(I should have had this up a week ago but I was caught up in school work and other things. But here it is finally.)

Well, it's summer movie season yet again and what better way to kick things off then with the sequel to a critically-acclaimed superhero movie. But does it suffer from the dreaded sequel-ites? Well, yes and no. I found it not to be as good as the first one but that was only by a very slim margin. Iron Man 2 picks up 6 months after Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) announces that he is Iron Man. In that time we discover that he has developed a drinking problem due to the element used in his mini arc reactor. The irony here is that the element that is keeping Tony alive is slowly killing him. So Tony has become this party-hard playboy who doesn't want to tell anyone that he is dying and just makes himself look like a drunk idiot to the mass media. The rest of Tony's story is that he wants to create a new better element that will keep him alive and to deal with his drinking problem. The villain story is that the US military wants the Iron Man suit to be weaponized but Tony refuses to give it to them. They turn to Tony's business rival Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) to weaponize the suit should they acquire it. Meanwhile, a Russian named Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) has spent the 6 month time frame developing his own Iron Man type suit to take revenge on Tony for something Tony's father did to his father. He ends up teaming with Hammer just to get a shot at totally annihilating Tony's legacy.

If you are someone who just likes straight action with little story sprinkled throughout (much like the first movie,) you will not enjoy this movie. It takes the opposite approach in giving us a well crafted story with a few action scenes that end up being really well deserved. I personally would take an action movie that has a great story over one that has just straight action anyday. (The Bourne Ultimatum managed to combine straight action with a good story. It's one of my favorite action movies.) Robert Downey Jr. plays Tony better in this film. He's more sarcastic and emotional in this one. Sam Jackson also appears again as Nick Fury, with more screen time, and he does a great job in the role. The whole cast was great in this movie. Visually, I think it's on par with the first movie. Nothing really new. I also like how they managed to set up the upcoming Captain America and Thor movies by having their signature weapons present. (Yes, there is a post credits scene.)

Overall, this movie only suffers a light case of sequel-ites. The story is good, the action is well choreographed and shot, the jokes are funnier, (the screenplay was written by the guy who wrote the Tropic Thunder screenplay,) and Robert Downey Jr. does a better job of playing Tony Stark this time around. If you go to this movie expecting 2 hours of punching, kicking, and stuff blowing up, you are going to be dissappointed.

I give Iron Man 2 a 9/10.