an OK sequel, but not better then the original

Rating: 8/10 (18 January 2011)

I personally loved the original Iron Man. It was the best summer movie of the year when it came out. When i heard they would make a sequel, i was both thrilled but thinking, how are they going to top the first one. Honestly, my worst fears came true. Iron Man 2 takes place alittle bit after the first one, with Iron man enjoying his fame and attention he is receiving for revealing the truth of his identity at the end of the first film. Robert Downey Jr as always is fantastic as Tony Stark. In my opinion, he was not only born to play the super hero, but he IS tony stark in real life. Thats what makes the chemistry so amazing and real. Don Cheadle takes over the role of Iron Mans best friend, War Machine, after Terrance Howard was fired from the movie. He does a good job, hes a great actor, but i felt like he was alittle out of place, seeing as how this is his first official super hero movie. He also lacked chemistry in the friendship between Robert that Terrance had. The villain in this movie, Whiplash, is played by the fantastic and amazing Mickey Rourke. I gotta say, he went all out in this movie. He did not hold back, although i did feel like his character started faltering when Sam Rockwells character came in. This is where it all ended for me. Sam is a great actor, i have enjoyed many of his movies, and i respect him as an actor, but in this movie, i thought he really sucked. His character is so pathetic in some of the scenes he comes out in, i feel like if they had removed him and only kept Mickey, i might have awarded the movie a 9 instead of an 8. Some of his scenes are just plain stupid or pathetic to me, and i really felt bad that Mickey had to go through with doing these scenes with such bad scenes. Also, the actual fighting does not happen till the last 10 minutes of the film, and by then, you don't really care much for it anymore. Overall, i really wanted to fall in love with this movie, but i found myself thinking that it was okay at best. Sam is the only actor i will complain about in this movie, since his character sucked, but overall, i will award this movie an 8 out of 10, if you loved the original, definitely check out this one, just don't expect it to be as good or better.