Twice the iron, twice the fun.

Rating: 8/10 (3 April 2012)

Alright, a good sequel among numerous bad ones out there. The first Iron Man movie was an incredible feat in terms of action, story, effects, music, and so on. Naturally, such a film would be tricky to beat, but luckily with such a huge fan base and source material from the comics, Jon Favreau was able to sort of "upgrade" his antics in this hit sequel that's sure to blow you away.
Plot: Tony Stark has brought peace to the world (and revealed his secret identity) thanks to his high tech battle suit and most people love him. With this comes some unfortunate problems such as a strained relationship with his assistant Pepper Potts and the government seeking to get its hands on the Iron Man armor, but those are the least of his worries. A figment from his family's past has come back to haunt Tony: Ivan Vanko a.k.a. Whiplash who seeks revenge on the Stark family and he has rival weapons manufacturer Justin Hammer backing him up. Even with the help of Rhodey a.k.a. War Machine and Natasha Romanoff a.k.a. Black Widow, can Iron Man rise up to the challenge? Time to suit up!
This is a worthy edition to the Avengers storyline. First of all, the action scenes are absolutely great, plenty of things get blown up and the effects make it even better. I love the story as we explore more of Tony's character as he tries to deal with his newfound fame and threats both physical and mental. All the other characters have a good amount of development as well, especially Pepper and Rhodey who becomes War Machine. The villain Whiplash is surprisingly a great villain; not only does he look cool and that he's a significant physical threat, but he's also very smart and tends to be fairly manipulative.
My only major complaint is the secondary villain Justin Hammer. He's very condescending and egotistical, which often gets to point of being quite annoying. Everyone knows it and everyone hates him. He makes you feel like punching him in the face, which I guess is the point but nevertheless he's a pain and so is Senator Stern who also wants the Iron Man armor.
In conclusion, despite the above problem, Iron Man 2 is a film that may actually be better than the first one. It only furthers the excitement of when the Avengers come together. It's twice the iron, twice the action, and twice the fun, so I recommend that you give this one a watch.