Iron Man 2 (2010)

Just like your midlife crisis except for the money, beautiful women and the flying suit of super armor.

The first Iron Man movie was a big surprise. The film firmly put Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau back in the spot-light and both have been huge draws since. It's only two years later and they've returned to the same character with only some of the same success. Iron Man 2 is polish, well-made and fun to look at, but it just feels like more of the same.

After the events of the first film, Iron Man/Tony Stark, Robert Downey Jr., goes on a mission to single-handidly create world peace. Of course he succeeds with a combination of handsomeness and alcohol. He makes enemies all along the way and this time he is opposed by rival weapons developer Justin Hammer, Sam Rockwell, and Russian super genius Ivan Vanko, Micky Rourke. The rest of the cast is full of impressive names, Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Samuel Jackson and Scarlett Johansson, and it's directed by Jon Favreau. While the first film opened to massive critical appeal, Iron Man 2 has received more mild praise, but it also opened to substantially more money. This is due to factors other than the films quality though.

I will keep this short. Iron Man 2 is a fine movie. It's exciting and pretty much everything you could want out of a summer blockbuster. The problem is that it just doesn't feel fresh. It hasn't been long enough since Iron Man's last outing and the movie suffers because it just doesn't have good enough ideas. The film plays more like a giant set-up for the future Avenger's movie, which I am pretty excited for, but it alienates a lot of casual viewers because it hinges so heavily on the comic book material. In the end, it's a film made for comic book fans and it does succeed on that level and on a basic, entertaining level. I'm not recommending Iron Man 2 to anyone who doesn't enjoy a comic book film, but if you do like these kinds of movies, you won't be disappointed by the film.

6/10