Iron Man 2

For those watching this review on Wandering Gamer, thank you! Here are some additional thoughts that didn't make it into the video. Enjoy!

- Every comic book based movie franchise has a slump or decline, thanks to the amount of material that the movie is expected to cover. I've seen many potenially awesome movies get crushed by the weight of their own characters and story-arcs. Spiderman 3, X-Men: Last Stand, Batman and Robin, Wolverine, Fantastic Four, I'm looking at all y'all. Iron Man 2 has just as much material to cover, yet does it's best to remain focused and entertaining. Jon Favreau does a great job balancing the introductions of new people and expanding the characters we already know. In this respect, Iron Man 2 is stellar. Sure it's not as good as the first movie, but if this is the franchise's "slump", then it's a very well executed and enjoyable "slump".

- Speaking of new people, Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanoff AKA Black Widow (although she's never referred to as this) is HOT. Seriously epically hot. Also, she's very flippy with a good helping of unrealistic but entertaining acrobatic combat. I wonder who would win in a fight between Romanoff and Hit-Girl. Hmmm...

- One of the other new people is the Crimson Dynamo/Whiplash hybrid character of Ivan Vanko played by Mickey Rourke. Vanko is one of the few weak points in the movie, as just about every scene he's in and not fighting is awkward and hard to understand. No, I mean he's literally hard to understand with his mumbling Russian accent.

- Sam Rockwell turns in a decent performance as slimeball rival industrialist Justin Hammer. He's ok, but he constantly comes off as whiny and incompentant rather than a real threat to either Tony Start or Ivan Vanko. I suppose that's probably intentional, but I like my bad guys to be real challenges for the heroes. I suppose that's where Roarke's Ivan Vanko succeeds where Rockwell's Justin Hammer fails, as a suited-up and battle-ready Vanko feels like a genuine menace to Iron Man.

In the end, I'll probably go see Iron Man 2 in the theatre again. That might just be the best praise of a movie there can be.