Iron Man 2 (directed by John Favreau, 2010)

Some movies are best appreciated when you watch them alone in a dark room and let the deep messages wash over you; Iron Man 2 is not one of them. Iron Man 2 is popcorn flick plain and simple and is best enjoyed in a crowded theater with good friends. Robert Downey Jr. reprises his role as Tony Stark and doesn’t disappoint. Downey Jr. is perfect in this role as he brings a coolness, humor and charm that make Mr. Stark ooze charisma. The film itself follows a basic action movie formula with minimal plot development and survives on bursts of action.

The Iron Man sequel is definitely fun to watch but lacks the brisk pacing of the original and the points of drag where made worse by the fact that I saw it after working 12 hours. My other complaint mostly comes the from the fact that I have never been a comic book guy so while I understand the basics, the characters included in order to set up further sequels or entirely separate comic book based movies seem unnecessary to this movie in and of itself. This is certainly the case with the characters Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Natalie Rushman (Scarlett Johansson). While Sco-Jo is certainly easy on the eyes, these characters bring little to the movie. Surely the comic book junkies will push back on this but this is just my prospective. Iron Man’s main foe is Ivan Vanko/Whiplash (Mickey Rourke) who is entertaining but mostly under used making me wonder if Rourke’s inclusion was merely an attempt to seize on his post “The Wrestler” buzz.

While some of the characters seem to miss, the biggest home run was Justin Hammer, Starks arms developing rival and backer of Whiplash, played brilliantly by Sam Rockwell. I have read some criticisms of Rockwell’s performance claiming that he was too over the top. This to me seems absurd because the cockiness and hamishness (pardon the pun) of the character is exactly the point and provides the best comic relief of the film. In the second Iron Man film the role of Lt. Col. James Rhodes is taken over by Don Cheadle who serves to give the character much needed personality that was sorely lacking in the first film.

Iron Man 2 will not change your life, but it isn’t supposed to. If you have nothing to do and want to spend 2 hours watching stuff blow up and listening to AC/DC and all the while wishing you were Robert Downey Jr., Iron Man 2 is for you.