Rusting already.

Rating: 1/10 (20 May 2010)

.SPOILERS WITHIN. -----------------
Take note, ladies and gentlemen. This is what happens when you rush a sequel into production without first having a quality script...or even a good script. This is simply a poor movie. No doubt that it's fun, but when the fundamentals are not there, you still end up dissatisfied.
What is Tony Stark's goal? This is the most important part of any film story and here, it's missing. How does this happen? You can argue that his goal is to stop Whiplash, but Whiplash is never threatening anybody apart from the Monaco scene and the extreme end of the story, which is too few and far between to function as a proper goal for Stark. You can argue that his goal is to find the cure to his blood toxicity to keep himself alive, but he is only actively working toward that goal for less than 5 minutes, most of which is spent on a gag with Captain America's shield. Then he cures himself with such ease, all tension and conflict is completely killed. SO that can't be his goal, either. Hell, he spent more time driving around for the Audi commercial, which ironically meant as much to the remainder of the story as the new power cell - nothing.
What is the villain's plan? First of all, who the hell is the villain: Whiplash or Justin Hammer? Hammer simply wants a defense contract, which poses a threat of zero to Stark if he succeeds in getting the contract. Whiplash has a pasted-in motivation that is as weak as a wet noodle. He fights Stark at the racetrack and then spends the remainder of the movie sitting in a room on the other side of the country, not threatening anybody at all (until the very end). It's good that he showed up with a security uniform on the off-chance that Stark would be driving a race car that day. Did anybody see where logic went? So with no villain posing any kind of threat to Stark for the entire second act of the story, and Stark having no goal of his own, we're left with a jumbled mess in the middle of the film. Stark acts out and does nothing remotely interesting or exciting because he simply has nothing else to do. His conflict with Pepper was so manufactured, I could almost hear the clatter of an assembly line every time they were together. It was entirely non-emotional, and because of that, I couldn't care.
The hero and villain don't even encounter one another at all in the second act of this movie! They are off on their own doing boring crap instead.
Nick Fury shows up and drops information in Stark's lap instead of Stark actually finding out for himself. Then Fury is basically gone for the remainder of the movie. Whatever the hell Scarlett Johansson's character's name was served no purpose at all. Why were these characters even in the movie? I know Scarlett was in because she got to wear tight leather and kick ass, which I personally loved, but I would appreciate it a bit more if it was somewhat story-related. Of course, you need a story first.
You can argue that Scarlett had to stop Whiplash from maintaining control of the War Machine suit, but I don't even know how Whiplash gained control of it to begin with! We are never presented with that information. And if he can control War Machine, why not take control of Stark's suit? Hello? Logic? Where did you go? Logic, come back! The climax involves an long fight with drones, which becomes nothing more than robots slugging each other. In the first film, Stark was battling the technology that he created and had to learn to outsmart his opponent because he couldn't outgun him. Here, it's just mindless action. There is no threat of danger. The drones pose a threat as severe as a field mouse. Then Whiplash shows up to a scene where a battle was already fought, and they have another battle that is twice as short as the one with the drones. If you blink, you'll miss it. There is no struggle. No reversals. No tension. No anything.
Why can't we have a summer action movie that is both fun and good? You can even site the first Iron Man as an example. What happened here? This movie is a complete joke and a borderline insult.
But I think we all know by now that Hollywood only makes sequels because they want money, not because they have a story worth telling...or a story at all.
If I didn't see this movie for free, I'd ask for my money back on account of a faulty product.