Movie Review: Iron Man 2 (Not Even a Slightly Weaker Movie can Bring Downey Down...)

The first time I saw Iron Man 2, i was having a bad day. The day was so bad, that i spent the time in the cinema sulking with my eyes staring down on the pop corn.

Every once in a while, i found myself trying to glimpse the screen...

For one, it certainly FELT like an Iron Man movie, but somehow... err... anyways...

Saw the movie again last weekend, and my fears were confirmed. It really wasn’t as good as the first movie. But then again, very few sequels really do measure up. 

At some point, i imagined that the first Iron Man movie was so damn good, that they picked up a lot of old footage off the cutting room floor, added a few new scenes, digitally added Scarlett Johansson (who was abso-tively scorchingly hot) and Don Cheadle, pasted everything together, then called it Iron Man 2.

But i digress...

The most common mistake of sequels is the assumption that with all the groundwork for the character already laid out, they can just assume to proceed making a movie thinking that just making things bigger will end up being better. Or at the very least, the audience will be so overwhelmed with all the bombastic beefiness of the new movie that the thinness of the current movie’s story will be forgiven.

Sadly, it usually is.

On a lighter note, Bob Downey has totally cemented himself as Tony Stark. And where many actors who occupy comic book roles sleepwalk through their roles, probably thinking that the comics will fill in the cracks in their depiction, Downey took the ball, made a touchdown, ran around the field with the Tony Stark persona, and put himself in the same category as Adam West was to Batman.

In related feedback, Don Cheadle totally did not fit the superhero mold. I have absolute respect for Don Cheadle as an actor, but i kept thinking Terence Howard would have made for a better War Machine...

But hey, still not a bad movie by most standards. And yes, it’s still a Downey movie.