Tony Stark still has the Spark

Rating: 6/10 (30 April 2010)

The waiting and wondering have finally paid off. It's here, and handsomely boasts a cast ready to do justice to the unforeseen successor that is Iron Man.
Tony Stark - quirky Downey Jr. who makes the role seem unplayable by anyone else, is full of his usual cocky charisma in this second outing along with the return of Pepper Pots and Rhodey whose character is welcomely replaced by Don Cheadle, who as fans will know by the trailer, gets his fair share of action in this sequel.
Set straight after the memorable ending of Iron Man, numero two doesn't hesitate to have a crazy Russian plotting to end dear Tony's life within the first few minutes. Which isn't at all helped by jealous weapons specialist Hammer played by Sam Rockwell, who proves to be a dangerous foe indeed. At least like most people Tony can always depend on a one eyed Samuel L Jackson or a silver sidekick to help him out in these tough times.
Thankfully director Jon Favreau hasn't made the same mistake Michael Bay and Co. did with Transformers 2 by trying to build on the same ideas as the original and add so many characters you forget what film you are watching. But that doesn't mean Iron Man 2 is without its flaws.
The main downside - like almost every sequel made, is the story and characters don't seem to have half the impact they had the first time round and you find yourself praying the film will start to be everything you ever hoped for. With the finished result feeling like an unassembled but still quite appealing mess. And since the first Iron Man had such success you'd think it might have easily been one of the rare exceptions. Still, if it is like the first one this will definitely be a film that grows on you the more you watch it.
Now since that proved very 'I'm not persuaded to watch this yet.' let's compensate by the fact that there is still plenty of fun to be found as well as lots of action sequences in this sequel; Whiplash (Rourke)'s sequence in particular will probably put off anyone hoping to be Formula One drivers for life, but it's often these most barmy scene's that make you forget about why the plot is so simple.
To not leave any readers of this review feeling too heartbroken; the following four words are likely to seal the deal for any man/lesbian to still feel up to watching this, which they should since this is far from terrible. Scarlett. Johansson. In. Leather. Tissues recommended for uncontrollable drooling.