Iron Man Does It Again

Rating: 9/10 (9 May 2010)

The anticipation to see the follow-up to 2008's Iron Man was quite high and it was hard to expect anything less than sheer awesomeness. Fortunately the movie delivered in spades and did not fail to impress on most accounts.
The Cast: For starters, Robert Downey Jr. reprises his role as Tony Stark, the billionaire, egocentric, narcissist CEO of Stark Industries. While initially skeptical before the first movie I could not think of anyone better suited for this roll now and RD Jr. is easily one of the most watchable actors in film today. Gwenyth Paltro is back as Pepper Potts and while her role seems slightly subdued in this film it certainly isn't due to her lack of acting skill which is, as always quite in tact. Seeing Scarlett Johanssen as the striking Natalie Romanoff however was an incredibly welcome treat. I can't help but fall in love with Scarlett nearly every time I see her on the big screen and she performed admirably in the film with a few outright stunning karate style ass-kicking stunts. Don Cheadle replaces Terrance Howard as Rhodey and when the change was first revealed I wasn't happy, but if there is any ONE good replacement it would have to be Cheadle. Rhodey's character is a bit cold and calculated even though he is supposed to be close friends with Stark. Sam Rockwell appears in Iron Man 2 as Justin Hammer. A nemesis to Tony Stark on the business front and Sam is always great to watch although somewhat annoying which is what the film was gunning for in his character. I've been a fan ever since I saw him in McG's Charlie's Angels as the evil Sam Knox.
I could go on with the cast of characters like Mickey Rourke playing the evil Ivan Vanko, Samuel L. Jackson as Shield's Nick Furty, Gary Shandling as the annoying Senator Stern and even some great cameo's by DJ AM (rest his soul), CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Bill O'Reilly as the Fox no-spin master himself and even G4's super sexy Oliva Munn who were all an absolute pleasure to watch and even more so if you keep your thumb on current pop culture. But I digress.
The Story: This time we see Tony Stark suffering from his chest mounted power source that is literally poisoning him from the inside and there is seemingly no cure. A great plot thickener to be sure but not before Tony and Iron Man have a chance to discover there is also another bad boy of technology on the block in the name of Ivan Venko. Apparently the son of an inventor that Tony Stark's father worked with briefly before getting into a nasty bit of business and ending badly many years ago which brings Ivan back for furious vengeance against Stark and team and eventually going to work for Hammer who is trying to secure a contract with the US government for futuristic arms development. All the while the US government is trying to "acquire" Iron Man technology for "safe keeping" should the nation need to use it while Mr. Stark is off on one of his wild weekend long parties. The part where congress calls in Tony Stark to testify on why he should give up Iron Man technology to the government is particularly entertaining.
Issues: While the movie was great in my opinion it was not without a few issues of note. I found it interesting that Ivan Venko arrived at the race in Monaco in order to confront Iron Man yet it was a last minute change that even brought Tony out onto the track. Quite a large oversight for such a high profile movie.
Also with regards to Tony Stark's relationship with Pepper Potts. Throughout the movie there was little to no sexual tension or overt attractions between the two. However at the very end they seemed to unnaturally pin the two together for something more serious. It seemed rushed and out of place in my opinion.
Closing: With that said I'll leave the rest to imagination and you to see the movie to discover the great storyline, incredible action sequences and entertaining one-liners throughout and let's not forget about the ass kicking sound track officially consisting of all classic AC/DC but with snippets of other great tunes such as Daft Punk's Robot Rock played during an appropriate fight scene between Iron Man and.Oh well lets just save that for the movie shall we? If you enjoyed the first Iron Man I'm fairly certain Iron Man 2 will not disappoint you in the least. Enjoy!