Iron Man 2

Rating: 6.5/10

Genre: Action Drama

Overall value for time and money: 6.8/10

1. Plot development: average
2. Character development: weak
3. Comedy: good
4. Cast: bad
5. Action: disappointing

Tony Stark returns as the over-confident and showy billionaire who refuses to handover his technology to the government and believes that he is the reason for the current world peace situation. However, he gradually realises that he might not be the only one capable of creating the "iron-man" technology and faces the threat of both his invention and a new villain, Ian Vanko.

Disappointing sequel. First let me scrape the surface before digging deeper. Iron man was packaged as the "cool" marvel superhero with state-of-the-art equipment, together with witty and funny lines which spiced up the different characters, esp. Tony Stark... at least that was what was portrayed in Iron Man. But in this sequel, the director did try to keep those elements, but it failed terribly. It was excessively done with little or no substance.

The only cool part about the entire movie was already revealed in the trailer, with him mounting his suite via his briefcase. His partner, War Machine, appeared in the trailer as well... seemingly promising a good duo battle against the villians... well, the only point that they were fighting side by side was also revealed in the trailer... where they were surrounded by those evil automated machines.

Almost all the good parts were already in the trailer and if there was one thing good about the movie, it had to be the publicity and hype caused from the posters and trailers. *major spoilers ahead*. Now its time to stop if you haven't caught the movie but frankly, it wouldn't make much of a difference even if you continued with this review because it might just save you a good deal of money.

The witty lines, which were indeed funny did in no way contribute to the story development or even the character development in any sense. Unlike the its prequel which made more sense in bringing out Tony Stark's character and his relationship with those around him. However, for this movie, there were lots of catchy lines, yet, none were of substance. Nick Fury's lines were not even refreshing funny... they felt like they came from some Quentin Tarantino movie, they were just way off for this movie.

Also, the way war machine stole Iron Man's suit was ridiculous. Why would a friend do something like that to him? There was no backing of the action... I mean if I were to witness my good pal getting all wasted as if he were enjoying the last few moments of his life... why in the world would I even head down to his basement to mount his suit, fly back up, have a fight with him, and after winning, fly off to my boss? What kinda friend does that?

And Scarlett Johansson was like some bimbolic assistant who was supposed to be "cool" but yet delivered what seemed like "fake" acting, her face was expressionless and her dipiction of her character made her feel like some cyborg part-time superhero. *Cameo* The director making a choice to come into the movie as Stark's assistant was a bad one as well... he didn't even feel like he belonged there. Too many redundant characters in this movie... Samuel L. Jackson was like some calefare who popped up every once in a while to add those "off" moments to the movie.

The last scene showing the capture of Sam Rockwell and how Gwyneth Paltrow took control of the whole situation was dumb. Didn't make sense and felt like a blow to anyone's intelligence. Everything was too "easy", too "convenient", felt like it was just for the sake of it happening. If I were to go to a grand expo convention, go to the main control when everything seems to be out of hand, and take control... the guys there would gladly let me take over cos they have no idea who I am and I might just be their savior.

The guest appearance of Stan Lee was even worse for this movie. He only enjoyed like a 1 second cameo appearance like he wasn't even worth spending screen time on him... This entire movie was screened for 124 mins and yet... why is it so incomplete? Too much effort was spent on the redundant lines and character screen time instead of the main geeze of the movie, Iron Man fighting villians. The finale duel was shortlived and ended before you can even say "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious...." *perhaps a slight exaggeration but you get what I mean*

The invention of the new element was ridiculous. How in the world did Stark's father put the "ans" in a solid ball which Tony Stark was able to make it computerized and expand it into its very protons and electrons? Also, the end-credits scene was puzzling... I have no idea whose sword that was and can't even be bothered to find out. The soundtrack in this movie was a little backdated, which I believe must have been the favourite songs of the nostalgic director's.... Didn't like the movie as a whole, nor bits and pieces of it. What I did like about the movie... was... was... hold on... its tough... I need to put more thought into it... was the title. Iron Man 2. Of all the versions of Iron Man 2, this poster is most apt... because the movie was all about Tony Stark, not Iron Man.