This is a thread for the film Iron Man 2, which will have opened in most of the developed movie-going world by this weekend.  I won't be reading it until a month from now, when the movie finally comes to Japan, but I look forward to taking part in the discussion at that point.

My fear is that in their desire to cram all things Avengers into their new star franchise, Marvel may have over-comic book'ified the movie (is that a legitimate noun-verb combination?), but I'm hoping Favreau and co. can maintain the characters' charm from the first movie while throwing some sweet new armored-suite action our way.

Not to cast such an early taint, but I'm completely torn on the film.  There were just so many things that bugged the hell out of me about it, chief among them Sam Rockwell's overly obnoxious Justin Hammer.  Dude just would not shut up throughout the entire thing. 

The way the characters are constantly tripping over one another when delivering their rapid-fire lines of argumentative dialogue (something that was done in moderation to good effect in the first film) is like a jabbering mess here.  It makes some of the exposition-heavy scenes a pain to watch. 

It's nigh-impossible to tell whether the music score was good or not, since Debney's compositions were mercilessly buried under the rest of the movie's soundscape.  About the only memorable cue I could make out sounded like something of a faint throwback to the first score's "Vacation's Over" main theme during the last part of the D.C. senate meeting sequence.  The rest of the soundtrack is so overly reliant on AC/DC and licensed stuff that it can manage to take you out of the movie.  You will, however, lol with wowness at the Expo theme that plays over the end credits.

The scenes with Starks tinkering with tech, which were my favorite parts in the first movie, has been toned down to just one key sequence here.  It's a good one, but it doesn't come anywhere near the level of enjoyable intrigue as when he was incrementally refining the suits in the first film.

Favreau's Happy Hogan plays a far more extensive role here, but talk about giving a character too much of a good thing.  It's a self-indulgent and mostly unnecessary part.

Don Cheadle, sad to say, made for a poor substitute for Terrence Howard, the camarade lacking the spark and wit that Howard made work so well in the first.  And seriously, Cheadle's pencil-neck physique does NOT fill out the War Machine suit well.

Those are what sucked.  What's awesome are the thrilling Monaco sequence and action-packed final act.  Rourke played Whiplash with just enough of an intelligent yet criminally-dangerous flair, and I was surprised to find myself liking Johansson's Black Widow as much as I did by the end.  But the film's biggest plus for this New Yorker was seeing the majority of it taking place in Queens.  Especially the Flushing area, which is exactly where I'm situated; getting to see our Unisphere act as a big set piece put a definite smile on my face.  Also, the joke that involved the return of..... Leslie Bibb's Everhart character elicited the biggest laugh out of me.  Yeah, I'm dirty.

So, lots more going on in this film, but its execution isn't as sharp or focused.  The first film deserved points for its consistency, so despite the sequel's shining pros, the numerous pitfalls I've outlined manages to knock this down quite a few notches.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie but it's nowhere close to the quality of the first film. The script isn't as tight and there are pacing issues, especially in the plodding middle act. I also found both villains to be ineffective, especially Rourke's underwritten character. Sure, he looks cool and is reasonably menacing but that doesn't make him interesting.

As for the score? Yikes. This is probably the worst music mix I've heard in years, just completely obliterated under the sound effects. Makes me wonder why they even bothered to hire Debney. Aside from the main titles, I can't remember a single note.

This had a score other than AC/DC tunes? Damn, clearly there was some popcorn in my ears.

For me, this was a good sequel to a good movie, even if they basically paved the way for Iron Man 3 and the other Marvel-movies. Really would wanted to have a bit longer fight between Whipslash and Iron Man / War Machine.

And gotta agree with Angela about Cheadle not being a good substitute for Howard. Hopefully on the third movie, Cheadle will be more suited for the role. But I have to disagree about Rockwell, loved his character. But then Rockwell is just walking mass off odd awesomeness.

I don't have anything against Rockwell himself.  I really liked his work in The Green Mile and Moon, but his smarmy, juvenile take on Hammer was just a bit too overbearing for my tastes.

I saw this last week, and flat out didn't like it.  The first Iron Man movie is one of my favorite comic book movies ever, and this one was a huge let down after that.  I mean, I was entertained, but I wanted to be thrilled.  If the first IM movie hadn't been made, I guess I wouldn't be as hard on this one as I am, but it was.

I just saw it last week too but, unlike you, really enjoyed it. Much of it was like the first and I thought Downey Jr. just plays Stark so well that it was entertaining just to watch him doing his thing. But Mickey Rourke was great too and I thought his story played out really well with Sam Rockwell's role. That really came together for me and felt like a natural progression of what could happen if a suit like Iron Man's became a sort of star in itself.

Some of the action was great too.

But, yeah, Cheadle didn't cut it at all. He's a good actor but he's skinny and very feminine. Doesn't exactly say War Machine.

And there was a point in the movie that really died for me - the second Sam Jackson came into it. Firstly, I don't know what has happened to him but he almost seems to kill movies for me now. But, far more than that, the whole Shield thing seemed shoehorned in there and basically handed Stark the solution to what was a pretty major plot point up to then. And did so clumsily - like Nick Fury knew exactly what he would find and yet didn't actually tell him. That didn't quite make sense. And then that plot point just fizzled out.

And I would question the need for Scarlett Johanson's character at all in the movie. I felt she added absolutely nothing.

It got back into its stride after that but I felt that section really negatively affected the movie. When we got back to Sam Rockwell and Mickey Rourke, it came together again and pretty much rocked until the end.

But, with Cheadle and that section that seemed shoehorned in to establish an Avengers movie, Iron Man 2 felt like a comprimised film.