A good trashy fun sequel, but quite disappointing on the whole

Rating: 5/10 (2 May 2010)

I though the first Iron Man was really great, with a new idea and great story, superb action and great acting with enough in depth about the characters to make you care and give the story substance, but I'm afraid Iron Man 2 just falls into the typical sequel trap of just trashy fun wanting to cash in on the first. It is great fun. Downey Junior is still excellent as Stark and very funny. The action sequences were fun and the special effects were amazing. Not to mention there was some good music and Downey Jr gave the script in parts wit.
But the script was mostly awful with thin characters. I could see the director Jon Favreau try to flesh them out but the multiple stories didn't work, which loses that in depth of the characters and why we care for them. He tries to do the multiple narrative like Sam Raimi in Spiderman 2 who successfully had the main story with there sub-plots that blended seamlessly together beautifully with the depth of the characters understanding the motivations behind there choices and decisions and making you care about them but Favreau fails in this respect. Micky Rourke dosen't make a lasting impression as villain Whiplash and Scarlet Johansson though pretty was extremely underused. There is not motivation for her character. Also there are some gaping plot holes like why when Whiplash escapes from prison is it not reported by the media? And he goes to the grand prix track to kill Stark whose one of the drivers but he didn't even know he was there because he arrives before he sees him and we're not made aware Whiplash knows he's there making the character and film a bit dumb and forfeiting credibility as a result. Saying that there was plenty of action sequences, which were done really well and were exciting to watch as a result. But on the flip side, it leaves too little room for story and character development (whereas Batman Begins and Spiderman 2 balanced out the action and story perfectly).
Good trashy fun yes, which I enjoyed but it's not as amazing as people make out. I really was expecting much more and I was quite disappointed on the whole. This had potential and I could tell Favreau tries with the multi-plots but it just fails. This dosen't live up to the hype it's received but it's still worth seeing. I hope the third shows improvement.