Iron Man 2 (2010)

Iron Man was a pretty good film. A little too gung ho maybe, but with enough humour and humanity to make it enjoyable. The sequel has much the same cast and director, so I expected something similar, and wasn’t disappointed.

Billionaire genius and superhero Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr - Sherlock Holmes, Tropic Thunder) finds himself the target of the US Government (unhappy that Iron Man is doing what they can’t), competing rich Boy Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell hamming it up to the extreme – Moon, Frost/Nixon), an upset Russian physicist that becomes Iron Man’s first supervillain (Mickey Rourke looking extra bizarre – The Wrestler, Angel Heart), and SHIELD, represented by Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson - Snakes On A Plane, Inglourious Basterds) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson – The Spirit). Stark is being killed by the very thing that keeps him alive, and he wants to go out with a bang. And he stills secretly loves his assistant, Pepper Pots (Gwyneth Paltrow – Se7en).

The appeal of superhero stories is the human aspect and what goes on in their life. These bits of Iron Man 2 I like, and I lose interest when the CGI fights take place. There are certainly enough jokes and character plot to appease me in Iron Man 2, and probably enough computer game style action to appease the masses. The hints to Captain America and Thor were most welcome too.