2 Much, Man

Rating: 4/10 (9 May 2010)

Well, I enjoyed the two action sequences in the two plus hours of Iron Man 2.
That's an exaggeration, but not by much. It wouldn't be so bad if the plot could sustain the rest and for the most part, it didn't.
And that was the biggest problem with Iron Man 2. Along with the poor editing and the excessive character additions, like the original Batman series, the rushed and over bloated storyline really weighed down the movie. Sure, Downey Jr. did his best, and was a real saving grace, but even he had to realize this movie was not up to par.
(Spoiler Alert, but needs to be told as it's the majority of the film) Tony Stark (Downey Jr.) is dying due to his heart device, acquired in the first Iron Man, that's poisoning his blood. Oh, sorry. That's plot A. Plot B is about the Government wanting the "Ironman" weapon. C involves a secret spy and her not-a-secret boss from another comic book. As for D and E: two revenge-seeking/Stark hating males for alternate reasons. And F is for the conflicted (and replaced actor) friend of Stark. Did I leave any out? Oh, G is for a Walt Disney-like Daddy along with the normal Daddy-Issues. And H is for Giveaways, Charity, Crossovers and a suicidal daredevil.
On a personal note, and I'm generally criticized for this – who cares, it's an opinion, I cannot stand Sam Rockwell. Sure Moon was a somewhat good movie, but it wasn't Rockwell that drove that feature. Here, again, he looked out of place and was just plain boring. Like Downey, Jr., he did try, but had an enormously unsuccessful presence. Despite my personal feelings, still, I got what character he was trying to portray, but we've all seen these evil, revenge-minded and jealous corporate guys at least a dozen times before, but with a tremendous amount of believability, pizazz and villainy that Rockwell didn't come close to possessing. Heck, even the unoriginal and obvious villainous character, Obadiah Stane (played by Bridges from the original Iron Man) had the right qualities Rockwell lacked.
Though I have a neutral opinion on Rourke, I sincerely felt him miscast in this role and like Rockwell, overshot his "bad guy role." It is written that he spent time (visiting, I suppose) a Russian prison and even more time attempting to learn his Russian lines. He even went as far as wanting to do the whole movie in Russian! (Director Favreau thankfully disagreed – he was hard enough to understand when he did speak English.) In probably the worst scene in the movie was their attempt to recreate the Batman/Joker interrogation scene from The Dark Knight. It didn't work as a rip off, nor as a scene on its own. I forgot to mention the not-at-all-funny bird fetish Rourke's character had was his idea. Perhaps he should come back down to earth after his one-time-only great performance in The Wrestler.
The rest of the cast was so-so to great. Favreau was funny but his one-man fight seemed so Lethal Weapon 3'ish while Rushman (Johansson) fought off half a dozen or more men. Speaking of Johansson, or her character Rushman, she was great when she kicked butt. Unfortunately those scenes were even fewer than the overall action of the film. Paltrow was so-so and mirrored Vicky Vale (Basinger from Batman) with the number of screams and over-acting/reacting. As previously mentioned Downey Jr. was excellent and kept his scenes going. In fact, for die-hard Downey Jr. fans, this would be a definite recommendation.
Overall, the movie felt rushed (and was,) but thankfully due to the always great Downey Jr., the always impressive technology (loved the suitcase,) crossovers (think shield in addition to S.H.I.E.L.D.) and the (good) few and far between action scenes, the movie's worth a viewing. Not on IMAX as I did – I wouldn't go that far. It's more expensive, it's not in 3-D and you get a letterboxed version of it. In fact, it would not be the end of the world to wait for this enormously inferior sequel to his DVD/Bluray.