Entertaining but underwhelming.

Rating: 7/10 (23 May 2010)

If anything that's the media these days is that sequels rarely surpass the original in turns of epic scope and balls-to-the-wall action with the exception of The Dark Knight and Spider-Man 2 as well as the first two X-Men films and Hellboy 2. In my opinion Iron Man 2 is an entertaining and bombastic superhero movie that does well with what you expect from a sequel to the first hit back in '08 but it falls really short on some levels.
Well, to put it quite frankly, the sequel itself doesn't feel as coherent as the first film which did a great job of setting up the hero and the suit he uses to fight evil with great doses of humor, warmth, and charm. There are so funny lines in the film but the jokes fall flat and don't have that serious bite that was prevalent in the first film. But the biggest flaw is the story. So many loose threads are left hanging and are never resolved again. I was pleased with the introduction of Whiplash(played excellently by Mickey Rourke)and his motivation to go toe-to-toe with ol' Shellhead, but the film rarely goes in depth into his personality and his inner workings for the audience to truly sympathize with this character. Add to the fact that Natasha Rushman/Romanov known as Black Widow has barely any decent character development along with Sam Jackson as Nick Fury and you have a film that leaves you cold in that respect.
Though a plot is essential to telling the story, I was really let down by the lack of action scenes in the film. I enjoyed the fight between Iron Man and Whiplash in the early part of the film as well as between War Machine, but there wasn't enough action to get my adrenaline pumping like it did in the first film. By the end of the film where you thought you was gonna get a satisfying climax, the fight between Iron Man, War Machine, and Whiplash(who looked more impressive than when he first appeared) was over FAR too quickly for it to be truly awesome. Needless to say I was let down BIG time.
There's one scene that I felt defied logic. When Iron Man arrives to confront Justin Hammer near the end of the film, Whiplash programs the drones to kill Iron Man and not only that, use War Machine to attack him as well; one of the best scenes in the whole film. But when the robots start firing their weapons, absolutely everyone in the building suffers NO casualties whatsoever. Then finally when Whiplash is defeated, he sets off a self-destruct switch that programs all the robots to explode yet in the aftermath of such event, we witness no injuries or deaths that actually happened. This movie was supposed to show the consequences of letting weapons of mass destruction out into the public yet we never witness the horror of it.
With all that said, is Iron Man 2 a good film. The answer is a fair yes and I was entertained. However, there's no denying that it is the weakest compared to the first film which I enjoyed a lot. With the recent news that Iron Man 2 will tie into the upcoming Avengers film, I feel somewhat skeptical as to how this all is gonna play out. I like superhero movies but when they start crossing over into other universes, it becomes all too much. Iron Man 2 is a good film but it's story and plot leaves a lot to be desired.