Review of Iron Man 2 (2010) by Shane I — 11 Oct 2013

The sequel to 2008?s Iron Man does actually check off a lot on the sequel to do list. It certainly turns up the action that's for sure. It also brings us new technology to marvel at with Ivan Vanko (a miss cast Mickey Rourke) leading a small army of drone robots in a very entertaining finally. New characters are introduced to, and for me this is where the problems start. The agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are much more involved than in the previous film. We also have a competing company in Hammer Industries headed by Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) trying to steal or copy Stark's work. To that end, Hammer recruits the films main villain Ivan Vanko. The son of a disgruntled former colleague of Howard Stark. The government too are after Tony Stark's technology with a Senator Stern (Garry Shandling) doing what he can to have the suit turned over the US authorities. There's just too much going on, and the result is a set of poorly developed characters, and a muddled pace as the film tries to squeeze in all these intertwining story elements.

It's certainly not boring though. While there isn't a whole lot of cohesion between these different story elements. Individually they offer up some entertaining moments. Some funny, others action packed. So while it's not as good as Iron Man, it's still worth a watch.