Iron Man + extra charisma - Novelty - Initial charm = Iron Man 2

Rating: 7/10 (9 May 2010)

Not difficult to guess the best part of the movie. Sometimes you feel that a particular role was destined to be played by a particular person. You can't separate the role and the person. Robert Downey, Jr. is Tony Stark. He is so convincing that if not for the backlash of the fans you may very well change the name of Tony Stark to Robert Downey, Jr. He is absolutely enjoying this role and it shows on the screen. Also Mickey Rourke is an excellent casting choice for Ivan Vanko / Whiplash. He is really cool. I read that it was Downey who initially proposed Rourke's name for Whiplash.
Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts is good. But I thought the cheeky romance between Stark & Pepper in the first movie was not so great here. They could have improved the dialogue between them. Sam Rockwell plays Justin Hammer, the rival weapons manufacturer to Tony Stark. On one hand I was seeing Downey, Jr. absolutely enjoying his role but on the other hand I thought Rockwell was somehow not into the role and was somewhat disinterested. Rockwell is such a fantastic actor and especially after last year's Moon, I think it's time for the studios to make better use of him. Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff / Black widow is arresting as usual but her fight scene is the only action piece in the film that was rather boring to me. It was there to please Scarlett's fans but the makers should have taken more care about it and made it a tad more interesting. And Don Cheadle is brilliant in his role as Lt. Colonel James Rhodes / War Machine.
The Iron Man was such a fun movie because it was novel and also there was a cute charm to it. Iron man 2 repeats it, so somewhere the novelty is lost and this is not as charming as the first part. Nevertheless Iron man 2 is a very engaging watch. All the action sequences are cool especially the piece on the race track. Once again, I hated Scarlett's fight sequence. When I saw all those drones at the climax, I was afraid for a while that this might turn out to be torture to ears like Transformers 2 but thank gosh there is not much metal clanking. The final showdown between Iron Man and Whiplash was surprisingly a low key affair, I mean they could have put a few seconds more there.
All in all this is a really fun watch & you won't regret spending money on this.
There is a special clip at the end of the credits which shows the discovery of Thor. If you didn't knew by now, check this on Youtube. For the fans of Thor, this would be thrilling.
I'm seeing a full blown invasion of the screens by the Marvel characters in the coming years. With Thor coming in 2011 and Avengers probably in 2012, Marvel fans would be licking their lips. I don't know what else will be coming in the next 10 years. The coming decade could very well be a decade of superheroes if DC also joins the fray.
I've actually got a crazy weird idea for a movie whereby Marvel heroes attack DC headquarters with the help of DC villains and in the sequel DC heroes attack Marvel headquarters with the help of Marvel villains. Just imagine Team 1: Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Whiplash, Galactus, Dr. Doom vs Team 2: Spiderman, Ironman, Hulk, Lex Luthor, The Joker, Thor. Anyone's interested?
Love to know your thoughts about Iron Man 2 or about my crazy idea, http://tiny.cc/gtcz9