Iron Man 2 has a bit of rust in its metal. It's a bit stiff, and unmoving. Still, it's a OK movie.

Rating: 6/10 (3 July 2013)

Directed by once again Jon Favreau, Iron Man 2 in my opinion fault to live up to the original movie. Don't get me wrong, it's not awful movie. It was pretty OK for what it is. A popcorn flick. It just wasn't as good as the original, but hey it's still worth noting. Iron Man 2 was more a comedy than an action movie. Iron Man 2 starts out, with after the events of the first movie. Stark has just revealed his identity as Iron Man and is resisting calls by the United States government to hand over the technology. Meanwhile, in Russia, scientist Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) has developed the same technology and built weapons of his own in order to seek revenge against Tony Stark (Robert Downing Jr.) as he believes that Stark stole his father's technology. Mickey Rouke as Ivan Vanko isn't a bad choice, but his character had little to no development. While the movie would love to point out that he is Whiplash from the comic books, in truth, he was on film a combination between Whiplash and the Crimson Dynamo (the original Anton Vanco). Both Whiplash and Crimson Dynamo in the comics wore more body armor than the guy in the movie. Most of the movie, you see him fail into everything he does. In no way, does I see him as a seriously threat to Iron Man. The movie could have made him sinister, but gladly use him as comedy with a running gag about getting a bird. Also in most of the film, we don't even see Iron Man in action. Tony Stark literally spent the last half of the movie in his basement making the ultimate suit to fight a ton of drones that went out like a candle in the wind. The thing that annoyed me about it was how his father's intention for this incredible, impossible to create super-sustainer type thing that will changed the world, is made in like 2 days by Tony Stark and is essentially used to replace a double-A battery in his chest. Trying not to spoil the whole movie, but I found the ending fights really disappointing. 23 minutes of action in 124 min film is too little for a blockbuster film, far less than Iron Man. Even the middle fight in the film is pretty much pointless as it waste time. It's remind me of the fighting scene in 1988's They Live where the two heroes duking it out for little to no reason just for comedy. I think all the comedy, hurt the story ark for Tony Stark's depression, alcoholic, and poisoning arch. It was never taken serious in many scenes. I was really hoping for 'Demon in a Bottle' like story arc. Sadly as long as Disney Marvel control the movies. There will never be a Demon in a Bottle storyline. Plus, I don't even think Monaco Grand Prix would have allow a clearly smashed, poison and untrained driver Tony Stark to drive a racing car in a race with other drivers. We came to see Iron Man, and what did we get 2 short action scenes, a depressing finale, and tons of Avengers references. So there were a lot of Easter Eggs in this movie, but I didn't get a trip on it as much as I hope. I mark a little bit, I have little interest in it. Back to the movie in hand, all actors and actresses did swell jobs, but the one that really broke out of its shell was Sam Rockwell as Rival defense contractor Justin Hammer. So let me see the bad guy in the first Iron Man was a white business tycoon, using an ethic minority as a cover for their own plot, the second was a white business tycoon using an ethnic minority as a cover for their own plot, and the third was a white business tycoon using an ethnic minority as a cover for their own plot, true inspiration there. Tony Stark's sidekick, Colonel James Rhodes went through a change, too. Terrence Howard got replaced by Don Cheadle. What I believe is the reason why, was because Terrence was overpaid for the first movie, they slashed his pay for the sequel drastically. Once Howard's agents were informed they were taken aback at the huge pay cut. He back down. The studio had always wanted Cheadle for the part, Howard says. It's weird that Colonel James Rhodes can control War Machine armor so quickly in this film, while it took a while for Tony Starks to get uses to being Iron Man in the first movie. Scarlett Johansson is sexy as Black Widow, but her character development wasn't there. She was pretty much in the movie because she's eye candy to the comic book fans. Talking about eye candy, Gwyneth Paltrow is just there to suck up screen time as Tony's love interest, Virginia "Pepper" Potts. Iron Man 2 had some bad dialogue. Characters often talked, but there was never an indication that a character might actually be listening. The conflict was forced and the plot loosely strung together, there was a lot of filler content than actual story. Even Robert Downing Jr. himself, said that this movie turned out not-so-good (paraphrased) mainly because Marvel had way too much control over it and deleted so many scenes which would've done much to. It seemed too bland to me personally, just pointless action, plot holes and dumb plot elements. In the end, this movie is way better than Iron Man 3, and not as good as Iron Man.