Iron Man 2 (2010)

"Iron Man 2 sets gold standard for sequels thanks to Robert Downey Jr.'s Stark performance.  Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News
"It is all very-very-very entertaining.  Sara Vilkomerson, New York Observer

Editor's Note As Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) owns up to being Iron Man before the world press, Anton Vanko lies dying in Russia. Years ago, Anton worked with Tony's father to create a new source of energy. But greed got the best of Anton, and now as he slips away, his son, Ivan (Mickey Rourke), vows to make Tony pay for the sins of his father. Meanwhile, Tony fends off efforts from smarmy Senator Stern} (Garry Shandling) and military weapons expert Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) to divulge the secrets of his powerful Iron Man suit. The powers that be are concerned that Tony's technology may fall into the wrong hands -- fears that are soon confirmed when the cocky billionaire entrepreneur is confronted in front of the entire world by Ivan, who has built his own weapon using stolen Stark blueprints. Later, as Lt. Rhodes (Don Cheadle) wrestles with the decision to personally deliver Tony's suit to the military, Ivan finds an unlikely ally in the quest to destroy Iron Man; Stark Industries legal consultant Natalie Rushman (Scarlett Johansson) reveals her connection to Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson); and Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) takes on some new responsibilities.

	Don Cheadle
	Robert Downey Jr.
	Jon Favreau - Director

Box Office
3.5 stars out of 5 -- "Favreau keeps it all balanced and pulls off some tremendous set pieces....Best of all is Rockwell who plays the low-rent rival of Stark to the hilt..." 04/27/2010

Total Film
3 stars out of 5 -- "Things rally in time for an all-out finale, with a power-suited Downey and War Machine Cheadle taking on Rockwell's droids and Scarlett's SHIELD vixen..." 04/08/2010

Rolling Stone
3 stars out of 4 -- ?[A] total blast....Rourke is a bloody wonder, spitting out his lines in an outrageous Russian accent to rival John Malkovich in ROUNDERS.? 05/13/2010

Chicago Sun-Times
3 stars out of 4 -- "IRON MAN 2 is a polished, high-octane sequel....Sam Rockwell gives a wry comic performance as Hammer..." 05/05/2010

New York Times
"Mr. Rourke composes a fugue of malevolence in his own demented key....Mr. Rourke takes possession of the movie every time he shows up." 05/07/2010

USA Today
"Robert Downey Jr. is still spirited and affably snide in IRON MAN 2 as Tony Stark, the brilliant and fabulously rich inventor/superhero." 05/06/2010

A.V. Club
"[D]irector Jon Favreau and screenwriter Justin Theroux treat most of the scenes with a light, glancing wit....Downey is reliably funny in his runaway egotism, and Rockwell's Hammer proves the ideal adversary..." -- Grade: B 05/06/2010

Wall Street Journal
"Sam Rockwell gives a lively, wry performance as Justin Hammer....Mr. Rourke is a formidable physical presence, just as he was in THE WRESTLER..." 05/07/2010

Premiere
3 stars out of 4 -- "Like the original, IRON MAN 2 is a good time from start to finish....The action sequences are vastly improved this time, but it's the character moments you'll walk out remembering..." 05/05/2010

Sight and Sound
"[T]he film picks and mixes elements from 40 years of storylines, combining several villains to create a role for Micky Rourke as a tattooed, gold-toothed Russian genius/brawler....Rourke is interestingly matched against Robert Downey Jr..." 07/01/2010

Chicago Sun-Times 7 of 10
Iron Man 2 is a polished, high-octane sequel, not as good as the original but building once again on a quirky performance by Robert Downey Jr. The superhero genre doesn't necessarily require good acting, but when it's there (as in Iron Man and The Dark Knight), that takes it up a level. Downey here gives us a Tony Stark who is cockier and more egotistical than ever. Or, and here's the key, he seems to be...All heroes have a fatal flaw. That's one of the rules of the road in fiction. Tony Stark's flaw is that he is dying. The megalomaniac act comes naturally, but now it's useful as a cover-up. His chest-mounted battery pack, or life source, or whatever it is, is running low and poisoning his blood. It works by using the rarest element in the periodic table, and to renew it would require discovering or inventing a new element. Not easy...Mickey Rourke gives us all the Ivan Vanko we could possibly wish for, unless he had a third arm to provide space for more tattoos. His performance features flashing his gold teeth in mirthless laughter, and lots of growling. Sam Rockwell gives a wry comic performance as Hammer, a querulous whiner who seems in over his head in the super weapons business...You want a sequel, you got a sequel. Iron Man 2, directed like the first one by Jon Favreau, gets the job done. Since both movies have essentially the same story arc, there aren't a lot of surprises, however, which started me to wondering how the guys survive inside those suits. Sure, the suits are armored, but their bodies aren't. How many dizzying falls and brutal blows and sneaky explosions can you survive without breaking every bone in your body? Just asking'. At the end of a long day, those suits should be filled with bloody pulp. - Roger Ebert