Superhero sequel with plenty of laughs and thrills

Rating: 8/10 (9 May 2011)

At the end of the first 'Iron Man' film Tony Stark announced to the world that he was Iron Man; I assumed that this would quickly be explained as a joke and he'd do back to being a standard superhero whose true identity is unknown I was wrong; this superhero wants the world to know who he is and he wants to enjoy his celebrity status. Not everything is going well for Tony though; the senate wants him to hand over his suit to the military and to make matters worse he is slowly dying. Tony is convinced that nobody else is close to developing a suit like his until one day he is attacked by Ivan Venko; a Russian with a grudge against the Stark family. Venko ends up working for a rival arms manufacturer, Justin Hammer, and Tony is approached by a shadowy individual who claims that there is a cure for Tony's condition but only Tony can find it. While Tony sets about finding that cure Hammer is creating a drone army, which ultimately Tony must confront.
This was a fun sequel that sets things up nicely for a future superhero franchise; 'The Avengers'. There was lots of explosive action and some delightfully over the top acting from Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark and a far more restrained performance as Pepper Potts, his erstwhile assistant now CEO of Stark Industries. Mickey Rourke was suitably menacing as Venko and Don Cheadle was good as Stark's friend Lt. Col. James Rhodes. Of the new characters the biggest surprise came from Scarlett Johansson who appeared to be a straight-laced lawyer but soon proved to be a martial arts expert who may be a superhero herself! Like the vast majority of modern action films this was full of CGI and special effects; thankfully they were well done and the CGI looked believable even when we were being shown the impossible. Overall this was a lot of fun and it is suitable for adults and older children alike.