In the Theatre with Kevin Murphy - Iron Man 2 - Paramount Pitcures

I wasn't surprised to find that a summer sequel like Iron Man 2 to do smoking well at the box office. What I was surprised about was that unlike its predecessor (2008),Iron Man 2 lacks many of the amazing things such as the acting and effects that were present in Iron Man 1. However I still found this movie to have a good followup to the last Iron Man because it is still able to showcase its dazzling effects without getting too overproduced (and I emphasis "too").

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) has become the golden rule of the superhero, Never reveal your identity to the public. By braking this rule it has turned him into basically a full blown idiot. This is influenced him to treat his entire life as an after party with his armor as his tuxedo. Beneath this Tony's core is killing him and for his health appoints his assistant Virginia (Gwyneth Paltrow) CEO of Stark Industries. Meanwhile Starks laziness has left him vulnerable for a Russian physicist 'IvanVanko/Whiplash' (Mickey Roark) who holds a deep and boiling grudge against Tony's blood to team up with one of his rivals Justin Hammer(Sam Rockwell) to better Stark at the next expo resulting in some pretty sweet battle sequences.

Ok, first off this is defiantly not as good as the first Iron Man. The first Iron Man had a much more solid plot and the main character portrayed his genius much better than he did in this movie along with his responsibilities. I mean a few good chuckles from Stark when he's not being Iron Man is ok but when he's using that suit as a tuxedo that really makes me sulk my head down in shame. The opening of the film was extremely boring and slowing down the plot in my opinion and I didn't really wake up until the fight sequence between Iron Man and Big Machine. I think the major problem with this story is that now that his identity has gone public he cannot hold onto the identities of two namesakes and because of it he leads the praise of being Iron Man goes to his "Tony Stark" head and he falls back from being the great hero in Iron Man 1 leading this movie to loose some points from me.

However I would say that although the acting wasn't perfect it is still good enough to qualify with the first Iron Man and the first two Spider Man films. But let me assure you its way better than Fantastic Four (2005). I thought the best acting came from Mickey Roark as Whiplash who's vendetta against Stark causes him to be a bit more of a tragic villain who is doing his deeds to avenge someone he loves rather than Hammer who's just doing whats he's doing to prove he's better than Stark and even in his darkest moments you can still feel the good in Roarks performance. I thought Roarks performance was good but not as good as Randy the Ram Robinson from the Wrestler (2008).

Don Cheadle replaces Terrence Howard as Lt. James Rhodes and although I thought Cheadle was good in his part. I found Howard a better actor in the position of Starks right handman. Although uncertain I would like to see how Howard would have handled being War Machine in comparison to Cheadle who I thought did ok as it.

My biggest compliment of this film is its great use of special effects. Its only been two years since Iron Man 1 so the technologies pretty much the same as in the first one but this movie still packs heat with its effects, especially with its fighting and flying sequences.

So I think Iron Man 2 is just ok and it really isn't as electric as its predecessor some of the other Marvel or Superhero films that took the name superhero seriously. Well at the very least I have gotta praise it for not adding a scene where Robert Downey Jr. struts his stuff down Wall St in his Iron Man suit looking really bass ass, that would have landed this movie very deep in the mud.

My Rating 2/4 Shamrocks