4 out of 5

Director: Jon Favreau

You saw Iron Man. Iron Man 2 is a completely logical follow-up – the already egotistical Mr. Stark has allowed his re-doubled fame to inflate his head to ginormous size, and it wears upon his friends and associates. But, of course, something topples the pedestal. In this specific instance, it turns out that Tonys indulgences are fueled by the knowledge that the invention that powers his suits, and keeps him alive, is also slowly killing him. Whoops! So hes dying, and frustrated that his genius cannot seem to solve the problem. Throw in the fact that his father may have developed some important technology with dastardly people (Mickey Rourkes father), and its really no surprise that Mr. Downey shows Stark swilling in excess to the point of burning almost all of his bridges. The plot is woven together very well, and to its credit, the movie again deals out excellent pacing, giving you tastes of things early on but then saving the big wows for a climactic battle. This gives the characters room to act and breathe, which is what separated the first film – and now the second – from much of the action tripe. The only negatives are some stumbles in plotting here and there, with easy resolves and cutesy things and clutter added to the film which maybe arent necessary. But I accept those as part of the tapestry Marvel is weaving for their big Avengers move. Lastly, the film doesnt seem as important as the first, simply because the bad guy is now not a larger evil, but someone who becomes a baddy solely to fight Iron Man. Dark Knight turned this into a reflection on good and evil, but Iron Man 2 doesnt try to dig too deep into that. Still: its a great ride, and an impressive, surprisingly solid follow-up to the first.