Avengers Week – Iron Man 2

Serving up more of the same but upping the ante, director Jon Favreau once again finds the right balance for his Iron Man sequel.

Arriving just 2 years after the first movie Marvel wasted no time getting a second instalment off the ground, but what is surprising is that they have not diluted the quality in the name of meeting a release date.

I’ll get the criticism out the way now, a few of the new characters are a little under developed, Rourke’s Russian baddie isn’t give much to do, Gweneth Paltrow’s Pepper Potts is also given a bit of a raw deal despite having more screen time, and the finale is just a copy of the machine vs machine robo-death match from the first film. These quibbles aside Iron Man 2 doesn’t do the obvious and shift it’s tone to be darker as has become the cliché for sequels. The light touch still works a treat and darkness is hinted at but it never descends into bleakness.

After a glimpse in the extra scene at the end of the previous film, Samuel L Jackson’s Nick Fury gets in on the action as does Scarlett’s Johansson’s smoking hot Black Widow.

Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer is the dark flip side to Stark, although it would of been nice if he had a bit more screen time.

Terrance Howard is such a good actor he manages to do a Don Cheadle impression so convincing you will not believe it’s really him, ok fair enough Howard was replaced.

It’s an enjoyable frothy sequel that despite not changing what worked from the first movie, manages to be almost as good,

Next up is The God of Thunder, Thor!