Iron Man 2
Starring: Robert Downey, Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow, Scarlett Johansson
Director: Jon Favreau
Rating: 3.5/5
I must admit that I was excited about the release of Iron Man 2, which kicked off the blockbuster summer, after being such a huge fan of the original.
Now it came as a bit of a shock two years ago when the first film broke through the $100 million barrier in it's opening weekend in America, a sequel seemed slightly inevitable.
And with both Iron Man and The Dark Knight setting the super-hero movie standard back in 2008 Iron Man 2 had a hell of a lot to live up to.
With the world now aware of his dual life as the armoured superhero Iron Man, billionaire inventor Tony Stark (Downey Jr.) faces pressure from the government, the press, and the public to share his technology with the military.
Unwilling to let go of his invention, Stark, along with Pepper Potts (Paltrow), and James "Rhodey" Rhodes (Cheadle) at his side, must forge new alliances -- and confront powerful enemies.
Big fans of the first movie will be slightly disappointed, as I was, by this second offering from Jon Favreau.
While the movie looks great and Robert Downey Jr is his usual brilliant self Favreau has just tried to cram too many storylines into the film that it just gets bogged down.
Ok so we have the Iron Man suit poisoning Tony's body, the US military wanting the technology of the suit, Pepper Potts taking over at Stark Industries and the whole will they won't they, Stark's rivalry with Justin Hammer, the threat of Ivan Vanko, the introduction of Black Widow and the development of SHIELD, which side is Rhodey on? Oh yeah and not to mention Stark's daddy issues.
Did we get all that?
So, an you can imagine, trying to tie up all of these storylines was a bit of a mission and high octane, exciting action was few and far between.
And that was the movie's big stumbling point we didn't see enough Iron Man action saving the world and defeating the bad guys.
Instead we are left with possible love interest stories that, while they are very interesting, shouldn't be taking pride of place.
But when you finally do get to the action Favreau and co really do not disappoint it's fast paced and exciting and easily rivals the original movie for excitement and thrills, shame there isn't a little more of it.
Robert Downey Jr once again turns in a great performance and is clearly having the time of his life as Stark, the role that turned his career around.
Depicted as this couldn't care less playboy it's great to see another side to his character second time around as he contemplates the idea of his own death whilst looking back on his rather cold relationship with his father.
There's also a great and evil performance from Mickey Rourke, good to see him in a blockbuster movie.
Iron Man 2 also introduces the Black Widow and Nick Fury and it will be good to see the development of both characters in future Iron Man movies as well as the other Marvel movies on the way, especially Nick Fury.
Ok so it does fall short of it's predecessor but that doesn't make it a bad movie, just a tad disappointing.
It's unevenly paced and very convoluted with too much going on, but Downey Jr's central performance is enough to pull it along.
The explosive set pieces do save the film as they are bigger and better than the first time around, just a little too few and far between.
It's great to see some character development for Stark as this film is more emotional than the first as we see that there are consequences to the choices that he makes.
So it's perhaps the sequel that everyone was expecting but with a third movie looking almost certain Favreau, who puts in a great cameo, has plenty of time to put it right.
Iron Man 2 is out now.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw