Iron Man 2: Another average sequel

Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, has made the world a safe place again. But his days of being a superhero might be cut short after he is asked by the US Government to hand over his incredible suit and its technology. He also faces the threat of a new villain named Ivan Vanko, who teams up with one of Stark’s corporate rivals in order to destroy not only Stark Industries, but Iron Man himself.

Credit needs to be given to director Jon Favreau, screenwriter Justin Theroux and Robert Downey Jr. for they tried to further develop the character of Tony Stark and make this sequel stand out in its own way. Downey still played him like the narcissistic ego-manic with a good heart and a desire to make the world a better place that audiences could not get enough of in the original but there was also a tinge of self-destruction to him this time around. Stark looses faith in himself and his ability to be the hero the world expects him to be, and Downey was able to portray this devolvement masterfully. The audience felt the weight of the world on Tony’s shoulders, when they weren’t busy chuckling at his sharp witted retorts, and for an actor to accomplish a feat like that in a comic book adaptation is remarkable. Another enjoyable aspect to the film was the relationship and interplay between Downey’s Stark and Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper Potts. Their snappy dialogue and crackling chemistry provided plenty of laughs and tender moments. However these juicy bits of character development and intrigue were overcome by an inordinate amount of tedious backstory which made the film drag and the audience loose interest. Add to that a couple of lackluster villains in Justin Hammer (an uber sleazy Sam Rockwell) and Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke, who looked like a ghetto version of Dr. Octopus when he had his suit on), some mediocre action sequences (including the final showdown between Iron Man and Vanko which redefined the term “anti-climatic”), plus Scarlett Johansson's lack of any meaningful screen time (we only get to see her kick butt for a minute or so) and you get a so-so action film which wasted the efforts of its two greatest assets, its lead actors.

It’s true that Iron Man 2 is supposed to serve as a sort of pre-cursor to a number of other Marvel comic book film adaptations that will be heading to the big screen in the coming years, (Thor, Captain America and The Avengers to name a few), but setting up all of these other characters and stories could have been accomplished without watering down Iron Man 2 so much that it became more of a tedious exercise than a good old fashioned popcorn flick like the original was.

Grade: C