. One thing we do know is that Iron Man WILL be a major part of The Avengers - And I ain't talking about Emma Peel!