With the world now aware of his dual life as the armored superhero Iron Man, billionaire inventor Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) faces pressure from the government, the press, and the public to share his technology with the military. Unwilling to let go of his invention, Stark, along with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), and James "Rhodey" Rhodes (Don Cheadle) at his side, must forge new alliances and confront powerful enemies..
Iron Man was a breath of fresh air in the super hero genre. While it was still a blockbuster and therefor lacked any true depth, it was fun, entertaining, enjoyable and definitely one notch above anything else we had seen in this category. Iron Man 2, the sequel, doesn't quite follow up. The one thing that remained is the great performance by Robert Downey Jr., he is one of the most charismatic actors today and the role of Tony Stark suits him like a glove. I would go so far as to say he's basically playing himself. Unfortunately, in all the other fronts, the film falls flat. The plot is extremely simplistic, too simple in fact, the new characters, Natalie Rushman, Ivan Vanko and Justin Hammer are paper thin and the action sequences, although enjoyable, just aren't impressive at all.
Regarding the new additions to the cast, I thought both Don Cheadle and Mickey Rourke did an OK job considering what they had to work with. Scarlett Johansson felt a bit underused. Maybe underused isn't the right word, I just though her character had no real purpose, if anything, she was eye candy. Sam Rockwell was pretty good but again, the material just wasn't that great. Overall, Iron Man 2 is not a terrible film but it's pretty inferior to its predecessor and nothing more then your typical summer blockbuster.
6/10
Iron Man was a breath of fresh air in the super hero genre. While it was still a blockbuster and therefor lacked any true depth, it was fun, entertaining, enjoyable and definitely one notch above anything else we had seen in this category. Iron Man 2, the sequel, doesn't quite follow up. The one thing that remained is the great performance by Robert Downey Jr., he is one of the most charismatic actors today and the role of Tony Stark suits him like a glove. I would go so far as to say he's basically playing himself. Unfortunately, in all the other fronts, the film falls flat. The plot is extremely simplistic, too simple in fact, the new characters, Natalie Rushman, Ivan Vanko and Justin Hammer are paper thin and the action sequences, although enjoyable, just aren't impressive at all.
Regarding the new additions to the cast, I thought both Don Cheadle and Mickey Rourke did an OK job considering what they had to work with. Scarlett Johansson felt a bit underused. Maybe underused isn't the right word, I just though her character had no real purpose, if anything, she was eye candy. Sam Rockwell was pretty good but again, the material just wasn't that great. Overall, Iron Man 2 is not a terrible film but it's pretty inferior to its predecessor and nothing more then your typical summer blockbuster.
6/10