Iron Man 2 Review

Iron Man 1 was a huge success, critically and with the box office. It was a no-brainer to create a sequel. The only question is, is there any possible way to make it better than the first one?

This time around we have a new villain. Mickey Rourke, who plays the character/villain Whiplash, does an excellent job at playing the evil russian. His greatest scene was when he sliced Tony's car in half, but I'll get to that later. RBJ as always preforms top notch. An interesting plot element added to Iron Man 2 was actually Tony growing as a character. Yeah. you never thought you'd hear me say that! Tony Stark is still the rich billionaire hotshot at the end of the first film, but this time its a lot more personal when he learns about his dad's involvement with S.H.I.E.L.D.

Tony's dad, while only seen in video recordings from 1974 that Tony finds, plays a huge role in Tony's character. He grew up all his life thinking his dad hated him, but he learns thats not true when he finds hidden secrets about a new type of element within a Stark Expo scale model. This leads to Tony getting a new triangle heart, but thats all I'm gunna say about that.

Another role that Tony's dad plays in the plot is (like I said) S.H.I.E.L.D. As you've probabaly heard, theres a bunch of upcoming Marevl movies coming up:

Thor: 2011 (stay after the credits at Iron Man 2 to see a secret scene relating to "Thor")

Captain America: 2011 (Cap's shield is in a small scene in Iron Man 2, but I'll leave that up to you look for)

The Avengers: 2012 (Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, and Thor are to be the main characters of this movie)

Iron Man 2 is a great lead-in for these movies, mainly because of the subtle references to each of the heroes. It making this Marvel project seem a whole lot more real. Anyway, the point is, Tony's dad has an important part in Tony's growing of character, but also a big part in Marvel's big picture.

With all that said about the Avangers films, that wouldn't mean anything unless the movie was actually good. The thing about Iron Man (1 & 2) is that it a super hero movie done right. No one could really ask for more. Its got the action for the teenaged guys like me, its got the romance for the girls (maybe some guys like that kinda stuff, not me of course), and overall it is just plain fun to watch. Iron Man 2, while not as good as the first movie, is an excellent start to this years summer movies, and I am ANXIUOSLY awaiting Marvel's next movies (except the Spider-Man reboot, cause come on, who actually think that will be good?).

A-