The story at times is over-familiar and cluttered with parts of the film that would have benefited from not trying to do too much and it could have had a tighter paced beginning. The characters are not as interesting or as well-realised, Vanko is a little one-dimensional for a villain, Pepper's character is so reduced that what made her so endearing in the first is lost here and Natasha/Natalie's motivations are not as clear as they could have been. Iron Man 2 is not as good and is lacking in places, being not as classy, irreverent or exciting though it is not devoid of those qualities. The first Iron Man was a great film, smart, exciting and classy with a powerhouse performance from Robert Downey Jnr. Watch it if you want.just don't expect a lot of magic. As a result, I just can't see this film as anything more than eye-candy for the very easily amused and not a film with any serious depth-something that was NOT a problem with "Iron Man". And, while it did this clearly, it did so at the expense of the plot and, more importantly, character development. Too often, the film simply overloaded my senses-as it seemed bent on topping the eye-popping images of the first film. My other serious problem with the film is the over-reliance on special effects. Heck, while he was very one-dimensional, it was often easier to like the baddie (Mickey Rourke)!! At least he had some sense of purpose in life other than his own misguided narcissism. Whatever the reason, I found it hard to love the film when I disliked the leading man so much. Perhaps it's because I am 46 (a bit old for this sort of film) and because I haven't read a comic book in 35 years. Now my perception is not everyone's, I know.
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But, in "Iron Man 2", you also liked him despite, or perhaps because of these flaws! In this sequel, that likable roguish quality was missing.he was simply an annoying and self-indulgent jerk.
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Now I am NOT saying I expected him to be perfect-after all, in the first film he was truly irresponsible and sarcastic. While my daughter said she also liked this film and said Tony Stark (Rober Downey, Jr.) was a jerk like he was in the comic books, I though he was simply a jerk-and perhaps my not reading the comic book made it harder for me to take this bothersome portrayal. And, considering that I not only saw the film twice (that's very rare for me) and gave it a 9 in my review, I obviously was stoked to see the sequel. She'd never seen it before and loved it-thanking me for recommending it to her. This time, my 20 year-old watched it with me. About three days before I went to see "Iron Man 2", I watched the original "Iron Man" for the second time.