More of the same in easy going sequel.

Rating: 5/10 (11 May 2010)

We return again to John Favreau's take on comic book hero 'Iron Man'. This time man behind the mask, Tony Stark, is having a hard time of it as "the suit that is keeping him alive is also killing him". As well as that he has a Russian Mickey Rourke on his hand's financed by a very American Sam Rockwell. He should be having a hard time of it but the films chief flaw, surprisingly, is Downey Jr.'s inability to be anything other than charismatic, cool and in-control. Due to this we are never in any doubt that he will overcome these problems and thus suspense and dramatic thrust are almost null. Rourke is also a problem, his performance is fine, but in a film so big and silly introducing him as merely a physicist who has a reason for revenge somewhat belittles the audience's intelligence and his characters motivation. The film builds up ahead of steam and in doing so the inevitable battle at the end is easily one of the biggest anti - climaxes in modern action cinema. That being said, we do have a hell of a time getting there with Gwyneth Paltrow and Scarlett Johanson easily stealing the acting acclaim when Rockwell isn't on screen. The three of them together almost make you forget about the meek Don Cheadle and the kind-of-but-not-really pointless Samuel L. Jackson (cameo?). All that being said nobody will feel short-changed or un-entertained when they leave the cinema. Downey Jr. has enough quips and just enough fights to leave you smiling and the adrenaline pumping, and once again Favreau himself, makes the smartest decision of them all by having him out of the suit more times than not. He also deals very well in following up his bold decision to reveal who the man in the mask was in the first film. All in all 'Iron Man 2' lies just ahead of the Fantastic Four but well behind Spiderman and Batman on the league table of post-millennium superheros. A film this clumsy, repetitive, shallow and stupid has no right to be this entertaining.