Reviews by Matt

I love summer. The weather is great, I go back to day camp and my responsibilities are minimal. It is also a hell of a time to be a movie fan. The summer movie season kicked off Friday with “Iron Man 2.”

The world knows that Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is Iron Man and that is posing some problems for Stark. The U.S. government wants to get their hands on the suit of iron. They feel that the technology is too great for one man to have and are worried about what will happen if other countries were able to replicate it. Stark refuses to give them the Iron Man suit.

While racing in Monaco, Stark is attacked by Ivan Vanko (Micky Rourke) a Russian wielding the same technology as the Iron Man suit. He has added a electric whip on each arm and uses them to devastate Stark.

Meanwhile Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell,) a competitor to Stark Industries, wants to bring down the arrogant Stark. He enlists Vanko’s help in improving Hammer’s very own suits of armor in hopes of using them to embarrass Stark.

I am going to be honest I hate that plot synopsis. There is a lot going on in the movie and there are a ton of characters that it is damn near impossible to write a good enough plot summary.
So let’s start there. I did not like how over blown the movie was. There is way too much going on. And this is coming from a guy who watches “Lost.” There were a bunch of characters that I just did not care about.

So that is the bad. The good?

Robert Downey Jr. is awesome as Tony Stark. He is arrogant, but he is also brilliant and dedicated to helping people. Stark goes through some growth in this sequel. He discovers that the very thing keeping him alive (he has an electromagnet in his chest to keep shrapnel away from his heart), is also killing him. He has to find a new way to keep himself alive. He is faced with his own mortality and starts to self district, but is forced to pull himself out and face the bad guy.

The first one was better. While there are some elements to the first in this one, something is missing. I am not sure what it is, but I was not as satisfied with his as I was with the first. Don’t rush out to see this unless you have seen and love the first. It is good, but not great.

7/10
Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense sci-fi action and violence, and some language.
124 min