Iron Man 2

Director: Jon Favreau
Writer: Justin Theiroux
Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow
Release Date: May 7, 2010
Length: 2 hours 4 minutes

Director Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr are back, but did they fall into the bad sequel trap the second time around? After two short years, Tony Stark is already back on the big screen. This time though, everyone knows his alter ego Iron Man.  At the top of his game, Stark faces difficulties when he runs into old technology competitor, Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) at his Stark Expo event. Right after he runs into him, he faces a dangerous Russian stranger, Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), who tries to kill him on a racetrack. What intimidates Stark the most is that Vanko is also wearing a suit similar to his, but further ahead in technology than Iron Man. When Hammer and Vanko join forces, there is havoc in the air for Stark. It’s safe to say that the originality and cleverness of the first film didn’t go completely down the toilet, although the audience is only left with shreds with Iron Man 2. In replace of witty writing and intriguing dialogue were minutes upon minutes of action sequences. It’s no surprise that a few things blew up here and there because this is a superhero movie, but Iron Man 2 seems to have doubled the amount of CGI from the previous film. I sometimes say an actor carries a movie well, but I mean it when I say I would have been bored to tears if not for the incredible, hilarious Robert Downey Jr. He kept the audience intrigued during every scene, especially the ones where he shared a great chemistry with Gwenyth Paltrow. In every scene without him, I felt the film starting to plummet. Another strong actor that’s risen from the dust is Mickey Rourke. Although, not as entertaining as Downey Jr., he was spine-chillingly evil as the Russian Ivan Vanko, who was a well-crafted villain on the writer’s part. Don Cheadle, replacing Terrence Howard, was also enjoyable to watch as Stark’s best friend, Colonel James “Rhodey”. There was a slight worry that this film wasn’t going to be as great as the first, when celebrity faces like Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson started appearing in the trailers. Thankfully, the whole film didn’t completely rely on Hollywood cameos, but I would have liked to see more scenes with Robert Downey Jr and Gwenyth Paltrow than Scarlett Johansson doing karate in slow motion. One of the aspects I liked the most about the first film, was that when Stark was being held captive in the middle east, he created the Iron Man suit from scraps of metal. Obviously this is not something that could have been repeated in the second film, but it was more interesting as opposed to Stark having all the technology he wants in his hands. For all the unlimited amount of action sequences in this movie, many of them are done with incredible camerawork and intense special effects. Jon Favreau showed he was a phenomenal director with Iron Man, and he still proves that with Iron Man 2. Unfortunately this time, Favreau had to work with a much weaker script. Although Iron Man 2 didn’t rise up to my expectations, I was still entertained the whole way through. Truth be told, I think I would enjoy any movie with Robert Downey Jr. because is one of the most captivating actors there is. Don’t expect to be blown away, just go see Iron Man 2.