Overall good, but horrible plot twists.

Rating: 7/10 (25 April 2013)

O.K. So I seemed to be the only person who liked Iron Man 2. It was a good film battling deep dark undertones finally resolved in the finale of The Avengers.
The film centres on Tony Stark unable to relax and unwind after the mother of all battles in New York (Kind of like me I suppose) so he delves into his work, neglects the ever cardboard Pepper Potts and seems to spend the majority of the film wearing a suit which falls apart at the slightest tap. All topped off by a very annoying flashback scene to remove any plot holes that may arise by adding a super villain that Mr Man of Iron helped create (all be it adversely)
Cue ex-director turned chubby employee of Miss Potts Favreau. Determined to make a point to his pointless cameos he ends up getting himself blown up chasing after Guy Pearce's henchman.I can deal with that. Then this virus that is supposedly like a drug though that context is never fully explored or supported is turning unsuspecting users into walking bombs. Exploding at random killing countless people and I suppose if it wasn't for Favreau's excessive weight gain acting like a shock absorber he would also have met his maker. But he doesn't and tony actually shows more emotion for Chubby (sorry Happy) than the woman who apparently has just moved in....
Tony then send a message to the Mandarin played by the effortlessly brilliant Sir Ben Kingsley (I will get to this character shortly). The message? Please come to my house here's my address I clearly don't care about my life or Pepper's. Needless to say he reacts and blows Stark's pad to the bottom of the ocean, Stark along with it, not before we are treated to a very nice, short lived scene of a suited up Pepper Potts.
What comes next is nice, a scene of a powerless, suit-less Tony Stark, stranded miles away from home (nothing 2 seconds of screen time in an Audi r8 cant fix) befriending a small child, whom I suppose is meant to represent Tony as a child. Some pretty awesome fights with the regenerating Extremis junkies that work for the Mandarin and after this little kid has fixed the Iron Man suit, Tony gets the location of this Mandarin.....with 1 hour still left to go....
No, we are not treated to a Batman/Bane scenario what we are subjected to is the worst, most insulting plot twist of any film since Tom Cruise's brat of a lad showed up at the end of war of the worlds in one piece. The Mandarin, Iron Mans arch nemesis, his most formidable foe from the comic universe, feared and admired by fans for years, is portrayed as a homeless, alcoholic, failed actor. The whole character of the Mandarin and his Ten Rings is just discarded, used as a diversion for Guy Pearce's own terrorist ways. Created as a Scapegoat for all the destruction being done to America. At this point i felt I had two options, either walk out or forget the Mandarin was ever mentioned and just go with the flow.
I stuck it out. And I did enjoy it. The story seemed to move too fast but worked.
After Hijacking the Iron Patriot Armour and infiltrating air force one and kidnapping the President Pearce also kidnapped Pepper Potts with the help of a former one night stand/scientific interest of Tony Stark. Injecting Pepper with Extremis and Stringing up the President ready to be executed live on T.V. Pearce lures Downey Jr to his supposed death. But wait, Tony has 50 suits fly in to assist Rhodes and himself, or just fly around and do all the fighting themselves. I think out of the entire movie Tony Spends about 20-25 minutes actually in is suit. The rest of the time its JARVIS dishing the punishment.
After failing to catch Pepper Potts (does he really want to be with her??) 200 feet into fire laden ground Tony gets all vengeful and jumps from suit to suit (after they keep getting tapped and falling apart) in battle with Killian (Pearce) finally trapping him in one of his Iron Man Suits ( I think the writers Expected us to forget about the fact that Stark makes a huge point of saying that the suits are only coded to his DNA, never-mind) and then detonating it.
Somehow safely on the ground Stark is again confronted by Killian but up pops Potts fighting fit who, half suited, blows him into a million tiny pieces thus saving the day. The rest of the film somewhat confirms rumours that there will be no more Iron Man. Tony has his heart fixed and his mini arc Reactor removed and and destroys ALL of his suits.
As a movie and a sequel its a brilliant film, as a homage to Iron Man its disappointing hence the 7 stars.