Synopsis: With the world now aware of his dual life as the armored superhero Iron Man, billionaire inventor Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) faces pressure from the government, the press, and the public to share his technology with the military. Unwilling to let go of his invention, Stark, along with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), and James "Rhodey" Rhodes (Don Cheadle) at his side, must forge new alliances - and confront powerful enemies.If I just looked at this film as a big dumb action flick it's completely successful on that level. It does get off to a bit of a slow start as we don't see enough of the suit or action for a bit as things get going, but once they take off I was satisfied with plenty of crazy action sequences. Where I think the film lacks is the plot was just a bit too convoluted. There was just so much crammed in to the 2 hours I think it took away from the character development a bit. That's not to say it's bad by any means, I just didn't think it was as good as the first one.
Where it did improve was with the characters. I loved the addition of Mickey Rourke, Scarlett Johansson, Don Cheadle and having more Samuel L. Jackson. Add those to the big acting chops already starring in the series from Gwyneth Paltrow and Downey and it's just a great cast. Some of the best scenes I thought are just when Downey is being Tony Stark, egocentric billionaire. He's great.
I do have some fears that with Pepper and Tony now sort of "hooked-up", they may take this series the direction of Spiderman, which has turned into a Nickolas Sparks novel with a costumed character. I hope not.
Overall there's not much more to say about this one. There are plenty of CGI and action scenes for fast-paced, glossy, super-polished entertainment. It's loud, pretty and fun.
7/10
