Industrial Light and Magic 
 
 Tony Stark, drunk on his own magnificence, throws himself a birthday party and shows up in the Iron Man suit he built to save the world. "The question I get asked most often," he tells the crowd, "is 'How do you go to the bathroom in that suit?'" Pause. Smile. "Just like that." Tony's in celebrity decline, making a fool of himself and thinking he's cool. He's like a rock star trashing a hotel room, too stoned to realize it's his home. See a list of Iron Man 2 Characters. 
 
 A Marvel comic-book hero with no superpowers except a Mensa IQ, preternatural confidence, a sharp wit and an unlimited bank account, Tony made 2008's Iron Man the decade's smartest action film. It must also have been the one closest to the movie industry's heart, for Tony--all mental muscle and verbal elbows in Robert Downey Jr.'s acute personification--had the sense of mission and the ruthlessness that define a Hollywood mogul. Or any American titan. (See the 5 Things You Need to Know about Iron Man 2.) 
 
 In the bolder, less satisfying Iron Man 2, director Jon Favreau and writer Justin Theroux had to figure out what Tony would do once he had it all. If they don't quite pee in Iron Man's suit, they do turn Tony corrosive: the inevitable residue of triumph, they posit, is decadence. As in Superman III, the hero has become his own evil twin. 
 
 The new movie arrives at a moment much bleaker than the dear, dead May 2008 of its predecessor. Back then, Tony was a dream zillionaire: Howard Hughes updated into Richard Branson. In the wake of the Great Recession, his excesses can seem toxic. Appearing before a Senate committee whose chairman (Garry Shandling) wants the U.S. government to control the Iron Man "weapon," Tony blithely boasts, "I have successfully privatized world peace." Even if this is true--can one flying man becalm Iran, North Korea and al-Qaeda?--he sounds as arrogant as a Wall Street CEO. Hubris has felled many high flyers, and Congress won't vote this one a bailout. 
 
 All right, Marvel doesn't have a hero named Blankfein. And Tony has the excuse of a bum ticker; his mechanical heart is wearing out. More important, he makes something besides money: his Iron Man couture, which rogue nations--and a rival arms merchant, Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell)--have been unable to duplicate. But in Russia, someone has improved on the original. Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke, with parchment skin, Mongolian fierceness and more tattoos than "Bombshell" McGee) is the son of a disgraced physicist who worked with Tony's father, and Vanko nurses a hatred for all Starks. In the film's neatest set piece, the iron-suited Russian invades the Monaco Grand Prix and thrashes Tony with chain whips of electricity. Hammer secures Vanko's services, thus subsidizing the film's climactic hero-villain face-off. 
 
 All Over but the Shooting ||||| Simply smashing! Iron Man 2 
 
 Let the summer begin! Iron Man 2, the sequel to 2008’s Marvel blockbuster (which grossed over $570 million worldwide), is a sensational way to give the season a kick start. This follow-up has a lot on its plate, with Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark now outed globally as Iron Man and an array of new villains coming out of the woodwork to compete with him. It may not be in 3D but look for this 2nd visit to Marvel’s latest cash cow to top the original, not only for ratcheted up action, excitement and pure movie fun but also at the box office and beyond. 
 
 The new film picks up about six months after Tony Stark revealed his top secret Iron Man identity to the world. Now with incredible fame, the billionaire playboy/weapons inventor/superhero is trying to relaunch his late father’s (John Slattery) Stark Expo, an event that focuses on the humanitarian aspects of revolutionary technology. Unfortunately for him, the U.S. Government wants him to turn the Expo over to the military and has called him to a Senate hearing to try to force the issue. 
 
 A new rival from his darker past, Russian prisoner Ivan Vanko a.k.a. Whiplash (Mickey Rourke), is determined to crush Tony by unveiling his own super weapon, which just happens to be inspired by Stark’s premier invention. If that’s not enough, he’s got to deal with all sorts of new challenges including one from a his sleazoid rival Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), who is determined to get the U.S. contract for his own weaponry and dunk Stark industries in the process. Stark’s seductive new assistant, Natalie (Scarlett Johansson), is a super spy with the altar-ego Black Widow and she’s has been installed as a mole in Tony’s operation. Returning from the first film is a feistier Lt. Col James “Rhodey” Rhodes (Don Cheadle) and later on Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) with some key information for our conflicted hero. 
 
 Director Jon Favreau and new screenwriter Justin Theroux (Tropic Thunder) deftly manage to juggle all these interweaving parts without succumbing to the sophomore slump many comic book franchises suffer. Although the addition of a trio of new villains may seem like overkill, Favreau keeps it all balanced and really pulls off some tremendous set pieces including a spectacular Monte Carlo Grand Prix where Tony is one-upped by the Godzilla-like tactics of Whiplash and narrowly escapes alive. The half hour finale is also loaded-for-bear with dizzying non-stop effects and action incorporating not one but two Iron Men. 
 
 As he was the first time around, Downey Jr. is the man! Taking on the mantle of a comic book hero after age 40 is unusual but Downey makes it palatable. Gwyneth Paltrow returns nicely as the ever-faithful Pepper, who is now running the company and trying to keep Tony out of trouble. Cheadle ably replaces Terrence Howard as Rhodey and gets his own “Iron Man” moment, while Slattery has a key flashback cameo as the elder Stark. As one of the new villains, Johansson oozes sex appeal and shows she has a natural flair for martial arts. Meanwhile the tattooed and imposing Rourke is a hoot with thick Russian accent and a penchant for pet birds. Best of all is Rockwell who plays the low-rent rival of Stark to the hilt, particularly in the opening Senate hearing where he tries to unsuccessfully squash his arrogant competitor. Comedian Gary Shandling has an amusing cameo as the frustrated Senator also trying to nail Stark. 
 
 Fans of the first will not be bored. This Iron Man may not be the Godfather II of comic book movie sequels, but it is a complete blast. 
 
 Distributor: Paramount 
 
 Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Sam Rockwell, Mickey Rourke, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, John Slattery, Gary Shandling and Jon Favreau 
 
 Director: Jon Favreau 
 
 Screenwriter: Justin Theroux 
 
 Producers: Kevn Feige 
 
 Genre: Action/Comedy 
 
 Rating: PG 13 for sequences of intense action and sci-fi violence and some language. 
 
 Running time: 124 min. 
 
 Release date: May 7, 2010 ||||| He may be out of the closet as a superhero and cheered around the world as a peacekeeper, but in Iron Man 2, former weapons mogul Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) can still be a cocky SOB. The man with a battery where his heart ought to be is restless, driven, glib, grandiose  which is to say, the billionaire industrialist still exhibits all the self-absorbed, antiheroic qualities with which Downey first delighted us in the role two years ago. So if this sequel doesn't glow with the same charm as the original, and if Iron Man's face-offs against evil lack edge, the diminished satisfaction has less to do with the quality of the star's trademark catch-me-if-you-can energy than it does with a performance anxiety that now pervades the whole shebang. 
 
 Are returning director Jon Favreau and the Marvel Studios producing team buckling under pressure to give the people more of what they think the people want, and make it bigger, too? That's the only reason I can think of for the time and money devoted to loud, long, escalating battle scenes, waged among inconsequential war machines (there's nothing duller) that are themselves merely the products of CG artists  undifferentiated action sequences that stall long stretches of the story and threaten to stomp out the quotient of fun. Which is an odd choice, since people who loved the original are exactly the people who don't want clang for clang's sake: We want zingy repartee, we want characters, we want attitude to spice up the further adventures of a superhero still getting used to the demands and perks of the job, and drinking too much under stress. We want what Downey had in mind when he pushed for Justin Theroux to write the screenplay: quick-thinking wit from the hip writer-actor who co-wrote Tropic Thunder. 
 
 Naturally, we also want a few juicy bad guys. Here, we're given a choice of villainous types. Mickey Rourke goes for Slavic-psycho stylings as a grimy Russki creep named Ivan Vanko who's been nursing a long-festering complaint against Stark's late dad (John Slattery, in a nice touch, is seen in '60s-style film-reel flashback living the Mad Men life). In a contrasting star turn of virtuoso smarm, enhanced by the telling detail of self-tanning dye stuck to his palms, Sam Rockwell struts and preens as arms manufacturer Justin Hammer, always ready to cut a corner to fill a military contract. 
 
 For a change, we're given a choice of pertinent dames, too, as Stark interacts with two very different female employees. His loyal, spunky former assistant, Pepper Potts (reprised by radiant, ponytailed Gwyneth Paltrow, bright as a penny), has been promoted to CEO of his company, allowing the boss to go all hound-dog around her curvy, purring (and, as it turns out, secretly busy) replacement, Natasha, played in full come-hither mode by Scarlett Johansson. (Natasha, you may have heard, reveals her true identity soon enough, and does a passable superheroine martial-arts crouch in a skintight bodysuit.) 
 
 The Iron Man 2 story expands from a lot to a whole lot. Along the way, Stark becomes obsessed with reviving his father's plans for a showcase for the humanitarian uses of cutting-edge technology. Stark broods (as only a Downey character can) over the progressive corrosion of his substitute heart. And there's a dispensable detour involving Stark's military buddy, Rhodey (played by Don Cheadle, replacing Terrence Howard in a thankless role). 
 
 With all that heavy payload, Iron Man 2 begins to burst at its own galvanized seams as the Marvel instinct for faceless warfare among comic-book characters bangs up against the Downey-Favreau-Theroux instinct for goofitude. (Qualifying as goofy, comedian Garry Shandling plays a U.S. senator, Bill O'Reilly plays himself, and at one point Iron Man, resting curled within the curve of a famous Southern California food-sculpture landmark, is told, ''Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to exit the doughnut.'') Downey's head and heart are in the right place, but the movie is more in pieces than whole, and more about iron than about men. C+ 
 
 See all of this week's reviews
– Iron Man 2 is clunkier than its predecessor and its self-destructive hero has succumbed to boozy overconfidence, but Robert Downey Jr. saves the film, not to speak of the world, say critics. This movie is "bigger, louder and dumber than its predecessor" but still plenty of fun, writes Bill Goodykoontz at the Arizona Republic, praising Downey's "enormously entertaining" performance as the Marvel Comics superhero. The flawed hero is still an absorbing character and Mickey Rourke has some great "psycho-Slavic stylings" as a bad guy, but in contrast to its predecessor, Iron Man 2 relies too much on CGI battles and "is more about iron than men," writes Lisa Schwarzbaum at Entertainment Weekly. Downey's Iron Man could be "a self-destructive hero out of a Dostoyevsky or Mailer novel" and his performance is worth the ticket price, Richard Corliss writes at Time. The rest, however, is "a cluttered, clattering toy story." Director Jon Favreau hasn't suffered a "sophomore slump" with this sequel, writes Pete Hammond at Box Office Magazine. "This Iron Man may not be the Godfather II of comic book movie sequels critics hope for but it is a complete blast anyway."