Delivers for general movie goers and hardcore comic fans

Rating: 7/10 (11 May 2010)

Robert Downey Jr. is back as Tony Stark in Iron Man 2 and brings all his wit and charisma he brought to the first Iron Man. Iron Man 2 has all the exciting battle scenes and clever dialogue Iron Man did and even manages to make it better than the first.
In Iron Man 2 Stark has to face off against the government for the rights to his own Iron Man suit while defending his life from new super-villain, Whiplash (Mickey Rourke).
This film delves deeper into the character of Stark than the first film did. Stark's hidden alcoholism begins to come into play and Stark's relationship with his assistant, Pepper Pots (Gwyneth Paltrow), is expanded on.
The premise of this movie isn't impressive. Whiplash is the son of a contemporary of Stark's father, Howard. Whiplash feels his father was forced out of business with Howard unfairly which is why he had to die in poverty. Whiplash is just the genius that Stark is and with the funding of Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), the CEO of Stark's rival company, he builds his own suit to rival the Iron Man suit.
But Stark doesn't have to fight Whiplash alone. He has his old friend, James Rhodes (Don Cheadle), to help him. Rhodes steals an iron man suit from Stark and makes a few modifications and to the joys of comic fans everywhere enters War Machine. Iron Man 2 is nothing new for super-hero movies but it manages to prove that super-hero movies are not all bad. Iron Man 2 is just plain fun. The dialogue is better than the first Iron Man and same with the action sequences.
Downey is perfect as Stark, no other actor could pull of his arrogant humor as well. The studio made a wise decision in replacing Terrence Howard with Don Cheadle as Rhodes. The two actors play the characters a little differently but Cheadle is ultimately better.
Scarlet Johansson is also thrown into the mix as a government spy named the Black Widow. It seemed Johansson's sole purpose in the film was to be the 'hot girl fighting crime' that is stereotypical of all comic book movies.
Samuel L. Jackson plays Nick Fury, a character who will mean a lot more to comic book fans than the average viewer. This movie has a lot of little moments the die-hard fans will love. Also true comic geeks should be sure to stay for the scene at the end of the credits.
Iron Man 2 did what The Dark Knight did and proved that super-hero movies can actually be good film. Iron Man 2 is an exciting ride that should not be missed.