Iron Man 2 is the Jon Favreau directed sequel to Iron Man one of the better superhero films of the last few years. It is currently available to view at Cinemas, at my local cinema a ticket costs £7.80 per adult.

This is part of the Marvel franchise and as such, it does get comic book obsessives quite excited at the opportunities for a number of different characters from the franchise to meet up.

I was really looking forward to seeing how they weaved the new characters into the story and looking for clever links to other films and characters, but the links aren't clever and are too obvious making it feel like a bit of an advert at times.

The Film:

Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) cares for his elderly father in his dying days, we discover that Vanko's father helped Tony Starks father to develop the technology that has made Stark interneationally renowned and rich. Vanko vows revenge and using his fathers and his own technical knowledge sets out to find Tony Stark Jr (Robert Downey Jr) and destroy him.

At the same time Stark is experiencing another set of problems as business rival Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) attempts to steal his Iron Man armour design and the US Senate demands access to his technology to ensure the US are at the forefront of protecting the world. It transpires that Stark using the threat of his technology has managed to negotiate world peace in the six months since the first film.

Stark has to balance all of these problems in protecting the people who want to hurt him from the psychologically damaged Vanko whilst at the same time wisecracking like his life depended on it.

Cast:


Robert Downey Jr. ... Tony Stark

Don Cheadle ... Lt. Col. James 'Rhodey' Rhodes / War Machine

Scarlett Johansson ... Natalie Rushman / Natasha Romanoff

Gwyneth Paltrow ... Pepper Potts

Sam Rockwell ... Justin Hammer

Mickey Rourke ... Ivan Vanko

Samuel L. Jackson ... Nick Fury

Clark Gregg ... Agent Coulson

John Slattery ... Howard Stark

Jon Favreau ... Happy Hogan

Paul Bettany ... Jarvis (voice)

Kate Mara ... U.S. Marshal

Leslie Bibb ... Christine Everhart

Garry Shandling ... Senator Stern


My View:

This film was a bit of a mess for me. Robert Downey Jr is brilliant as always he has natural charisma and really makes for a good superhero but there are a lot of problems with this film. To start with it is way too crowded, its great seeing Mickey Rourke as a decent baddy in Whiplash and I love watching Sam Rockwell who is excellent as always bringing a real sinister edge to Justin Hammer, but add to that Don Cheadle as 'Rhodey' Rhodes, Gwyneth Paltrow as the Pepper Potts, Scarlett Johannson as Natalie Rushman and Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury and things get too crowded without having clear reasoning for all of the characters.

Another slightly annoying thing is that Favreau has beefed up his own part as Happy, Tony Starks bodyguard, this appearance is annoying and doesn't fit with this film, it's a shame as Favreau is a good comic performer but this isn't the environment for it.

The film wants to introduce so many other characters for future spin offs in Nick Fury, Black Widow, mention of the Avengers and Captain America, but none of these characters or their mention are fully explained and simply fill time in a clunky manner making their appearances meaningless and disappointing.

The film has too many characters but not enough action, there is a great set piece between Downey Jr and Rourke at the Monaco Grand Prix and a few great fight scenes but not enough which is a real shame. The franchise has got bogged down in how well the dialogue in the original was received and has gone too far that way in this film.

Paltrows role is simply to moan at Downey jr and they have the romantic chemistry of Ant and Dec while Scarlett Johannson looks great and has one great fight scene but isn't on screen enough.

I have to say the film was a big disappointment and fairly dull at times, it isn't memorable or particularly well made, it goes big on introducing future Marvel film characters but at the risk of damaging the plot which is a shame.

There is a good cast but its too crowded, not enough action and a confused plot. It's about a 6 out of 10 for me and I don't like AC/DC so having the entire soundtrack performed by them also limited my enjoyment.