Iron Man 2

The first question always asked of sequels: Is it as good as the original?

Well, while the movie didn't hold the same "oh-my-god-this-is-spectacular"-ness of the first film, I think I would have to say, yes, it's as good as the original.

In some ways, for example the main character's behavior, it was exactly like the first movie. And don't get me wrong, Robert Downey, Jr. is the perfect Tony Stark. But since we already knew the character, it didn't require the same character development as the first movie. So they filled that space with additional characters.

Which would have been fine but the extra characters felt very much like comic relief. There was little or no sense of menace about them. Whiplash was a great character so I'll leave him out of the pack. Especially since if he had been the only comic character, it would all have been fine.

But I think Justin Hammer was slightly unforgivable. I understand changing a character to suit the actor you've selected, but what was wrong with finding an actor to suit the character. As an elderly man, the Hammer character would have complimented Whiplash. With the younger, exceedingly obnoxious character presented, I felt like someone had revived the villain from the first Charlie's Angels movie. He was just annoying on the screen.

For the other actors, Don Cheadle did an excellent job picking up the character of WarMachine. Paltrow was excellent, again, as Pepper Potts. Fury was made for Samuel Jackson (literately) and it was nice to see the character do something (And I loved that one of his lines caused a theater-wide groan). And Johannson was tolerable as the Black Widow. As much as it pains me to say it, any flaws in the character may not have been her fault. She carried the action scenes well, the character just lacked any sort of menace or weight.

As always the special effects were fantastic. The action scenes were great. The plot was well-written. Boiled down, the flaw in this movie is: Iron Man 2 is trying too hard to capitalize on all the things that sold the first movie, rather than working at being just a great movie. It's still a good movie, but it could have been better.

Still, 4/5