Iron Man 2
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Directed By: Jon Favreau
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, & Mickey Rourke
For those of you who are wondering, no, Iron Man 2 is not as good as its wonderful predecessor, a movie that helped launch the comic book subgenre into legitimacy. The good news, my friends: it is actually a good movie, anyway. It ramps up the action two-fold and introduces a slew of intriguing new characters, all well-played by the new additions to the cast, including the likes of Mickey Rourke and Scarlett Johansson. But, for all that it adds to its storyline, it loses a little bit of the heart and soul that made the first Iron Man an unexpected critical and commercial success back in 2008. Though it starts off on a pitch-perfect note by immediately reintroducing us into the charming life of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and maintains its momentum for a while, shortly after the first showdown between Stark and this movie's signature villain, Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), at a soon-to-be-destroyed racetrack, Iron Man 2 hits a wall of sorts that leads it into a noticeably drab slump for the duration of its bulky mid-section. Fortunately for Stark and company, it regains its footing well enough in advance to conclude with a literal bang, an ending that is bigger and better than that of Iron Man in just about every way imaginable and lets the audience leave on a high note that will surely stick with them more than the slightly disappointing middle.
