By no means a flawless film but still entertaining

Rating: 6/10 (3 February 2017)

OK, so this film is considered by a bunch of people to be completely terrible, and while I can agree that there are a bunch of flaws, I wouldn't define this film as god-awful.
A lot of things are thrown into the mix only to be resolved by some sort of deus ex machina. To put it short, this is just filler leading up to The Avengers.
Robert Downey Jr. is the perfect fit for Tony Stark. He proved himself in the original Iron Man and here, while this film isn't quite as good as the first, he still carries the charm with him, even if Stark is caught in a battle of his own self-destruction.
Sam Rockwell plays a tenacious, awkward and irritating rival to Stark in the form of Justin Hammer, another weapons developer, who tries to team up with Mickey Rourke as Ivan Vanko, the son of Howard Stark's business partner(?) whose revenge stems from the Stark family taking credit for the creation of the arc reactor while his family is forgotten about? It's not developed enough.
Meanwhile, Tony Stark needs to find a suitable replacement element for his Arc Reactor as the palladium core is slowly killing him. As well as that, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow is shoehorned into the film, merely just to establish her presence in the Avengers, rather than HER OWN FILM, which even at the time of writing this, seven years after the film's release, there still aren't any concrete plans.
The film is full of red herrings and subplots that get resolves so quickly, that it really makes you ask what was the point of including it in the film to begin with. Also, the action is very short-lived.
Putting all that aside, it's cool to see Robert Downey Jr. just be himself as Tony Stark. Full of confidence and charisma that it seems completely effortless.