Review of Iron Man 2 (2010) by Cael M — 28 Jun 2013

It was inevitable that a sequel would be made to the original, refreshing superhero movie, and it's no where near the same level of quality as the first, but is by no means a bad movie. This time around, a Russian man named Ivan Vanko, seeks vengeance on Tony Stark for his father's death, and builds his own powerful weapon from stolen blueprints, going on a quest to defeat Tony.

Thankfully, Robert Downey Jr. still delivers a charismatic performance as Tony Stark, as well as the supporting cast, but the plot movies along a lot slower and is a lot less engaging than the first movie.

It still retains lots of the things that made the original such an innovative movie, just in smaller and less satisfying bursts. The action is on par with the first, albeit there being less, and the finale with the villain is quite short but really makes up for lots of the flaws throughout the movie.

The villains- since there are actually two, which are Mickey Rourke as Whiplash and Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer- are actually performed quite well. They aren't quite as strong as Jeff Bridge's character from the first, but are interesting enough to make sure that Tony Stark actually has a reason to suit up again.

Some of the writing in this movie isn't very good, and many of the introduced characters aren't very fleshed out so I was a little annoyed whenever they were focused on because I didn't really find them very captivating.

It also felt like it dragged on- I felt like the pacing was bad and many scenes and situations were a lot longer than they should've been, making me feel a little exhausted at times. It constantly felt very rushed and effortless, but at other times, the film works great and takes some good turns.

Overall, this was a fun and entertaining movie, and albeit not being anywhere near the innovative and smart level of the original, and feeling very rushed, it was still a semi-satisfying superhero movie that continued to build on the Iron Man franchise.