Allow me to say right now that a sequel to match up to its successful predecessor is rare these days. That is confirmed with Iron Man 2, even though it returns Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow with director Jon Favreau.
The film continues where the first Iron Man left off. Tony Stark is still the head of Stark Industries, but the shrapnel he received in the first film is weakening him considerably. Obadiah Stane, the villain from before, has since been long forgotten, but Stark finds an old enemy in the Russian Ivan Vanko, played by Mickey Rourke. Having to battle Ivan as well as his own self, Stark suits up for some more superhero entertainment!
In my review for Iron Man, I was pleasantly surprised at how good it really was. Iron Man 2, however, did not live up to my expectations. The acting and the direction hasn’t been much improved since previously. Downey Jr. is still good, but yet again Paltrow’s performance was disappointing. Sam Rockwell co-stars as Justin Hammer, the Stark’s main business competitor, whose performance is just as unconvincing as it is silly.
Fortunately, the sequel’s main formula is the same as before, keeping the same characters and actors and adding a few new ones: Hammer, as I said before, was necessary but his role was too undermined (he is portrayed as a helpless villain). Samuel L. Jackson is a minor co-star as Nick Fury, the head of SHIELD. Jackson’s character isn’t given enough screen time. And Scarlett Johansson is Stark’s new secretary who secretly is a secret agent working for SHIELD. She’s given plenty of screen time if you ask me. Don Cheadle replaces Terrence Howard. I preferred Howard over Cheadle.
This time, there’s just a little more focus on the action sequences, which again are not top notch.
I didn’t expect Iron Man 2 to live up to Iron Man, and just as I had expected, it didn’t. To complete the Iron Man story, a third sequel, Iron Man 3 is in production. I can hope for the fact that the upcoming Iron Man 3 will hopefully be better then Iron Man 2.
Iron Man 2 was by no means a horrible movie. Most reviews I have read stated it was good, though not as good as before. Stark is the same before, his charisma to the audience is the same, but the fact is that Iron Man 2 on the whole didn’t live up to full expectations.
Grade: C+
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